Vincent A. Mahler

This study explores the relationship between electoral participation and income redistribution by way of social transfers, using data from the European Social Survey, the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems, and the Luxembourg Income Study. It extends previous research by measuring the income skew of turnout rather than using average turnout as a proxy for its income bias. We find that, controlling for a number of other variables, the income skew of turnout is negatively related to transfer redistribution and that electoral participation by those in poverty is positively associated with redistribution in their favor.

Polity is published by Palgrave Macmillan on behalf of the Northeastern Political Science Association. Since its inception in 1968, Polity has been committed to the publication of scholarship reflecting the full variety of approaches to the study of politics. This commitment has helped make Polity one of the most widely-known journals in political science.

This paper offers a detailed discussion of fiscal redistribution in developed countries, employing data that have been computed from the LIS's micro-level database. LIS data are detailed enough to allow us not only to measure overall redistribution but also to explore whether redistribution has been achieved primarily through taxes or transfers; to determine whether it is associated with the size or the internal target efficiency of social benefits; to compare the redistributive effect of the most important individual transfers; to focus separately on households in poverty and those headed by persons of working age; and to explore trends in redistribution between the late 1970s and early 2000s. The paper concludes by demonstrating the practical usefulness of the data presented by conducting an empirical analysis of several proposed explanations for cross-country and over-time variance in fiscal redistribution.