Sanborn, HowardSourav, Hasan Habibur Rahman2024-11-272024-11-272024-07https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14446/345699Scholars have shown great interest in the relationship between democracy and economic inequality for a long time. Based on the literature currently available, political scientists, economists, and academics from several disciplines concur that excessive economic inequality is detrimental to democracy. Scholars have generally depended on survey data or specific democratic metrics, which consistently demonstrate that as economic inequality increases, the quality of democratic institutions and public satisfaction with democracy decreases. To learn more about whether inequality hurts democracy as the current consensus suggests is my main objective for this paper. To do this, I am using survey data from the World Value Survey (WVS) and the core measurements of democracy from the V-Dem indices in conjunction with the disposable Gini inequality index from SWIID (Standardized World Income Inequality Data) to determine the potentially negative relationship between economic inequality and democracy. According to my research, while not all democratic procedures or institutions are harmed, an increase in economic inequality appears to negatively impact institutional democracy partially. Meanwhile, a growth in economic inequality has little effect on citizens' satisfaction with democracy. However, my findings mostly go counter to the body of existing research, and therefore, more research is necessary to comprehend the potentially detrimental consequences of inequality on democracy fully. Meanwhile, my research is the first of its kind given that I try to show economic inequality’s impacts on democracy through both democratic institutions and individual citizens’ assessment. Also, I take a broader account of democracy by using all five V-Dem core democracy indices which will help us to understand inequality’s impacts on democracy much more comprehensively.application/pdfCopyright is held by the author who has granted the Oklahoma State University Library the non-exclusive right to share this material in its institutional repository. Contact Digital Library Services at lib-dls@okstate.edu or 405-744-9161 for the permission policy on the use, reproduction or distribution of this material.Thesis