Even though income inequality has been sky-high for decades, it hasn't actually made people lose faith in democracy.
March 26, 2026
Original Paper
Enough is enough? Analyzing the relationship between economic inequality and support for democracy
SocArXiv · 4kjhn_v2
The Takeaway
It is a staple of political commentary that inequality kills democracy by making people lose faith in the system. After analyzing 30 years of data across multiple countries, researchers found no evidence that long-term trends in inequality actually change how much people value democratic institutions.
From the abstract
Although rising economic inequality is linked to declining support for democracy in multiple theoretical arguments and the public discourse alike, the empirical evidence for their linkage is mixed. We identify five main theoretical approaches that link economic inequality to democratic support, which are based on, respectively,: a) performance evaluations, b) the redistributive function of democracy, c) political inequalities, d) social and psychological dysfunctions, and e) fairness and expecta