BROADCASTS.com

Over the past three decades, economic inequality has risen in many democracies around the world. As the rich grow richer relative to everyone else, do they also grow relatively more powerful, undermining democracy's promise of political equality? Patterns of political attitudes, behavior, and policymaking in democracies around the world support the answer that yes, political equality does depend on economic equality. Frederick Solt is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Iowa. His primary research interests are in comparative politics and focus on the consequences of economic inequality for political attitudes and behavior. His work on this topic has appeared in the American Journal of Political Science, the Journal of Politics, the British Journal of Political Science, and other journals. To facilitate this research, he created and maintains the Standardized World Income Inequality Database (SWIID), which provides the most comparable data available on income inequality for countries around the world over the past half-century. For additional information visit the foreign relations council website.