The Threat of Communism during Cold War: a constraint to income inequality?
The Threat of Communism during Cold War: a constraint to income inequality?
Os professores Leonardo Weller e André Albuquerque Sant Anna tiveram seu paper The Threat of Communism during Cold War: a constraint to income inequality? citado pelo The Guardian
Abstract: Did the threat of communism influence income distribution in developed capitalist economies during the Cold War? This article addresses this question by testing whether income inequality in OECD countries was related to events linked to the spread of communism revolutions and USSR invasions-around the world. We argue that the threat of the spread of communism acted as an incentive for the elites and governments to keep inequality at low levels. This paper provides a contribution to the recent literature on inequality, which stresses the importance of domestic institutions and the two World Wars but fails to address the role of the Cold War in distributing income. We find a robust relationship between income inequality and the distance to communist events. The results suggest, as reinforced by some cases studied, that the spread of communism fostered deals between domestic elites and workers that redistributed the gains from capital in favor of labor. Finally, we show that these effects were reinforced by strong unions and the presence of relevant communist parties.
Comparative Politics
DOI:
- 10.5129/001041519X15615651139989
