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201. Economic Conditions and the Rise of Anti-Democratic Extremism

Author:
Benjamin Crost
Publication Date:
03-2021
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Empirical Studies of Conflict Project (ESOC)
Abstract:
This paper provides evidence that adverse economic conditions contributed to the rise of anti-democratic extremism in the United States. A state-level analysis shows that increases in the unemployment rate during the Great Recession led to a large increase in the number of anti democratic extremist groups. The effect is concentrated in states with high pre-existing racial resentment, as proxied by racist web searches, and strongest for the male unemployment rate and the white unemployment rate. If unemployment had remained at its pre-recession level, the increase in anti-democratic groups between 2007 and 2010 could have been reduced by more than 60%.
Topic:
Economics, Democracy, Inequality, Far Right, Economic Inequality, and Political Extremism
Political Geography:
United States

202. Reclaiming the Right to the City

Author:
Ian Klaus and Samuel Kling
Publication Date:
09-2021
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Chicago Council on Global Affairs
Abstract:
In this report edited by Ian Klaus and Samuel Kling, a diverse set of experts examine the question of rights in, and to, the city in a wide and exciting array of geographies and contexts. Introduced by the French sociologist Henri Lefebvre in 1968, the concept of the right to the city has been the subject of a diverse set of treatments and interpretations from academics, activists, and policymakers in recent years. The intellectual history of the right to the city is at times direct—a radical protest movement in the heart of the city focused on political and economic inequality—and at times meandering: a gesturing, stylish flaneur sauntering through the cityscape. But COVID-19 and its associated crises offer the opportunity for clarity or new perspectives on the right to the city, thanks to the crises’ disorienting effects on the meanings and uses of urban space. City dwellers everywhere have experienced the pandemic in particularly spatial terms: it has altered where they go and how they travel, freighted certain places with danger, and targeted some neighborhoods over others. Overnight, outdoor spaces became critical public health infrastructure; bars and restaurants became disease vectors. The pandemic’s effects on work cleaved residents according to their ability to forgo the spatial ritual of the commute, with white-collar workers tending to stay home and most blue-collar and low-wage workers having to endure work on-site. The geography of the pandemic has exploited existing structures of inequality, with disease and death most widespread in neighborhoods with higher concentrations of poverty, overcrowded housing, and marginalized groups. The essays in this collection explore these issues in Chicago and the wider world, from China and South Africa to Latin America. The collection’s first section, “Space, Place, and Inequality,” addresses these questions on an urban scale, each focusing on an element of urban life. The collection’s second section, “Local, National, and Global Intersections,” further broadens the lens to interrogate the relationship among cities and nation states and regions, and to explore global trends in development, trade, and governance. Together, these essays offer perspectives from academics, activists, and policy professionals and public servants with the intention of generating interdisciplinary and international discussions. They highlight powerful inequities and contradictions in city life and also offer policy solutions.
Topic:
Infrastructure, Inequality, Urban, Cities, Geography, and COVID-19
Political Geography:
Global Focus

203. Inequality, Lockdown, and COVID-19: Unequal Societies Struggle to Contain the Virus

Author:
Paul von Chamier
Publication Date:
04-2021
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center on International Cooperation (CIC)
Abstract:
There is nothing equal about COVID-19. It is now well established that poor and underprivileged social groups have absorbed most of the pandemic’s negative impact. However, the connection between COVID-19 and inequality might run even deeper. During the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, one additional point of the Gini coefficient correlated with a 1.34 percentage point higher rate of weekly new infections across countries. This difference in infection rates compounds like interest every week. This means that after twenty-one weeks of the pandemic, just one additional Gini å correlates with an approximately 1/3 higher overall number of cases in a country. More equal countries might enjoy an “equality dividend” that is associated with more shock resilience during the ongoing crisis. This new research from CIC sought to understand if pre-existing systemic inequities could be linked to higher COVID-19 infection rates, examining infection rates in 70 countries from mid-March 2020 through early August 2020, or what is widely seen as the first 21 weeks of the pandemic. It also studied these nations’ levels of inequality and other potential predictive variables: government efficiency (a measure indicating quality of public services and civil service capability), urban population share, share of the population over the age of 65, lockdown measures (calculated by stringency), and geographic mobility (a population’s physical movements as measured by Google’s COVID-19 Community Mobility Reports). The study tracked inequality by using the “Gini Coefficient,” a commonly used metric for measuring income inequality within nations--or, specifically, how far a country’s wealth or income distribution deviates from a completely equal distribution. Under this calculation, the higher the coefficient, the greater the income inequality within that country.
Topic:
Inequality, Resilience, COVID-19, Health Crisis, and Society
Political Geography:
Global Focus

