The Politics of Dignity: How Status Inequality shaped Redistributive Politics in India

Abstract

How does social hierarchy affect redistribution? While mainstream theories of welfare are premised on the material interests of social classes, I argue that in societies with long histories of ascriptive discrimination, distributive politics in shaped by status inequality. High-status groups are more likely to oppose redistribution to maintain their ascriptive privilege, while low-status groups aim at reducing social hierarchy by prioritizing descriptive representation, which I refer as the politics of dignity. I test this theory through a mixed-methods research design on India. Using original state-level data over five decades, I find a strong negative association between high-status (i.e., upper-caste) political elites and redistributive spending. Elites from politically mobilized low-status (i.e., lower-caste) groups have instead pursued representation in the state bureaucracy through caste quotas. Rather than just patronage or symbolic politics, I demonstrate that the interaction of descriptive representation in the bureaucracy and legislature is associated with higher redistribution. Qualitative evidence suggests that a representative bureaucracy can weaken elite patronage networks, thereby reducing barriers to redistributive policies.

Keywords: Ethnic Politics; Inequality; Redistribution; Welfare; Status Politics; Development; India