Economic Segregation, Political Participation, and Social Capital

Rising economic inequality has reshaped residential patterns across rich democracies, yet the political consequences of economic segregation remain poorly understood. We argue that the spatial concentration of affluence and poverty amplifies class-based disparities in participation by weakening cross-class networks and reinforcing socio-economic (dis-)advantage. Combining fine-grained grid-based measures of segregation with local election results from German municipalities between 2005 and 2021, we show that turnout is lower in segregated places with many economically-deprived residents. Original survey data reveal that segregation widens turnout gaps by disproportionately demobilizing low-income voters. However, these effects depend on local social capital: using administrative records of all civic associations, we show that turnout in segregated places declines where associations are scarce but increases where dense community and welfare organizations bridge economic divides and alleviate material constraints. This suggests that the spatial structure of inequality and the strength of civic associations shape political inequality beyond individual socio-economic status.