Class Differences in Political Citizenship and Electoral Participation

Abstract

The particular interest of political citizenship lies in the fact that political rights are at the basis of both social and industrial citizenship. Through the right to participate in the exercise of political power as an elector, individuals have their say on both the welfare state and industrial relations. The normal channel of expanding social rights is thus the use of political power (Marshall, 1981 [1950]: 26). Likewise, in collective bargaining, workers depend on a legislative framework that is obtained in the political arena. Accordingly, Marshall very optimistically maintained that ‘the equality implicit in the concept of citizenship undermined the inequality of the class system’ (1981 [1950]: 19). This argument has been taken up by theorists of the power resources school such as Grøsta Esping-Andersen or Walter Korpi. Central to their preoccupation is the question ‘whether, and under what conditions, the class divisions and social inequalities produced by capitalism can be undone by parliamentary democracy’ (Esping-Andersen, 1990: 11). Their hypothesis states that groups relatively disadvantaged in terms of economic resources may compensate for it by combining in the sphere of politics and thus influence market outcomes (Korpi and Palme, 2003: 427). Expressed differently, democracy is supposed to enable less privileged groups to use their major political resource — numbers — in order to improve their position in the stratification system through redistributive policies.