Inequality and Governance (Routledge Frontiers of Political Economy)

Description

Governance matters for social welfare. Better governed countries are richer, happier and have fewer social and environmental problems. Good governance implies that public sector agents act impartially. It manifests itself in the form of equality before the law, an independent and professional public administration and the control of corruption. This book considers how economic inequality – both interpersonal and interethnic – can affect the quality of governance. To this end, it brings together insights from three different perspectives. First, a long-run historical one that exploits anthropological data on pre-industrial societies. Second, based on experimental work conducted by social psychologists and behavioural economists. Third, through cross-country empirical analysis drawn from a large sample of contemporary societies. The long-run perspective relates the inequality-governance relationship to societal responses in the face of uncertainty – responses that persist today in the guise of cultural traits that vary across countries. The experimental evidence deepens our understanding of human behaviour in unequal settings and in different governance contexts. Together, the long-run perspective and the experimental evidence help inform the cross-country analysis of the impact of economic inequality on governance. This analysis suggests the importance of both economic inequality and culture for the quality of governance and yields several policy implications. Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Page Contents List of figures List of tables Acknowledgements 1 Introduction 2 Concepts, measures and correlations Introduction Defining governance Measuring governance Defining inequality Measuring inequality Correlations Conclusion 3 Insights from the past Introduction Social responses to existential uncertainty The foundations of the rule of law The place of religion Conclusion 4 Insights from social psychology and behavioural economics Introduction Ingroup bias and unethical behaviour Inequality, legitimacy and behaviour Power and corruption Good or bad governance as alternative social equilibria Conclusion 5 Economic inequality and governance in contemporary societies Introduction Economic inequality will undermine good governance Bad governance will perpetuate economic inequality Important covariates What does the data say? Economic inequality, democracy and governance Conclusion 6 Culture, economic inequality and governance Introduction Measures of culture The causal links The impact of inequality and culture on governance Culture, democracy and governance Conclusion 7 Conclusion What have we learnt? What can be done? Appendix: country codes and samples References Index