Democracies under rising inequality: New tests of the redistributive thesis

Abstract

Recent increases in income inequality have led a number of authors to question the redistributive thesis, which predicts higher levels of income inequality will be met with increased redistribution of income, curbing inequality. This dissertation offers a new test of this theory, and sets out to understand the great variation maintained across nations regarding their redistributive policies. In light of expectations that the future will bring further increases in income inequality, findings of this dissertation show that this will unambiguously will put pressure on governments to increase their redistributive efforts and on social insurance schemes to cover the increased career risks facing workers.