Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Does Democratization Cause Redistribution? Evidence from Sweden and Brazil

Bengtsson, Erik LU and Morgan, Marc (2021) In Working Papers of the Department of History, Economics and Society – Political Economy p.1-35
Abstract
This paper explores the relationship between democratization and economic redistribution using case study analysis applied to Sweden and Brazil. We find that democratization is intimately connected to redistribution through the welfare state, but as an event in itself is neither a necessary nor a sufficient cause of redistributive reforms. Democratization is not strictly necessary, because in anticipation of social unrest and social protest movements, political regimes, including undemocratic regimes, imposed welfare reforms to co-opt these movements. This can be seen for example in Sweden in the early twentieth century or in Brazil in the 1930s, 1940s and the 1970s. Democratization is also not sufficient for redistribution, since people... (More)
This paper explores the relationship between democratization and economic redistribution using case study analysis applied to Sweden and Brazil. We find that democratization is intimately connected to redistribution through the welfare state, but as an event in itself is neither a necessary nor a sufficient cause of redistributive reforms. Democratization is not strictly necessary, because in anticipation of social unrest and social protest movements, political regimes, including undemocratic regimes, imposed welfare reforms to co-opt these movements. This can be seen for example in Sweden in the early twentieth century or in Brazil in the 1930s, 1940s and the 1970s. Democratization is also not sufficient for redistribution, since people also needed to act politically within the new democratic regimes to make use of the formal constitutional changes. The ability to act politically depends on organizational opportunities, which are facilitated when there are few barriers to influence policymaking (e.g., strikes, unionization, working class political parties, unified labour markets, reformist intellectuals and a competent and cooperative bureaucracy). The lack of these factors is enough to introduce substantial temporal lag in the adoption of reforms. More generally, given that democratization itself is a form of redistribution, the same social forces – i.e. social movements representing disenfranchised lower-income groups – commonly push for both, confounding the effect of democratization on redistribution. The historical case studies in this paper help us understand how. (Less)
Abstract (Swedish)
This paper explores the relationship between democratization and economic redistribution using case study analysis applied to Sweden and Brazil. We find that democratization is intimately connected to redistribution through the welfare state, but as an event in itself is neither a necessary nor a sufficient cause of redistributive reforms. Democratization is not strictly necessary, because in anticipation of social unrest and social protest movements, political regimes, including undemocratic regimes, imposed welfare reforms to co-opt these movements. This can be seen for example in Sweden in the early twentieth century or in Brazil in the 1930s, 1940s and the 1970s. Democratization is also not sufficient for redistribution, since people... (More)
This paper explores the relationship between democratization and economic redistribution using case study analysis applied to Sweden and Brazil. We find that democratization is intimately connected to redistribution through the welfare state, but as an event in itself is neither a necessary nor a sufficient cause of redistributive reforms. Democratization is not strictly necessary, because in anticipation of social unrest and social protest movements, political regimes, including undemocratic regimes, imposed welfare reforms to co-opt these movements. This can be seen for example in Sweden in the early twentieth century or in Brazil in the 1930s, 1940s and the 1970s. Democratization is also not sufficient for redistribution, since people also needed to act politically within the new democratic regimes to make use of the formal constitutional changes. The ability to act politically depends on organizational opportunities, which are facilitated when there are few barriers to influence policymaking (e.g., strikes, unionization, working class political parties, unified labour markets, reformist intellectuals and a competent and cooperative bureaucracy). The lack of these factors is enough to introduce substantial temporal lag in the adoption of reforms. More generally, given that democratization itself is a form of redistribution, the same social forces – i.e. social movements representing disenfranchised lower-income groups – commonly push for both, confounding the effect of democratization on redistribution. The historical case studies in this paper help us understand how. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Working paper/Preprint
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Democratization, Inequality, Welfare State, Redistribution, Sweden, Brazil
in
Working Papers of the Department of History, Economics and Society – Political Economy
issue
7/2021
pages
35 pages
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
5b7f3955-bba7-417a-8051-e16a16683c26
alternative location
https://archive-ouverte.unige.ch/unige:157130
date added to LUP
2022-03-02 16:42:11
date last changed
2022-03-03 09:23:45
@misc{5b7f3955-bba7-417a-8051-e16a16683c26,
  abstract     = {{This paper explores the relationship between democratization and economic redistribution using case study analysis applied to Sweden and Brazil. We find that democratization is intimately connected to redistribution through the welfare state, but as an event in itself is neither a necessary nor a sufficient cause of redistributive reforms. Democratization is not strictly necessary, because in anticipation of social unrest and social protest movements, political regimes, including undemocratic regimes, imposed welfare reforms to co-opt these movements. This can be seen for example in Sweden in the early twentieth century or in Brazil in the 1930s, 1940s and the 1970s. Democratization is also not sufficient for redistribution, since people also needed to act politically within the new democratic regimes to make use of the formal constitutional changes. The ability to act politically depends on organizational opportunities, which are facilitated when there are few barriers to influence policymaking (e.g., strikes, unionization, working class political parties, unified labour markets, reformist intellectuals and a competent and cooperative bureaucracy). The lack of these factors is enough to introduce substantial temporal lag in the adoption of reforms. More generally, given that democratization itself is a form of redistribution, the same social forces – i.e. social movements representing disenfranchised lower-income groups – commonly push for both, confounding the effect of democratization on redistribution. The historical case studies in this paper help us understand how.}},
  author       = {{Bengtsson, Erik and Morgan, Marc}},
  keywords     = {{Democratization; Inequality; Welfare State; Redistribution; Sweden; Brazil}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Working Paper}},
  number       = {{7/2021}},
  pages        = {{1--35}},
  series       = {{Working Papers of the Department of History, Economics and Society – Political Economy}},
  title        = {{Does Democratization Cause Redistribution? Evidence from Sweden and Brazil}},
  url          = {{https://archive-ouverte.unige.ch/unige:157130}},
  year         = {{2021}},
}