Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Review of Evolutionary Political Economy, cilt.0, sa.0, ss.1-9, 2024 (Scopus)
This article reviews the overarching phenomenon of inequality from three prominent books: John D. Wisman’s The Origins and Dynamics of Inequality, Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett’s The Spirit Level, and Thomas Piketty’s A Brief History of Equality. The article makes two important contributions to the literature. First, it examines inequality from institutional economics perspective, particularly from the viewpoint of corruption. Second, it concentrates on the assessment of inequality with the repercussions of Arab uprisings, which started in Tunisia in 2011 and aimed egalitarianism and social justice. While the review elucidates that inequality is an embedded issue within the current economic setting and a path-dependent phenomenon, it also claims that path dependence can be guided into another path where strong and efficient institutions could make the MENA countries more egalitarian through welfare state, progressive taxation, and expenditure on education and health. In this sense, the Arab Spring ignited the first phase of overcoming the corrupt political environment and unequal economic arrangements of the MENA region; however, elite ideology accomplished to maintain their grim power and uprisings resulted with more authoritarian governments. If and when another systematic revolutionary protest starts in the region, then there might be another chance to solve rooted socioeconomic and political problems which are direct sequels of inequality.