Abstract
How did the Prussian three-class franchise, which politically over-represented the economic elite, affect policies? Contrary to the predominant and simplistic view that the system allowed the landed elites to capture most political rents, we find that members of parliament from constituencies with a higher vote inequality support more liberal policies, gauging their political orientation from the universe of roll call votes cast in parliament during Prussia’s rapid industrialization (1867–1903). Consistent with the characteristics of German liberalism that aligned with economic interests of business, the link between vote inequality and liberal voting is stronger in regions with large-scale industry.
Highlights
How did the Prussian three-class franchise, which politically over-represented the economic elite, affect policies? Contrary to the predominant and simplistic view that the system allowed the landed elites to capture most political rents, we find that members of parliament from constituencies with a higher vote inequality support more liberal policies, gauging their political orientation from the universe of roll call votes cast in parliament during Prussia’s rapid industrialization (1867– 1903)
Before we analyze the relationship between aggregate measures of political orientation and vote inequality, we present examples of specific roll calls in which vote inequality explains the voting behavior of MPs
We select five roll call votes (RCVs) that meet the following criteria: substantial relevance for the Prussian economy, substantial divide between liberal and conservative positions, sufficiently narrow margin so that the result may be altered by reasonable changes in inequality, and broad coverage of topics and election periods
Summary
How did the Prussian three-class franchise, which politically over-represented the economic elite, affect policies? Contrary to the predominant and simplistic view that the system allowed the landed elites to capture most political rents, we find that members of parliament from constituencies with a higher vote inequality support more liberal policies, gauging their political orientation from the universe of roll call votes cast in parliament during Prussia’s rapid industrialization (1867– 1903). Classes were filled with voters ranked according to their tax payments, starting from the highest, adding taxpayers until one-third of the total tax base was reached, thereby allocating less than 5 percent of voters into the first class, on average This paper fills this gap and investigates how the three-class franchise contributed to the adoption of liberal or conservative (socio-)economic policies by the Prussian parliament. We find that MPs from constituencies with higher vote inequality, that is, where a small number of affluent
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