10.7910/DVN/IG6ICN Elkjær, Mads Andreas Mads Andreas Elkjær University of Copenhagen Iversen, Torben Torben Iversen Harvard University Harvard Dataverse 2022 Social Sciences Elkjær, Mads Andreas Mads Andreas Elkjær University of Oxford 2022-06-06 2022-09-06 10.1017/S0003055422000867 8664542 3172171 80443 2307 394463 12450 343259 1225755 49720 33362 2972281 47627 5611 17045 77759 1693798 72634 17712 185964 32520 29009 17701 746582 2535 text/tab-separated-values text/tab-separated-values text/tab-separated-values text/tab-separated-values text/tab-separated-values application/x-stata-syntax text/tab-separated-values text/tab-separated-values text/tab-separated-values text/tab-separated-values text/tab-separated-values text/tab-separated-values application/x-stata-syntax application/x-stata-syntax application/x-stata-syntax application/pdf text/tab-separated-values text/tab-separated-values text/tab-separated-values text/tab-separated-values application/x-stata-syntax text/tab-separated-values text/tab-separated-values text/rtf 1.0 Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication. Growing economic inequality has raised concerns that democratic governments are no longer responsive to popular demands for redistribution, either because the state capacity is eroded by footloose capital, or because the wealthy subvert democracy through the power of money. In this paper we critically assess these assertions against long-standing arguments about redistribution and insurance under democracy. We test the alternatives on a new comprehensive dataset on income inequality from 17 advanced democracies between 1980 and 2019. We find that before taxes and transfers income inequality has risen markedly everywhere, but also that government redistribution has played a critical role in compensating the middle class, and to a perhaps surprising degree also the poor. The United States is a large outlier, however.