WHO DECIDES? - INFLUENCE AND INEQUALITY IN BRITISH DEMOCRACY - Parth Patel

Around seven in 10 people in the bottom one-third, and six in 10 of those in the middle one-third of the income distribution think the government should redistribute more, compared to an even split among the top one-third. [...] Are the well-heeled more likely to get their way than the worse-off? 10 IPPR | Who decides? Influence and inequality in British democracy One approach to answering this question is to consider the responsiveness of policy to the preferences of different “ the bottom third of citizens. [...] This policy bias people like them was first documented in the US but has now been have no say in what demonstrated across a range European democracies, including democracies that are more egalitarian than the UK.2 government does Even in Norway, one of the most equal democracies in the world, policy choices are much more responsive to the preferences of ” citizens at the top-end of the income dist. [...] Although there is no up-to-date directory of interest groups in the UK, efforts to map interest groups in the UK have found the business and trade sector are the most common type of interest group in the UK (Dunleavy et al 2018). [...] This is at the heart of explaining the growth in economic inequality, the erosion of trust in the competence and fairness of democratic government and the rise of populism.