204. Introducing the Mind-the-Gap Index: A tool to understand urban spatial inequality

Author:
Jeni Klugman and Matthew Moore
Publication Date:
05-2021
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center on International Cooperation (CIC)
Abstract:
Where people live exerts a strong influence on multiple aspects of their well-being, including their access to economic opportunities, education, health and other services and to their security, as well as other goals envisioned in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. In a world with high and growing levels of urbanization, policy makers are increasingly aware that the future of inequality depends largely on what happens in cities. There is also concern that rising spatial inequality can lead to social unrest, rioting, increased crime, and erode trust among separated societal groups. The World Bank estimates that half of the area that will be urbanized by 2050 has not yet been built, which implies major opportunities for the policies and decisions affecting cities to shape the world we live in. First, this paper synthesizes several research papers regarding what we already know–drawing on recent research from UNDESA and others–to outline the extent of spatial disparities, the ways that spatial inequality shapes today’s cities, and the key factors driving spatial disparities. Additionally, the paper introduces a new index designed to capture key dimensions of spatial inequality, along with analysis of results from three pilot applications in Addis Ababa, Jakarta, and Mexico City which highlights the importance of granular and up-to-date data, as well as the accumulating nature of disadvantage in poor neighborhoods.
Topic:
Inequality, Sustainable Development Goals, and Urban
Political Geography:
Indonesia, Ethiopia, and Mexico

205. Digital Equity as an Enabling Platform for Equality and Inclusion

Author:
Laura E. Bailey and Nanjala Nyabola
Publication Date:
06-2021
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Center on International Cooperation (CIC)
Abstract:
The global pandemic has laid bare the digital inequities across vertical (income) and horizontal (social, political, and identity) dimensions, while exposing the extent to which pre-pandemic approaches to bridging the digital divide have been dominated by economic considerations even while they are not universally treated as policy priorities. Access to digital is a product of both material investment and political will. Where there is no conscious effort to include marginalized communities into digitalization plans, these communities can be left behind. In countries where identity-based exclusion is routinely built into political behavior, there can be systematic patterns of exclusion of specific groups (e.g., the indigenous First Peoples of North America, the Roma of Europe, or the Somali of northeast Kenya). Many countries around the world have such communities, and any work to digitalize a country must be founded on politically and socially conscious efforts to include groups that may be left behind by historical marginalization. This brief reviews key aspects of the digital divide, with special attention to exclusion and inequality, emphasizing that poor connectivity isn’t just about wealth—it is also about inequality. This paper examines the following: That COVID-19 has shown how poor policymaking in digital access and use deepens the current inequalities in addition to creating new ones, Digital equity through recent thinking, research—and why it matters, and Experience with digital equity initiatives (pre- and post-pandemic). Finally, the authors provide key recommendations for potential digital policies and interventions that can advance equality and inclusion.
Topic:
Inequality, Digital Culture, COVID-19, and Exclusion
Political Geography:
South Asia and Latin America

