Sigrid Alexandra Koob successfully defended her PhD thesis
Congratulations to Sigrid Alexandra Koob who June 29th 2023 successfully defended her PhD thesis 'Essays on Democracy, Redistribution and inequality'.
Abstract: Economic inequality continues to thrive in democracies across the world. This is puzzling because theory predicts that the ideals of democracy should induce more equal societies. This thesis examines the general question of why inequality persists in democracies with a focus on how the poor can exert political influence to remedy persistent inequality and why they may fail to do so. The thesis consists of three independent chapters. Chapter 1 examines the link between democracy and economic inequality by analysing the distributional dynamics of economic growth in democracies relative to autocracies. Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 focus on the political power of the poor to influence redistributive policies in electoral democracies. Chapter 2 focuses on voting and on the impact of clientelism, which may shape how elections serve to channel demand for programmatic redistribution into the political system. Chapter 3 focuses on protest as an alternative or complementary form of political action to influence redistribution when the electoral process is curtailed. The research questions are analysed both across countries and among individual voters in two unequal electoral democracies; Brazil and South Africa.
The thesis will be available from research.cbs.dk
Thank you for the work and support of supervisors and assessment committee members:
Primary Supervisor:
Professor with special responsibilities Mogens Kamp Justesen
Department of International Economics, Government and Business
Copenhagen Business School
Secondary Supervisors:
Senior Researcher Hans-Otto Sano
Research Department
Danish Institute for Human Rights
Assessment Committee:
Associate Professor Mads Dagnis Jensen (Chair)
Department of International Economics, Government and Business
Copenhagen Business School
Professor Kristine Eck
Department of Peace and Conflict Research
Uppsala University
Senior Lecturer Marcia Grimes
Department of Political Science
University of Gothenburg