ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book discusses the importance of organizational skills and capacity, the relevance of the elite, methodological innovations via feminist approaches and intersectionality. It also explores how the study of political inequality can exist as both a scientific and moral issue. The chapter argues that, beyond economic resources, organizational skills and capacity is a vital element for the expression of political voice and the solicitation of government response. Elites play an outsized role in the political process as both the prime movers and beneficiaries of society unequal democracy. A criticism of the foundational 2004 APSA Task Force report on inequality and American democracy is that it under-emphasized gendered political inequality. Simes draws on feminist methodological literature to critically examine how social science measures political voice in cross-national surveys.