206. Social Dialogue as a Tool to Fight Inequality & Recover After a Pandemic

Author:
Liv Tørres
Publication Date:
07-2021
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Center on International Cooperation (CIC)
Abstract:
Si vis pacem, cole justitiam” – “If you desire peace, cultivate justice,” is the motto enshrined in the foundations of the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) building in Geneva, established in 1919. World War I, the Russian Revolution, and the fear of communism that followed, had convinced world leaders that, “universal and lasting peace can be established only if it is based upon social justice,” as they stated in the 1919 Versailles Treaty. Widespread injustice, inequalities, and exclusion were the enemies of peace. Many would argue they are no less relevant today. Over the past 100 years, “social compacts” and “social dialogue” are frequently referenced all over the world as tools to achieve shared growth and prosperity, better working conditions, higher living standards, and higher productivity. Social dialogue is often seen as a miraculous recipe for sustainable development, decent work, and growth, especially in times of crisis or recovery. This was seen in South Africa, where institutions were established as part of the effort to rebuild after Apartheid. It has also occurred periodically in Latin America when social issues have become contentious. The concept was evoked in the U.S.’ New Deal of the 1930s following the economic “crash,” as well as in crisis-torn Scandinavia in the same decade. Now, social dialogue has emerged again among those who are now planning priorities for next decade in the face of massive challenges amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Liv Tørres considers the following questions in this paper: what actually is social dialogue and what value may it hold for post-pandemic management and recovery?
Topic:
Inequality, Peace, COVID-19, Injustice, and Dialogue
Political Geography:
South Africa and Africa

207. Shared Capital Initiatives – for Redistribution and Recognition

Author:
Sanjay Reddy
Publication Date:
07-2021
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center on International Cooperation (CIC)
Abstract:
Shared capital, defined as a broadly distributed pattern of rights over productive assets, can be a powerful instrument to address economic and social inequalities. We argue that initiatives to bring about shared capital can foster both redistribution and recognition, and thereby bring about more inclusive and peaceful societies. Based on experience, we suggest moreover that they are feasible and can be advanced by suitable policies and actions—at local, national, and global levels. Shared capital can involve distribution of various rights of an asset, including those of use, control, income, and transfer. This paper considers nine cases which feature some experience of shared capital involving various kinds of rights being distributed and relate these to different kinds of assets. In almost every case, the state has an important role to play in facilitating the distribution of rights.
Topic:
Regulation, Inequality, Peace, Sustainability, Capital, Redistribution, and Inclusion
Political Geography:
Global Focus

208. From Rhetoric to Action: Delivering Equality & Inclusion

Author:
Faiza Shaheen, Sarah Cliffe, Liv Tørres, Paula Sevilla Núñez, Paul von Chamier, Amanda Lenhardt, Nendirmwa Noel, Alexander Bossakov, and Avner Cohen
Publication Date:
09-2021
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Center on International Cooperation (CIC)
Abstract:
The flagship report of the Pathfinders Grand Challenge on Inequality and Exclusion is about the solutions that will deliver equality and inclusion. It is the culmination of several years of research and mobilization undertaken by a unique partnership of ten countries, the United Nations, the World Bank, the OECD, Oxfam, and CIVICUS, along with numerous partners and international experts. The report constructs a bridge between the rhetoric of “build back better” and action: a bridge between promise and progress. The report draws on the lived experiences and desires of people across countries around the world. To understand citizens' concerns about inequalities, their policy priorities, and their desire for change, Pathfinders commissioned a public opinion survey in eight countries: Canada, Costa Rica, Mexico, Sierra Leone, South Korea, Sweden, Tunisia, and Uruguay. These opinion surveys show an immense preoccupation with societal divisions and a consensus that more needs to be done to address them. Additionally, it underlines the need for renewed social contracts between citizens, civil society, the private sector, and governments, as well as between high and low- and middle-income countries. These social contracts must be built to serve future generations, to guard against climate breakdown and pandemics while delivering respect, opportunity, and justice for all. The report should serve as a practical handbook for policymakers and influencers; as a source of possibility for the public; and, as a call to all political leaders to act.
Topic:
Civil Society, Government, Inequality, Research, Social Justice, Exclusion, and Equality
Political Geography:
Canada, South Korea, Uruguay, Sierra Leone, Sweden, Mexico, Tunisia, and Costa Rica

