Macro Determinants of Inequality: The Role of Politics, Policies, and Institutions (Co-sponsored by Inequality, Poverty, and Mobility Section)

Session Submission Type: Paper Session (90 minute)

Description

Over the past four decades, most countries in the world have experienced a significant rise in the
levels of income inequality. In the sociological tradition, social stratification research often relies
on human capital dimensions (i.e., educational attainment, parental resources, parental education,
networks of social capital, and neighborhood characteristics, among others) to predict social and
economic inequalities among individuals. While the human capital and individual-level
framework in social stratification research has been both influential and informative, there is a
broad consensus among social scientists from across disciplines that much of the social and
economic inequality observed around the world directly results from the ways in which
economic resources are organized through institutions. Institutions, in this context, signify a set
of interrelated formal and informal rules that actors take into account when they interact with one
another. This behooves us to pay close attention to the role that institutions and organizations—and not
just individual attributes—play in generating distributive outcomes, be it income, wealth, or
broader social inequalities. This session will therefore focus on the institutional and
organizational dimensions of inequality. These meso- and macro-level institutional factors—that
is, the politics of inequality—are critical because they play a significant role in the micro-
distribution of social inequalities, both in the U.S. context and cross-nationally. This session
welcomes submissions that focus on social and economic inequalities by examining its
institutional and organizational determinants and underpinnings.

Organizer: Masoud Movahed (University of California, Santa Barbara)
Organizer: Josh Pacewicz (Brown University)
Discussant: Mark Mizruchi (University of Michigan)

Sub Unit

• Political Sociology Section / Macro Determinants of Inequality: The Role of Politics, Policies, and Institutions (Co-sponsored by Inequality, Poverty, and Mobility Section)

Cosponsor

• Inequality, Poverty, and Mobility Section

Presider

• Masoud Movahed, University of California-Santa Barbara

Individual Presentations

• Beyond Social Provision: Integrating Regulation into the Study of Welfare States - Elisabeth Anderson, New York University Abu Dhabi; Sabino Kornrich, New York University-Abu Dhabi

• Governance Undone: Bureaucratic Churning in the Case of Child Welfare - Loren M Beard, Harvard University

• Subverting the law: Traffic courts, driver’s license suspension reforms, and racial inequality - Peter M. Rich, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Maureen Waller, Cornell University; Kayla Jones, Cornell University; Stephane Daniel Andrade, Vassar College

• When Does Politics Pay? The Spoils System and Wealth Accumulation Among U.S. Office Holders - Martin Ruef, Duke University

Discussant

• Mark Mizruchi, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor

Session Organizers

• Josh Pacewicz, Brown University

• Masoud Movahed, University of California-Santa Barbara