Varieties of wealth: toward a comparative sociology of wealth inequality

Abstract

Abstract Research on wealth inequality and wealth concentration has made much progress in establishing statistics on the distribution of private wealth, its historical development, and its components in a large set of countries. Yet, this research is less concerned with country-specific contexts that have an impact on the practical relevance of private wealth and its distribution. This article develops a framework for comparative research that is interested in this question. Starting from a typology that distinguishes six “capacities of wealth,” it asserts that private assets can be more important, more powerful, or more tolerable, depending on the institutional regulation of the political economy, for example, limitations on private property rights, welfare state redistribution, the electoral system, and cultural patterns of wealth legitimation. Using the USA and Germany as exemplary cases, I show that such differences exist and are politically relevant and that investigating the practical significance of private wealth in different political economies would open up new research trajectories in wealth research.