209. Employment Mobility and the Belated Emergence of the Black Middle Class

Author:
Joshua Weitz, William Lazonick, and Philip Moss
Publication Date:
01-2021
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET)
Abstract:
As the Covid-19 pandemic takes its disproportionate toll on African Americans, the historical perspective in this working paper provides insight into the socioeconomic conditions under which President-elect Joe Biden’s campaign promise to “build back better” might actually begin to deliver the equal employment opportunity that was promised by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Far from becoming the Great Society that President Lyndon Johnson promised, the United States has devolved into a greedy society in which economic inequality has run rampant, leaving most African Americans behind. In this installment of our “Fifty Years After” project, we sketch a long-term historical perspective on the Black employment experience from the last decades of the nineteenth century into the 1970s. We follow the transition from the cotton economy of the post-slavery South to the migration that accelerated during World War I as large numbers of Blacks sought employment in mass-production industries in Northern cities such as Detroit, Pittsburgh, and Chicago. For the interwar decades, we focus in particular on the Black employment experience in the Detroit automobile industry. During World War II, especially under pressure from President Roosevelt’s Fair Employment Practices Committee, Blacks experienced tangible upward employment mobility, only to see much of it disappear with demobilization. In the 1960s and into the 1970s, however, supported by the Civil Rights Act and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Blacks made significant advances in employment opportunity, especially by moving up the blue-collar occupational hierarchy into semiskilled and skilled unionized jobs. These employment gains for Blacks occurred within a specific historical context that included a) strong demand for blue-collar and clerical labor in the U.S. mass-production industries, which still dominated in global competition; b) the unquestioned employment norm within major U.S. business corporations of a career with one company, supported at the blue-collar level by massproduction unions that had become accepted institutions in the U.S. business system; c) the upward intergenerational mobility of white households from blue-collar employment requiring no more than a high-school education to white-collar employment requiring a higher education, creating space for Blacks to fill the blue-collar void; and d) a relative absence of an influx of immigrants as labor-market competition to Black employment. As we will document in the remaining papers in this series, from the 1980s these conditions changed dramatically, resulting in erosion of the blue-collar gains that Blacks had achieved in the 1960s and 1970s as the Great Society promise of equal employment opportunity for all Americans disappeared.
Topic:
Government, History, Employment, Inequality, Mobility, Unions, Middle Class, New Deal, African Americans, and Great Migration
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

210. Local David Versus Global Goliath: Populist Parties and the Decline of Progressive Politics in Italy

Author:
Matteo Cavallaro
Publication Date:
01-2021
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET)
Abstract:
This paper analyzes the role of local spending, particularly on social welfare, and local inequality as factors in the Italian political crisis following the adoption in 2011 of more radical national austerity measures. We employ two different methods. First, we develop an original database of municipal budgets. There we show that even the lowest level of social welfare spending, that offered by Italian municipalities, though also hit by austerity, was still able to moderate this national shock. We test three operationalizations of local spending: aggregate current expenditures, aggregate current expenditures on social services, and current expenditures disaggregated by function. We show that municipal current expenditures, particularly on social spending, significantly affected the post-2011 share of votes for the progressive coalition. The results also show that social spending, especially on education, significantly moderated the combined effect of national austerity and the economic crisis on voting for populist radical right parties, while no significant results appeared for populist parties in general. Local inequality appears to significantly enhance vote shares of populist radical right parties and populist parties in general. We caution that, although significant, the effect is not strong: that local policy and economic conditions can moderate national shocks but cannot reverse them. The second analysis relies on survey data to ascertain the individual-level mechanisms behind the role of local welfare. The paper argues that local economic inputs influence voters’ position on non-economic issues. Our results, however, do not identify any significant individual-level channel of transmission, be it cultural or economic.
Topic:
Politics, Elections, Inequality, Populism, and Austerity
Political Geography:
Europe and Italy