Macrolevel theory and local-level inequality: Industrial structure, institutional arrangements, and the political economy of redistribution, 1970 and1990
L. Lobao et al., Macrolevel theory and local-level inequality: Industrial structure, institutional arrangements, and the political economy of redistribution, 1970 and1990, ANN AS AM G, 89(4), 1999, pp. 571-601
This study assesses the explanatory power of macrolevel political economy t
heory for redistribution across local areas. We focus on contentions about
the role of industrial structure and institutional arrangements in income g
rowth and inequality in two periods, 1970 and 1990. Specific hypotheses are
derived from the Social Structures of Accumulation approach. These include
(1) that redistribution processes have shifted, with manufacturing employm
ent and institutional arrangements between capital labor and state citizens
less able to generate local growth and reduce income inequality than in th
e past, and (2) that effects of manufacturing employment on inequality are
partly contingent on local institutional context. These hypotheses are test
ed for U.S. counties using regression models that conceptualize geographic
processes through spatial diffusion effects and nesting of counties within
states. Results support most baseline, 1970 relationships suggested by theo
ry. Other findings run counter to political economy claims. They do not sup
port assumptions that progressive institutional arrangements and leading ma
nufacturing industries worked in tandem to reduce inequality. Relationships
between inequality and manufacturing employment remain similar in 1970 and
1990, but there is some evidence that the role of institutional arrangemen
ts in redistribution may be shifting. On balance, however, local patterns o
f inequality and their social determinants have changed little despite two
decades of Fordist restructuring. The results provide local-level evidence
challenging widely held assumptions about a profound break in redistributio
n relationships relative to the past. They indicate the need to investigate
inertia as a social process.