# Inequality and Distributive Politics ## Posts - [Money, Power, and Politics: The Transparency Problem in Policy-Making](https://inq-dp.eu/index.php/2025/10/31/money-power-and-politics-the-transparency-problem-in-policy-making/): Eva Wegner and Lukas Rädle Beyond outright corruption, politicians often navigate a web of potential conflicts of interest. They accept campaign donations from lobbyists and private donors, transition into lucrative post-politics careers with the very industries they once regulated, and own assets that can be directly impacted by the policies they craft. A legislator who owns real estate might resist rent control, just as a wealthy politician may push to abolish inheritance taxes. Another legislator who depends on donations from the mining industry for their campaign might advocate for lowering environmental requirements for that industry. Even if no laws are […] - [Why Class Still Matters](https://inq-dp.eu/index.php/2025/04/08/why-class-still-matters/): Author: Oliver Platt Class is one of the most recognized sociological concepts. Coined by Marx and Weber it is present in the everyday understanding of social realities. In sociology, however, it lost its relevance during the 80s and 90s following debates on individualism and particularism. According to mainstream modernization theory the assumption prevailed that relational inequalities according to class were dissolving and at the same time living conditions were becoming more diverse. Consequently, vertical inequalities were overlooked in research. Discourses about a leveled middle-class society (nivellierte Mittelstandsgesellschaft1) that continue to this day are an example of this individuum-oriented shift. Just […] - [Federal Elections 2025 - Student Blog #3: Policy for Sale: How the wealthy are buying influence in the German election](https://inq-dp.eu/index.php/2025/02/21/federal-elections-2025-student-blog-3-policy-for-sale-how-the-wealthy-are-buying-influence-in-the-german-election/): As the federal elections in Germany approach, we’re excited to share a series of three blog posts on topics related to the election. All three posts are written by students from one of Eva Wegner’s courses. This post is the third and last in the series. Authors: Merle Ecker, Johann Mecklenburg, Miriam Schießl, and Alexander Watt On 23rd of February 2025 national elections will be held in Germany and enormous amounts of money have been donated to parties. In mid-January 2025, the AfD received the highest donation in its history until that point. Winfried Stöcker, a businessman and multimillionaire donated […] - [Federal Elections 2025 - Student Blog #2: Class Act? A Look at Who Politicians Really Represent](https://inq-dp.eu/index.php/2025/02/21/federal-elections-2025-student-blog-2-class-act-a-look-at-who-politicians-really-represent/): As the federal elections in Germany approach, we’re excited to share a series of three blog posts on topics related to the election. All three posts are written by students from one of Eva Wegner’s courses. This post is the second in the series. Authors: Emine Mulgrew and Phillip Dornheck On the 23rd of February 2025, the German Federal Election will take place. Politicians are taking every opportunity to convince voters that they are the best representatives of their interests. According to polling data, right wing parties are set to attain a majority vote from social groups that traditionally align […] - [Federal Elections 2025 - Student Blog #1: An Alternative for Everyone?](https://inq-dp.eu/index.php/2025/02/21/federal-elections-2025-student-blog-1-an-alternative-for-everyone/): As the federal elections in Germany approach, we’re excited to share a series of three blog posts on topics related to the election. All three posts are written by students from one of Eva Wegner’s courses. This post marks the first in the series. Authors: Hannah Wagner, Cathleen Aretz, George Lalsangliana, and Miriam Novotny On February 23, 2025, Germany will hold its federal elections, and one party is making headlines: Alternative für Deutschland (AfD). The far-right party has doubled its support since the last federal elections in 2021 and is projected to become the second-largest party in the Bundestag.1 It’s […] - [Young, Academic, Precarious? Taking a closer look at the working conditions of student assistants](https://inq-dp.eu/index.php/2024/04/10/young-academic-precarious-taking-a-closer-look-at-the-working-conditions-of-student-assistants/): The staff of a university includes many employment groups, such as professors, the academic middle tier, or administrative personnel. One group that may seem inconspicuous from an external perspective, and perhaps not immediately thought of, is that of student assistants. This may be attributed to the fact that these employees are not covered by the collective wage agreements of the federal states, except in Berlin, and also do not have representation in staff matters. “A wage that is far too low, short contracts that have to be renewed constantly, the lack of participation rights: these are the typical working conditions […] - [In control? Considering local autonomy in distributive politics research](https://inq-dp.eu/index.php/2024/01/19/in-control-considering-local-autonomy-in-distributive-politics-research/): In our research, we seek to better understand the mechanisms of distributive politics. The first step