Inequality and Political Representation

Transcription

1 Dr. Florian Weiler Professur für empirische Politikwissenschaft University of Bamberg Bamberg Graduate School of Social Sciences Feldkirchenstraße 21, Room FG Bamberg Inequality and Political Representation Course Outline Over the past decade(s) we have seen a rise in social inequality in many countries around the world, among them many rich and developed OECD countries. In this course we will discuss the causes of rising income inequality and poverty, but also the repercussions of these phenomena for the political system. We start out by defining what poverty is, and how income inequality can be measured. Then we take a closer look at how social inequality has developed over time in various OECD countries, but we will discuss these issues also on a global scale. During the later stages of the course we then investigate how income inequality effects the political representation of various groups, among them the poor, in the policy making process. The course should enable students to make informed arguments about inequality and poverty, but also enable them to increase their research skills and their ability to write scientific papers. Master course: MA Hauptseminar: Vergleichenden Politikwissenschaft IV Zeit und Ort: Monday, 10-12:00pm, Room FMA/00.07 (Starting: ) Registration: FlexNow, (Deregistration by ) Prerequisites: None Grading: Term paper (75%), Presentation (25%) ECTS: 8 Course Goals At the completion of this course, students should have an overview of the most important theories regarding inequality and political representation, know about current empirical research regarding these theories, be able to apply these theories to conduct a small research project on inequality by their own.

2 Introductory Readings Nolan, Brian et al. (2011). The Oxford Handbook of Economic Inequality. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Gilens, Martin, and Benjamin Page (2014). Testing Theories of American politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens. Perspectives on Politics 12(3), Hacker, Jacob and Paul Pierson (2010). Winner-Take-All Politics. Public Policy, Political Organization, and the Precipitous Rise of Top Incomes in the United States. Politics & Society 38(2), Piketty, Thomas (2014). Capital in the Twenty-First Century. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Course requirements You will be evaluated on the basis of your oral presentation and your research paper. In order to pass the course, you need at least a 4.0 in both grade components. Presentation (25%): Students are expected to give a presentations (about 30 minutes) in which they discuss the most important theoretical and empirical aspects of their assigned topic. In addition, students are asked to prepare a detailed handout which summarizes the major points of their presentation. The handout should be informative and clearly structured. It is important that you not only summarize the required readings, but that you consult a variety of different sources. The required readings can be taken as a starting point for further literature research, but the presentation shall not be exclusively based on the assigned readings. Students are furthermore expected to present three discussion questions at the end of their presentations that are central for their assigned topic. Students should me a draft of their handout and the slides for their presentation (if using) until Tuesday before their presentation. The quality of the seminar crucially depends on the participation and the contributions of the students. Students are therefore expected to actively participate in class discussions and complete the assigned readings every week. Research paper (75%): Students are expected to submit a research paper at the end of the seminar. The topic and research question must be directly related to the seminar. The research paper should follow the structure of an academic article, that means it should include a discussion of the substantive importance of your research question, a brief review of the relevant literature, a discussion of the theoretical argument and the hypotheses, a research design and an analysis section as well as a conclusion. The research paper should contain between 5700 to 6300 words including references, figures and tables. You should send the research paper until 31 March in PDF or Word format to florian.weiler@uni-bamberg.de. Office hours During the semester I hold office hours on Mondays between 4 and 5.30 pm. Registration is not necessary, just come to my office (FG1/01.04) during that time. 2

3 COURSE OUTLINE 1 Introduction Introduction, Topic assignment Setting the stage Piketty, T. (2014). Capital in the 21st Century. Cambridge: Harvard Uni, Ch Inequality Measuring income inequality, Definition of poverty Jenkins, S. P., Van Kerm, P. (2011). The Measurement of Economic Inequality. The Oxford Handbook of Economic Inequality, FAO (2006). Inequality Analysis. The Gini Index. EASYPol, Module 040. De Maio, F. G. (2007). Income inequality measures. Journal of epidemiology and community health, 61(10), Empirical trends 1 Atkinson, A. B., Piketty, T., Saez, E. (2009). Top incomes in the long run of history. National Bureau of Economic Research. Lemieux, T. (2008). The changing nature of wage inequality. Journal of Population Economics, 21(1), Empirical trends 2 Western, B., Bloome, D., Percheski, C. (2008). Inequality among American Families with Children, 1975 to American Sociological Review, 73(6), Brandolini, A., Smeeding, T. M. (2011) Income Inequality in Richer and OECD Countries. The Oxford Handbook of Economic Inequality, Inequality: Should we care? Kopczuk, W., Saez, E., Song, J. (2010). Earnings inequality and mobility in the United States: evidence from social security data since The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 125(1), Björklund, A., Jäntti, M., Roemer, J. E. (2012). Equality of opportunity and the distribution of long-run income in Sweden. Social choice and welfare, 39(2-3), Feldstein, M. (1999). Reducing poverty, not inequality. Public Interest,

4 3 Representation Theories of representation Mansbridge, J. (2003). Rethinking Representation. American Political Science Review 97(4), Powell, G. B. (2004). Political Representation in Comparative Politics. Annual Review of Political Science 7, Models of government responsiveness Congleton, R. D. (2004). The Median Voter Model. The Encyclopedia of Public Choice, Wlezien, C. (1995). The Public as Thermostat: Dynamics of Preferences for Spending, American Journal of Political Science 39(4): Inequalities in political representation Adams, J., Ezrow, L. (2009). Who do European parties represent? How Western European parties represent the policy preferences of opinion leaders. Journal of Politics, 71(01), Fortin-Rittberger, J., Eder, C. (2013). Towards a Gender-Equal Bundestag? The Impact of Electoral Rules on Women s Representation. West European Politics, 36(5), Income inequality and representation Political institutions and inequality Iversen, T., Soskice, D. (2006). Electoral Institutions and the Politics of Coalitions: Why some Democracies Redistribute more than Others. American Political Science Review, 100(02), Stepan, A., Linz, J. J. (2011). Comparative Perspectives on Inequality and the Quality of Democracy in the United States. Perspectives on Politics, 9(04), Are the poor represented? Gilens, M., Page, B. I. (2014). Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens. Perspectives on politics, 12(03), Bartels, L. M. (2009). Economic Inequality and Political Representation. The Unsustainable American State, Hacker, J. S., Pierson, P. (2010). Winner-Take-All Politics: Public Policy, Political Organization, and the Precipitous Rise of Top Incomes in the United States. Politics Society, 38(2), Resource based explanations of representation Brady, H. E., Verba, S., Schlozman, K. L. (1995). Beyond SES: A resource model of political participation. American Political Science Review, 89(02),

5 Bonica, A., McCarty, N., Poole, K. T., Rosenthal, H. (2013). Why hasn t democracy slowed rising inequality?. The Journal of Economic Perspectives, 27(3), Gilens, M. (2015). Descriptive Representation, Money, and Political Inequality in the United States. Swiss Political Science Review, 21(2), Is big business overrepresented? Yackee, J. W., Yackee, S. W. (2006). A bias towards business? Assessing interest group influence on the US bureaucracy. Journal of Politics, 68(1), Klüver, H. (2012). Biasing politics? Interest group participation in EU policy-making. West European Politics, 35(5), Consequences of inequality King, D., Rueda, D. (2008). Cheap labor: the new politics of bread and roses in industrial democracies. Perspectives on Politics, 6(02), Palier, B., Thelen, K. (2010). Institutionalizing dualism: Complementarities and change in France and Germany. Politics Society, 38(1), General discussion 1.2. Wrap-up 5