How will democracy end?: understanding the relationship between voting policies and economic inequality
Date
2022
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
This study assesses the relationship between democracy and capital by examining the impact that voting policies have on economic inequality at the state level. The purpose is to discover the way that political choices about representation explain indicators of economic inequality. It is an empirical study designed with the dependent variable as the indicator of economic inequality–state Gini coefficient measured over time–while the independent variable is the state voting policy–changes in voting policies over time–coded by degree of restrictiveness. The study includes economic, political, demographic, and ideological control variables. A panel dataset is used, and the time-series covers the 10-year period between 2011 and 2020. Findings from the statistical analysis show that states, which had enacted laws restricting the voting-eligible population through photo ID laws or based on felony records, experienced increases to their Gini coefficients, thereby signaling that restrictive voting policies can necessarily increase levels of economic inequality in the states that have enacted such policies.
Description
Keywords
Economic inequality, Voting policies, State voting policy, Voting-eligible population