of this venture often is to assess what part of a government body’s work actually is distributive in nature. First and foremost, this means determining what exactly it is responsible for and how independent it is in the implementation of those responsibilities. In my own work, I mostly focus on local politics. Therefore, in our third entry in the local spending series, I want to shine a light onto the topic of local government autonomy, and how it presents both challenges to, and opportunities […] - [Walking the maze: An outline of three processes generating local fiscal data](https://inq-dp.eu/index.php/2023/12/18/walking-the-maze-an-outline-of-three-processes-generating-local-fiscal-data/): Local governments, being closest to citizens, provide essential public services and directly impact the lives of many people. Citizens’ interactions with local governments also have the potential of influencing how they view democratic institutions more generally. Analyzing local government spending data can be a means of assessing the quality of democracy by showing how resources are allocated, indicating responsiveness to constituents, policy priorities, disparities in resource allocation, governmental efficiency, favoritism and even corruption. However, delving into the world of government finances may seem daunting due to confusing terminology, intricate administrative processes, and inconsistencies in how official information is recorded and […] - [Where do they spend it? The wealth and complexity of local government financial information](https://inq-dp.eu/index.php/2023/11/10/where-does-the-money-go-the-wealth-and-complexity-of-local-government-financial-information/): Have you ever wondered how your local government spends public funds? Whether there are areas of the city that receive more funds than others? If a considerable share of the budget is directed to policies or initiatives that are in the interests of most constituents? These may be hard questions to answer, but understanding how local governments allocate public resources matters. Therefore knowing how they spend public resources is crucial for assessing the quality of democracy and the responsiveness of elected officials to citizens’ interests. One way to approach this topic is by examining local government finances. In our work […] - [How do citizens react to judicial inconsistency in high-profile corruption trials?](https://inq-dp.eu/index.php/2023/10/16/how-do-citizens-react-to-judicial-inconsistency-in-the-realm-of-high-profile-corruption-trials/): Corruption is a global issue that undermines trust in institutions, damages economies, and erodes the foundations of democracy. It is a topic that frequently makes headlines, and often, these headlines feature high-profile corruption court cases involving prominent politicians. Recent examples of such court cases can be found in France, South Africa, Croatia, South Korea, and Peru. But how do corruption trials influence ordinary citizens? And why does it matter?In an era where corruption remains a persistent challenge and information spreads quickly through social media and 24-hour news cycles, the impact of well-known corruption court cases on public opinion is potentially […] - [Inequality and Political Participation in Marburg](https://inq-dp.eu/index.php/2023/09/01/inequality-and-political-participation-in-marburg/): By Miquel Pellicer and Nils Strecker Marburg is a mid-sized university town with beautiful, picturesque architecture and a long history of both academic and economic success. Marburg University is one of the oldest universities in Germany, founded in 1527. In 1901, the very first Nobel prize in medicine was awarded to Emil von Behring for the discovery of the diphtheria antitoxin. He used the prize money to start his own production plant for antitoxins and vaccines in Marburg . Over time, the Behringwerke complex developed, where more and more pharmaceutical companies settled and now form a highly specialized cluster. Very […] - [What is bad about clientelism?](https://inq-dp.eu/index.php/2023/07/06/what-is-bad-about-clientelism/): In most countries of the world, political parties do not use appeal to voters with programmatic promises – about the types of policies they would pursue when in office – but via promises of local public goods (such as wells, roads, or clinics) and or of fully particularistic goods (such as jobs or cash). As the world map below shows, exclusively programmatic appeals are only common in so called Western countries. In almost all other countries some combination of different linkage strategies prevails. Academics usually find clientelism normatively problematic. Most generally, because giving up political rights in exchange for access […] - [Protest and (dis)advantage: who articulates their grievances? And how special is the MENA region?](https://inq-dp.eu/index.php/2023/06/20/protest-and-disadvantage-who-articulates-their-grievances-and-how-special-is-the-mena-region/): Protests such as those in the pictures below differ in many respects. Some are large while others tend to be small. They target different levels of government and make different types of demands and they differ in their means as well, some (partly) violent, some not. The recent protests in France about pensions reform saw more than a million people on the streets asking for a specific change of a law. The 2011 “Arab