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Why Have the Rabble not Redistributed the Wealth? On the Stability of Democracy and Unequal Property

In: Property Relations, Incentives and Welfare

Author

Listed:
  • Louis Putterman

    (Brown University)

Abstract

In economically developed capitalist countries, personal and household wealth are distributed quite unequally.1 At the same time, these countries are marked by democratic forms of government, which allow their citizens to redistribute both income and wealth through various taxes and expenditure programmes.2 The question thus arises as to why the overwhelming majority of citizens, who collectively possess a very modest share of these societies’ stocks of wealth, do not use the political power conferred on them by democratic institutions to distribute more property to themselves.

Suggested Citation

  • Louis Putterman, 1997. "Why Have the Rabble not Redistributed the Wealth? On the Stability of Democracy and Unequal Property," International Economic Association Series, in: John E. Roemer (ed.), Property Relations, Incentives and Welfare, chapter 13, pages 359-393, Palgrave Macmillan.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:intecp:978-1-349-25287-9_13
    DOI: 10.1007/978-1-349-25287-9_13
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Dasgupta, Indraneel & Kanbur, Ravi, 2001. "Class, Community, Inequality," Working Papers 127671, Cornell University, Department of Applied Economics and Management.
    2. Danziger, Leif & Ursprung, Heinrich W., 2001. "Risk aversion and social mobility: the implausibility of order-preserving income redistributions," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 74(1), pages 9-13, December.
    3. Leif Danziger & Heinrich Ursprung, 2000. "Risk-Aversion and Social Mobility: The Impossibility of Order-Preserving Income Redistributions," CESifo Working Paper Series 321, CESifo.
    4. Dasgupta, Indraneel & Kanbur, Ravi, 2007. "Community and class antagonism," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(9), pages 1816-1842, September.
    5. Harms, Philipp & Zink, Stefan, 2003. "Eating the Rich vs. Feeding the Poor: Borrowing Constraints and the Reluctance to Redistribute," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 116(3-4), pages 351-366, September.
    6. Harald Lang & Florian Morath, 2015. "A Glance into the Tunnel: Experimental Evidence on Income Comparisons under Uncertainty," Working Papers tax-mpg-rps-2015-13, Max Planck Institute for Tax Law and Public Finance.
    7. Steven Beckman, 2006. "A Tax and Redistribution Experiment with Subjects that Switch from Risk Aversion to Risk Preference," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 27(3), pages 627-641, December.
    8. Roemer, John E., 1998. "Why the poor do not expropriate the rich: an old argument in new garb," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(3), pages 399-424, December.
    9. Gangadharan, Lata & Grossman, Philip J. & Vecci, Joe, 2021. "Moving on up: The impact of income mobility on antisocial behaviour," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    10. Jonathan Chapman, 2020. "Extension of the Franchise and Government Expenditure on Public Goods: Evidence from Nineteenth-Century England," Working Papers 20200045, New York University Abu Dhabi, Department of Social Science, revised Mar 2020.
    11. Emir Kamenica & Louisa Egan Brad, 2014. "Voters, dictators, and peons: expressive voting and pivotality," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 159(1), pages 159-176, April.
    12. Philip Nel, 2006. "When Can the Rabble Redistribute? Democratization and Income Distribution in Low- and Middle-income Countries," Working Papers 43, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    13. Bellettini, Giorgio & Berti Ceroni, Carlotta, 2007. "Income distribution, borrowing constraints and redistributive policies," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(3), pages 625-645, April.
    14. Lee, Woojin, 2003. "Is democracy more expropriative than dictatorship? Tocquevillian wisdom revisited," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(1), pages 155-198, June.
    15. Harms, Philipp & Zink, Stefan, 2003. "Limits to redistribution in a democracy: a survey," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 19(4), pages 651-668, November.
    16. Luna Bellani & Heinrich Ursprung, 2016. "The Political Economy of Redistribution Policy," CESifo Working Paper Series 6189, CESifo.
    17. Harms, Philipp & Zink, Stefan, 2000. "Invest, expropriate, or wait? Expected income and the demand for redistribution," Discussion Papers, Series I 305, University of Konstanz, Department of Economics.

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