DEMOCRACY AND INEQUALITY: "THE DARK SIDE OF CIVILIZATION"

Abstract

This paper was an attempt to revisit the relationship between democracy, distribution, and Inequality. The author explains the theoretical reasons why democracy should increase redistribution and reduce inequality, and why such expectations usually fails, because some segment of the population do not want equalization of opportunities to excluded segment of the society. The survey is on existing empirical literature. Inequality undermines democratic resilience. Inequality increases political polarization, disrupts social peace and undermines trust and support of democracy. The discussion highlighted further search on inequality and democracy from the comparative political economy perspective, Nigeria as a case, and try to explain why some countries are more effective than others. The study also looked at general trends and concepts. The paper examines the links between democracy, income inequality, corruption, with reference to Nigeria as the case may be. Eventually, corruption is an important factor that widen the economic and political inequality on the democracy, by weakening legitimacy, accountability and institutional capacity and effectiveness. Conclusively, the study provides the proof suggesting that inequality tends to increase after demoralization when the economy has undergone structural transformation, when inequality is high, and there is a small gap between the middle class and the poor.