spring” protests in Tunisia were also massive and eventually targeted the overthrow of the political regime. Service delivery protests in South Africa in contrast tend to […] - [Inequality and Distributive Politics](https://inq-dp.eu/index.php/2023/03/02/119/): Pictures of inequality such as the one below have become widespread. They show different worlds coexisting side by side. These differences are visually striking but they are arguably more so when one considers the contrast in lived experiences that they imply: differences in income of course, but also often in health outcomes, educational opportunities, and crime rates and more generally life experiences: what happens when it rains heavily and when it is hot, when the time of the evening meal or the end of the month approaches. And it’s not only about lived experiences and welfare, it is also about […] ## Pages - [Workshop - Distributive Politics in the Global South](https://inq-dp.eu/index.php/events/workshop-distributive-politics-in-the-global-south/): Distributive conflicts are inherent to politics, as different groups have unequal access to resources, opportunities, and power within society. Different patterns of distribution can be observed in a wide range of policies and public goods, such as taxation, land ownership, welfare, humanitarian aid, government transfers and public investment. It also extends to more informal benefits like state spoils, or clientelist handouts. Moreover, these patterns impact political representation and as such have important consequences for the quality of life of many citizens across the world. While these trends are global, they may be especially pronounced in the Global South, where stark […] - [Events](https://inq-dp.eu/index.php/events/): 20th of October: Who Doesn’t Sit in Parliament? Elections and Unequal representation in the German Bundestag On Monday, 20 October, the “Marburger Stadtgespräch” opened its Future of Democracy series in the Historischer Rathaussaal with welcoming remarks from Marburg’s mayor, Dr. Thomas Spies, who shared personal anecdotes underscoring how everyday choices, for example in municipal budgets, show the real stakes of money in politics. Prof. Dr. Susanne Buckley-Zistel, director of the Center for Conflict Studies, framed the series as a space to connect scholarship with local democratic practice, followed by Prof. Dr. Miquel Pellicer, who highlighted how inequality and poverty shape […] - [Welcome to the IDP Research team, Lukas Rädle!](https://inq-dp.eu/index.php/welcome-to-the-idp-research-team-lukas-radle/): Lukas Rädle will join our research team in January 2024 as a PhD Student in the “Politicians, Policies, and the Reproduction of Wealth” Project. He has earned his B. Ed. and M. Ed. in Political Science, English Studies, and Educational Science at the University of Tübingen. During his studies, he studied right-wing populist parties in Europe, ideologies of inequality, distributive justice, and the implementation of welfare policies. Additionally, he analyzed the media reappraisal of the terrorist attack in Halle and, with the help of guided interviews, the knowledge, and attitudes of teaching students towards antisemitism. Within the framework of our […] - [Politicians, Policies, and the Reproduction of Wealth](https://inq-dp.eu/index.php/research/politicians-and-wealth/): Funder:  VW foundation Duration: 4 years  Marburg University team: Miquel Pellicer, Eva Wegner, Leticia Barbabela, and Lukas Rädle Other PIs: Despina Alexiadou (Strathclyde University, UK), Raquel Pimenta (Fundação Getulio Vargas, Brazil), and Vimal Ranchhod (University of Cape Town, South Africa) ***************************** Top income literature has established that public policies are crucial for the incomes of the wealthy. Recent political inequality literature suggests policies are biased towards the preferences of better-off citizens. We study the role of politician characteristics for developing policies that may systematically favor the wealthy. Our key questions are: How well do politicians’ social and economic characteristics align […] - [Papers](https://inq-dp.eu/index.php/research/political-inequality/papers/): Work in Progress Barbabela, Letícia, Miquel Pellicer, and Eva Wegner. 2022. “Inequality Configurations.” WIDER Working Paper 2022/158. Vol. 2022. UNU-WIDER. https://doi.org/10.35188/UNU-WIDER/2022/291-1. - [Local Level Inequality](https://inq-dp.eu/index.php/research/political-inequality/local-level-inequality/): Local differences in wealth and income often are very stark and easily visible. Indeed, their prevalence is hardly a secret. Nearly everybody can instantly name the “good” and “bad” neighborhoods of the place they live in. Yet there is very little research on political inequality on the local level, especially outside the United States. In his PhD project, Nils aims to close this research gap by analyzing public investments of German municipalities. The overall goal of the project is to better our understanding of local distributive politics, both in terms of allocative results and the (political) process to get there. […] - [Unequal Democracy in Brazil and South Africa](https://inq-dp.eu/index.php/research/political-inequality/unequal-democracy/): Funder: DFG Duration: 3 years  Marburg University team: Leticia Barbabela, Miquel Pellicer, Nils Strecker, and Eva Wegner This project examines political inequality in