A pioneering history of voting and inequality, drawing on an unprecedented data set covering more than two centuries of sociological findings. Who votes for whom and why? Julia Cagé and Thomas Piketty comb through more than two hundred years of data from some 36,000 French municipalities to show how inequality has shaped the formation of political coalitions, with stark consequences for economic and political development. Using France as a model, this work offers a powerful framework for understanding the complex project of building and sustaining democratic majorities.

Why You Should Read?

• Examines over two centuries of data from 36,000 French municipalities to track political shifts.
• Provides a compelling analysis of how economic inequality influences the formation of political coalitions.
• Offers a historical perspective on the instability of tripartite political systems compared to binary conflicts.
• Presents a robust framework for understanding the future of electoral democracy and social progress.

About the Author

Thomas Piketty is a French economist whose work focuses on wealth and income inequality. He is a professor at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences and the Paris School of Economics, and the author of the internationally acclaimed Capital in the Twenty-First Century.
Julia Cagé is a professor of economics at Sciences Po in Paris. Her research interests include political economy, development economics, and economic history, with a focus on the intersection of media, democracy, and political competition.