Political Democracy and Social Equality: A Comparative Analysis

This paper examines the validity of the propositions that the growth of political democracy has reduced social inequality, and that political democracy mediates much of the effect of the level of economic development on social equality. Social equality is defined empirically in terms of three variables: a measure of experience with social insurance programs; a measure of income inequality; and a social welfare index. The analysis of a cross-section of sixty western and third-world countries (1960) indicates that the effect of the level of economic development on each dependent variable is positive and curvilinear, but that the bivariate effects of political democracy on the latter are quite spurious, once the level of economic development is taken into account. Political democracy exerts no significant effects (additive or non-additive) on social equality. A recurring theme in comparative social analyses has been that the growth of political democracy, with its emphasis on political equality, has resulted in more widespread social and material equality. The argument is often elaborated to incorporate the notion that economic development has resulted in higher levels of democratic performance, and that these two factors, in turn, have led to more egalitarian social systems. This paper seeks to assess the validity of this general viewpoint for a cross-section of sixty Western and Third-World countries.