Democracy and economic inequality
Topic: Democracy: Forms of Government, Principles and Outcomes · NCERT: Class 10, Ch 5 "Outcomes of Democracy"
Meaning
Democracy gives political equality: one person, one vote, one value. But it often exists alongside wide, and sometimes growing, gaps in wealth. The poor are usually the majority of voters, yet elected governments do less about poverty than you would expect. Class 10 treats this as a puzzle about what democracy actually delivers.
Example
In the Class 10 data, the richest 20% in South Africa get 64.8% of national income, while the poorest 20% get just 2.9%. In Denmark and Hungary, the figures are about 34% and 10%. In India, the top 1% held about 22.6% of income and 40.1% of wealth in 2022–23 (World Inequality Lab, 2024). India uses tools like MGNREGA, NFSA, DBT and reservation to spread the gains.
Don't confuse with
- Political inequality: democracies have removed the idea of political inequality, since every vote counts equally. They have not removed economic inequality.