Brazil and South Africa. We focus on inequality in political outputs (outputs that citizens receive from the political process, such as favored policies or allocation of government resources) across socioeconomic groups. An influential literature documents this type of inequality in the United States and European countries and argues that it is one of the drivers of economic inequality. To date, this literature has focused almost exclusively on Western countries and national-level outputs. At the same time, a large […] - [Policies](https://inq-dp.eu/index.php/research/further-research-areas/policies/): Policies are key determinants of the income distribution. Some policies aim at reducing inequality, poverty, and promoting social cohesion. But other policies either by design, as collateral effect, or as unintended consequence, can benefit the most advantaged in the population and amplify inequality. In our research we have evaluated some of these policies. Papers Pellicer, Miquel, and Vimal Ranchhod. 2023. “Understanding the Effects of Racial Classification in Apartheid South Africa.” Journal of Development Economics 160 (January): 102998. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2022.102998. The apartheid era began in 1948 in South Africa, and was implemented by passing several racially discriminatory laws. Most of the key […] - [Inequality & Collective Action](https://inq-dp.eu/index.php/research/further-research-areas/inequality-collective-action/): Inequality & Collective Action What drives demand for redistribution in highly unequal countries? And how does inequality impact political behavior? Are there feedback loops between them? We investigate these questions from different perspectives: with survey experiments and protest data in South Africa as well as with formal theory.  Parts of this research were supported by EU FP7 (Project “No Poor”) and by the DFG Project “Local Conflict and the Local State, German Research Council”, led by Alexander De Juan Papers Pellicer, Miquel, Ragui Assaad, Caroline Krafft, and Colette Salemi. 2022. Grievances or skills? The effect of education on youth political […] - [Further Research Areas](https://inq-dp.eu/index.php/research/further-research-areas/): Inequality & Collective Action Corruption Policies - [The Project](https://inq-dp.eu/index.php/research/clientelism/the-project/): Funder:  DFG Duration: 2017-2021 PIs: Miquel Pellicer and Eva Wegner Until recently, political science literature on clientelism has paid little attention to the demand side of clientelism and conceptualized poor citizens as willing vote sellers. In contrast, ethnographic literature on the topic highlights the agency of (potential) clients and the varying views they have on these exchanges.  Our project systematically studies the demand side of clientelism and seeks to understand the trade-offs of and welfare implications for citizens when engaging in clientelism. We consider a different clientelistic practices in rural and urban environments, including vote-buying, relational, and collective forms of clientelism. We […] - [Home](https://inq-dp.eu/): News Maps UpgradeWe upgraded our maps of inequality! Now including additional data on election results, rent prices, and education levels across Marburg.Explore → Latest Blog PostCheck out our new Blog Post! Eva Wegner and Lukas Rädle write about differing lobbying regulations and their implications.Read More → Recent ActivitiesKickoff done! At the “Marburger Stadtgespräch” Lea Elsässer spoke about the importance of trade unions for working class politicians careers.Read more → Main Research Areas Clientelism Political Inequality Politicians & Wealth Further Research Areas Inequality & Collective Action Corruption Policies Dissemination Blog Research Digest Maps of Inequality in Marburg - [Publications](https://inq-dp.eu/index.php/research/publications/): Barbabela, Letícia. 2024. “A Positive Feedback Mechanism? Institutional Responsiveness to Bribery Reporting by Citizens in 12 African Countries”. Crime, Law and Social Change. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10611-023-10137-3  [Open Access]. Barbabela, Letícia. 2023. “Judicial Inconsistency and Citizen Anti-Corruption Demobilization: Evidence from Brazil.” Government and Opposition, 1-20. https://doi.org/10.1017/gov.2023.36 [Open Access]. Kincaid, Harold, Miquel Pellicer, and Eva Wegner. 2023. “Philosophy of Science Issues in Clientelism Research.” In The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Political Science, edited by Harold Kincaid and Jeroen Van Bouwel, 395–418. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197519806.013.19. Pellicer, Miquel, and Vimal Ranchhod. 