ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book focuses on the impact of economic inequality— both interpersonal and interethnic— on governance. It considers the inequality-governance relationship in a long-run perspective going as far back as our hunter-gatherer ancestors. The book reviews a range of insights that have emerged in the fields of social psychology and behavioural economics. It examines the relationship between economic inequality and governance in contemporary settings based on cross-country data. The book also reviews a set of potentially confounding variables and discusses the real possibility that the quality of governance can itself affect the degree of economic inequality. It describes the impact of economic inequality on governance when accounting for culture and find that while both economic inequality and culture are relevant, the impact of culture may be stronger.
