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Economic inequality and its asymmetric effect on civic engagement: evidence from post-communist countries

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 July 2012

Ekrem Karakoc
Ekrem Karakoc*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, Binghamton University, SUNY
*
*E-mail: ekrem.karakoc@gmail.com
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Abstract

The global increase in inequality raises concerns among scholars and policy-makers. However, limited evidence exists to identify how inequality affects citizens’ behavior. This study explores the effects of economic inequality on participation in civil society associations by testing hypotheses derived from resource and conflict theories. Using a multilevel Poisson model in 18 post-communist countries, this study finds that inequality has a nonlinear effect on civil society. Economic inequality has a drastically demobilizing effect on associational participation in countries with lower income inequality; meanwhile high inequality has a slightly weak mobilizing effect on associational participation. Further tests show that the effect of inequality varies across different socioeconomic groups, but that the poor are most affected.

Keywords

inequalitydemocracypolitical behaviorcivil societypost-communism
Type
Research Article
Information
European Political Science Review , Volume 5 , Issue 2 , July 2013 , pp. 197 - 223
Copyright
Copyright © European Consortium for Political Research 2012 

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Footnotes

a

Ekrem Karakoc has published in World Politics (2007), Comparative Politics (2011), Comparative Political Studies (forthcoming) and Electoral Studies (forthcoming).

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