How Are Voter Participation, Economic Inequality and Democracy Linked Structurally? A World-systems Perspective

• In Event: 411 - Section on Inequality, Poverty, and Mobility Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 12. Politics and Inequality.

Abstract

Structural inequality is a problem with national and global implications. When a small proportion of people (and corporations) controls the majority of a society’s wealth and influence, democracy is at risk. This paper synthesizes the worldviews of several social scientists, who argue that deep income and wealth inequalities and high degrees of polarization between the affluent and impoverished have endangered democratic transitions, such as the right to vote. Representing a diversity of disciplines, they include Piketty, Fukuyama and Putnam. I argue that financial transparency and unequal starting points in life create a lack of generational opportunities. The paper’s central thesis focuses on the trending decline of United States (U.S.) democracy to which the disenfranchisement of specific demographic groups’ voting rights causes. A modern world-systems perspective offers insights into possible solutions. Completed research sheds light on the relationship between income inequality and voter turnout and how the two major U.S. political parties independently influence--and are influenced by--in distinct fashion. A related phenomenon, the U.S. constitution itself, counterintuitively is devolving the democracy. My paper concludes with consideration of how we might comprehensively understand and attempt to solve some of the structural links that bind voter participation, economic inequality and democracy.

Author

• Greg Williams, Fielding Graduate University