2023. “Understanding the Effects of Racial Classification in Apartheid South Africa.” Journal of Development Economics […] - [Research](https://inq-dp.eu/index.php/research/): Clientelism Political Inequality Politicians & Wealth Inequality & Collective Action Corruption Policies - [Data](https://inq-dp.eu/index.php/research/clientelism/data/): Data Replication Data for Clientelism from the Client’s Perspective: A Meta-Analysisof Ethnographic Literature on Dataverse: https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/DSNO4T - [Clientelism](https://inq-dp.eu/index.php/research/clientelism/): The Project Papers Book Project Data - [Political Inequality](https://inq-dp.eu/index.php/research/political-inequality/): Political Inequality An emerging body of literature studies inequality in political influence between socioeconomic groups. This work usually finds that poorer citizens appear to exert lower political influence than richer citizens. Most of these studies have focused on formal, national-level policies, mainly in Western countries. How politically unequal are countries outside Europe and the US? What factors drive political inequality in these countries? And how much political inequality is there in the distribution of resources at the local level? We study these questions in a DFG-funded project on Unequal Democracy in Brazil and South Africa and in a project on […] - [Research Digest](https://inq-dp.eu/index.php/research-digest/): About IDP Research Digest Every month we publish on our website a selection of five papers related to inequality and distributive politics. We keep track of first view or recently accepted papers in the most important journals and of promising working papers in the research areas IDP operates. We are also happy to connect with people working on these topics who want to disseminate fresh research. Reach out to us on Bluesky and follow us for the thread version of our “Research Digest”, coming out on every other Thursday.  #35 – November 2025Politician background and biased perceptions in  🇨🇭 – […] - [Book Project](https://inq-dp.eu/index.php/research/clientelism/book-project/): Book Project Citizen preferences for different forms of clientelism are crucial for its persistence. For clientelism to persist, citizens must be willing to engage in clientelistic exchanges under the conditions they are offered in a given place. We develop the concept of demand for clientelism that examines under which conditions – in terms of goods, inequality, reliability and moral condemnation –  citizens are willing to accept a clientelistic offer.  Our book project brings together data from focus groups, surveys and survey experiments to understand citizen demand for different forms of clientelism in Tunisia and South Africa. Our framework chapter presents […] - [Corruption](https://inq-dp.eu/index.php/research/further-research-areas/corruption/): Corruption Through corruption – the abuse of public office for private gain – certain individuals or groups can derive unfair spoils at the expense of the public interest. As such, corrupt exchanges can generate an unfair distribution of material benefits, public resources, and political power. Corruption not only harms the economy and makes public investment in key areas more inefficient; it also generates public dissatisfaction and shapes how citizens relate to public institutions.  In the last decades, the fight against corruption has become a major policy issue around the world. Governments and other public institutions, such as courts and prosecutors’ […] - [Papers](https://inq-dp.eu/index.php/research/clientelism/papers/): Pellicer, Miquel, Eva Wegner, Markus Bayer, and Christian Tischmeyer. 2022. “Clientelism from the Client’s Perspective: A Meta-Analysis of Ethnographic Literature.” Perspectives on Politics 20 (3): 931–47. https://doi.org/10.1017/S153759272000420X. This paper bridges the gap between mainstream political science and ethnographic literatures on clientelism by conducting a meta-analysis of ethnographic literature on clientelism from the client perspective. We code characteristics of clientelistic exchanges described in this work. We use cluster analysis and principal component analysis to systematize these data. Cluster analysis groups exchanges into three core subtypes of clientelism (“vote-buying”, “relational”, and “collective”); principal component analysis delivers two fundamental dimensions of clientelism: equal-unequal […] - [Blog](https://inq-dp.eu/index.php/blog/) - [Maps of Inequality in Marburg](https://inq-dp.eu/index.php/maps-of-inequality-in-marburg/): By Nils Strecker and Miquel Pellicer Inequality and distributive politics are relevant everywhere, not only in distant and foreign places. We wish to bring awareness to this topic to our community: the town of Marburg. We wish to disseminate information on inequality and politics in the form of maps. As a first step we provide a limited number of maps that capture particularly important aspects of our topic: spatial inequalities in socioeconomic outcomes and in political participation. Overtime, we hope to add more resources, including the spatial distribution of government spending, and of citizen political preferences. We hope this site […] - [About Us](https://inq-dp.eu/index.php/about-us/): The Inequality and Distributive Politics is an initiative of researchers from the Institute of Political Science and the Centre for Conflict Studies at Marburg University. We are interested in furthering research on inequality, distributive politics, and political behavior and to reach out to researchers and other stakeholders. For our mission statement, please see Blog Nr.1 on Inequality and distributive politics. To stay updated on our work, you can follow us on Bluesky. Letícia BarbabelaPostdoctoral Research Fellow Research Focus:– Attitudes towards Corruption– Inequality– Distributive Politics ContactCV Rebecca BettagResearch Assistant Research Focus:– Distributive Politics– Inequality– Housing Policies Contact Miquel PellicerProfessor of Inequality […] [comment]: # (Generated by Hostinger Tools Plugin)