Political Inequality Index
Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Gwangeun Choi, University of Essex
Version: View help for Version V3
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Project Citation:
Choi, Gwangeun. Political Inequality Index. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2019-12-01. https://doi.org/10.3886/E101268V3
Project Description
Summary:
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The Political Inequality Index (PII) is the most comprehensive cross-national measure of
political inequality thus far, using objective indicators. This index is mainly based on the two distinct dimensions of participation and representation in the Democratic Performance Index (DPI), which is a new version of the Democracy Barometer (DB). The DPI dataset is available at http://doi.org/10.3886/E101244V2.
The two dimensions are aggregated by geometric averaging because each dimension is related to political inequality but clearly distinct from each other, providing neither full compensability nor full non-compensability. Consequently, using a geometric mean is an in-between solution. Then the aggregate scores are normalized with the 0-100 scale and reversed to show the level of inequality. One thing to note is that the minimum value of 0 does not mean perfect equality; likewise, the maximum value of 100 does not mean perfect inequality. They just indicate the best or worst level of performance among the observations.
The PII has two distinctive advantages, compared to other measures of political inequality: first, it overcomes a narrow version of political inequality measure, such as voting, by incorporating representation as well as electoral and non-electoral participation; second, it provides the best available cross-national and over-time data source for political inequality, covering 67 countries including 36 OECD countries over the period between 1990 and 2016, as of 2018.
The PII allows us to answer the question of to what extent citizens are treated as political equals that have equal voice to influence politics. Securing an equal opportunity or an equal starting point by encouraging political participation and making a more representative political system is crucial for a more democratic and egalitarian society.
A new version of the PII ("PII_1990-2016_ver2.dta") has been published in December 2019. You can also find how the index has been constructed in this file: "PII_1990-2016_ver2.do".
The two dimensions are aggregated by geometric averaging because each dimension is related to political inequality but clearly distinct from each other, providing neither full compensability nor full non-compensability. Consequently, using a geometric mean is an in-between solution. Then the aggregate scores are normalized with the 0-100 scale and reversed to show the level of inequality. One thing to note is that the minimum value of 0 does not mean perfect equality; likewise, the maximum value of 100 does not mean perfect inequality. They just indicate the best or worst level of performance among the observations.
The PII has two distinctive advantages, compared to other measures of political inequality: first, it overcomes a narrow version of political inequality measure, such as voting, by incorporating representation as well as electoral and non-electoral participation; second, it provides the best available cross-national and over-time data source for political inequality, covering 67 countries including 36 OECD countries over the period between 1990 and 2016, as of 2018.
The PII allows us to answer the question of to what extent citizens are treated as political equals that have equal voice to influence politics. Securing an equal opportunity or an equal starting point by encouraging political participation and making a more representative political system is crucial for a more democratic and egalitarian society.
A new version of the PII ("PII_1990-2016_ver2.dta") has been published in December 2019. You can also find how the index has been constructed in this file: "PII_1990-2016_ver2.do".
Scope of Project
Subject Terms:
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political ineqaulity;
participation;
representation
Geographic Coverage:
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global
Time Period(s):
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1990 – 2016
Universe:
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67 countries: 36 OECD countries and 31 non-OECD countries
Data Type(s):
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aggregate data
Methodology
Data Source:
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Mainly from the Democratic Performance Index (DPI), which is based on the Democracy Barometer (DB)
Unit(s) of Observation:
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country-year
Geographic Unit:
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country
Related Publications
Published Versions
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