Global Inequality in Redistribution: For A World-Historical Sociology of (Not) Caring
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17356/ieejsp.v2i2.182Abstract
This paper decomposes global inequality in redistrbution, using data from the World Development Indicators data set of the World Bank. It finds that per capita income has a modest, yet persistent effect on redistribution. More provocatively, the paper also demonstrates that, over and beyond the impact of per capita GDP, global inequalities in redistribution over the last generation or so strongly reflect the double legacies of colonialism (improving the likelihood of redistribution in former-colonizer societies and sharply reducing it in erstwhile-colonized, recently independent societies). In addition, it also finds that the history of recent exposure to state socialism increases the presence of redistributive institutions, partly counter-balancing the effects of lower national incomes.References
Abbott, A. and S. DeViney (1992) The Welfare State as Transnational Event: Evidence from Sequences of Policy Adoption. Social
Science History, 16 (2): 245-274. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1171289
Abu Sharkh, M. and I. Gough (2010) Global Welfare Regimes: A Cluster Analysis. Global Social Policy, 10(1): 27-58.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1468018109355035
Abrams, P. (1982) Historical Sociology. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Bandelj, N. (2012) A Polanyian Analysis of Capitalism: A Commentary on Fred Block. In Go, Julian (ed.) Political Power and Social
Theory. Emerald Group Publishing. 293-302. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/s0198-8719(2012)0000023014
Bartolini, S. (1999) European Integration and Democracy: Some Sceptical Reflections. Democracy—Some Acute Questions, Pontifical
Academy of Social Sciences, Acta, (4): 291-320.
Bergesen, A. J. and M. Bata (2002) Global and National Inequality: Are They Connected? The Journal of World-Systems Research, VIII
(1): 130-144. http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.198.946&rep=rep1&type=pdf#page=68 Accessed:01-03-2016.
http://dx.doi.org/10.5195/jwsr.2002.277
Block, F. (2003) Karl Polanyi and the writing of The Great Transformation. Theory and Society, (32):275-306.
Block, F. and M. R. Somers (2014) The Power of Market Fundamentalism. Karl Polanyi’s Critique. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Bodnár, J. (1998) Assembling the Square: Social Transformation in Public Space and the Broken Mirage of the Second Economy in
Postsocialist Budapest. Slavic Review, 57 (3): 498-515. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2500709
Böröcz, J. (1997) Stand Reconstructed: Contingent Closure and Institutional Change. Sociological Theory, 15 (3): 215-248. doi:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/0735-2751.00033
Böröcz, J. (2006) Goodness Is Elsewhere: The Rule of European Difference. Comparative Studies in Society and History, 48 (1):110-38.
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0010417506000053
Böröcz, J. (2009) The European Union and Global Social Change: A Critical Geopolitical Economic Analysis. Oxford, UK: Routledge. doi:
http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9780203873557
Clark, G. (1936) The Balance Sheets of Imperialism. Facts and Figures on Colonies. New York: Columbia University Press. doi:
http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2084632
Delanty, G. (1996) Beyond the Nation-State: National Identity and Citizenship in a Multicultural Society—A Response to Rex',
Sociological Research Online, 1 (3) http://www.socresonline.org.uk/1/3/1.html Accessed: 05-12-2016.
Fenger, H. J. M. (2007) Welfare Regimes in Central and Eastern Europe: Incorporating post/communist countries in a welfare regime
typology. Contemporary Issues and Ideas in Social Sciences http://repub.eur.nl/pub/34876/metis_129323.pdf Accessed 01-01-2016.
Habermas, J. (1991) Yet Again: German Identity—a Unified Nation of angry DM-Burghers. New German Critique, 52:84-101. doi:
http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/488190
Haggard, S., and R. R. Kaufman (2008) Development, Democracy, and Welfare States: Latin America, East Asia, and Eastern Europe.
Princeton University Press. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5860/choice.46-5852
IBRD World Development Indicators. Online Dataset, Accessed: 12-01-2015.
Karl, T. L., and P. C. Schmitter (1991) Modes of Transition in Latin America, Southern and Eastern Europe. International Social Science
Journal, 128 (2): 267-282.
Korpi, W. and J. Palme (1998) The Paradox of Redistribution and Strategies of Equality: Welfare State Institutions, Inequality and
Poverty in the Western Countries. Luxembourg Income Study Working Paper Series, 174, (February).
http://www.lisdatacenter.org/wps/liswps/174.pdf Accessed: 01-012016. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2657333
Lindbeck, A. (1995) Hazardous Welfare-State Dynamics. The American Economic Review, 85 (2): 9-15.
Maddison, A. (2010) Statistics on World Population, GDP, and Per Capita GDP, 1-2008 AD. Horizontal File. http://www.ggdc.net/maddison/Historical_Statistics/horizontal-file_02-2010.xls Accessed: 01-03-2016.
North, D. C. (1977) Markets and Other Allocation Systems in History: The Challenge of Karl Polanyi. Journal of European Economic
History, 6 (3): 703-716.
Piketty, T. and E. Saez (2014) Inequality in the Long Run. Science, 344 (6186): 838-843.
http://piketty.pse.ens.fr/files/PikettySaez2014Science.pdf Accessed: 01-01-2016. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1251936
Polanyi, K. (1944) The Great Transformation: The political and economic origins of our time. Beacon Press.
Polanyi, K. (2011 [1957]) The Economy as Instituted Process. In Mark Granovetter and R. Swedberg (eds.) The Sociology of Economic
Life.. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. 3-21.
Prasad, N. (2008) Policies for Redistribution: The Use of Taxes and Social Transfers. Discussion Paper DP/194/2008, International
Institute for Labour Studies,
Transfers/links/53e9d9450cf2fb1b9b6734d3.pdf Accessed: 01-01-2016. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1358237
Przeworski, A. (1991) Democracy and the market: Political and economic reforms in Eastern Europe and Latin America. Cambridge
University Press.
Robinson, R. V. and W. Bell (1978) Equality, Success and Social Justice in England and the United States. American Sociological Review,
(2):125-143.
Sarkar, M. (2008) Visible Histories, Disappearing Women: Producing Muslim Womanhood in Late Colonial Bengal. Durham, NC: Duke
University Press.
So, A. (1990) Social Change and Development. Modernization, Dependency, and World-System Theories. Newbury Park: Sage
Publications.
Suárez-Berenguela, R. M. (2002) Policy Tools for Achieving More Equitable Financing Of and Access To Health Care Services in Latin
America and the Caribbean. Revista Panamericana de Salud Pública, 11 (5-6): 418-424. http://www.scielosp.org/pdf/rpsp/v11n5-
/10727.pdf Accessed: 01-01-2016. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/s1020-49892002000500017
Suszycki, A. M. (2011) Welfare citizenship and welfare nationalism. The Nordic Centre of Excellence NordWel. https://helda.helsinki.fi/bitstream/handle/10138/42137/nordwel2.pdf?sequence=1 Accessed: 05-13-2016.
Szelenyi, I. (1978) Social Inequalities in State Socialist Redistributive Economies—Dilemmas for social policy contemporary socialist
societies of Eastern Europe. In Amitai Etzioni (ed.) Policy Research. Volume XXIV. International Studies in Sociology and Social
Anthropology. Leiden: Brill. 63-88.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright Notice
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication, with the work three months after publication simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal. This acknowledgement is not automatic, it should be asked from the editors and can usually be obtained one year after its first publication in the journal.
