Dr Pavithra Suryanarayan

This course is available on the MSc in Political Science (Political Behaviour), MSc in Political Science (Political Science and Political Economy), MSc in Public Policy and Administration and MSc in Regulation. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit. This course uses controlled access as part of the course selection process. For information on controlled access courses, including eligibility, application processes, deadlines, and departmental contact details, please refer to the Controlled Access Courses webpage.

How to apply: To apply for a place on this course, please submit a short statement of no more than 200 words via LfY. Your statement should outline your reasons for applying and explain how the course will support your academic and/or career goals. If applicable, you should also demonstrate how you meet any pre-requisites listed in the course guide. If the course is compulsory for your programme, no written statement is required.

Priority for places on Government (GV) courses will be given first to students for whom the course is compulsory. Where applicable, priority will then be given to students on the Department of Government programmes listed in the ‘Availability’ section of the course guide, followed by students on other programmes listed in that section. Students on all other programmes will be considered next, where a course is available as an outside option. You should ensure that you meet any pre-requisites listed in the course guide before applying. Places on capped courses cannot be guaranteed. Where a course is oversubscribed, places will be allocated based on programme priority and the written statement.

Deadline for applications: The deadline for applications is 12:00 noon on Friday 25 September 2026. You can expect to be informed of the outcome of your application by 12:00 noon on Monday 28 September 2026. Any places remaining after this date will be allocated based on priority and written statement - up until course selection closes.

For queries contact: gov.msc@lse.ac.uk.

At the heart of the study of politics is a question about who gets what and when. Consequently, inequality features as a central theme in the discipline. Scholars have studied how inequality shapes democratization, redistribution, voting behaviour, and how the institutions of welfare and taxation in turn shape inequality. More recently, scholars have started to pay attention to how inequality across and within ethnicities, races, and gender may matter to political outcomes. The centrality of inequality is reflected in the significant increase in quantity and quality of research on this subject over the past two decades. In this course we will cover the following topics:

• Normative foundations and conceptual complexities involved in the study of inequality
• Measures of inequality
• Inequality in a comparative perspective: evolution over time and across countries
• Economic explanations for the changing patterns of inequality over the past two centuries – globalization, technological change
• Historical institutions and the persistence of Inequality
• The political economy of redistribution – taxation, redistribution and the growth of welfare state
• Identity politics and redistribution – class, status, ethnicity/race and gender
• Beyond economic inequality: inequality in welfare, happiness and health
• Educational inequality, mobility and politics
• The constraints to addressing inequality: global market integration, state capacity and Robinhood Paradox.

10 hours of lectures and 15 hours of seminars in the Autumn Term.

This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Autumn Term.

Presentation.

Essay (1000 words).

Abstract (250 words).

Essay

A 1,000-word response essay written for the week that the student serves as a discussant in class. The lecturer will assign which week the student will write about.

Abstract and in-class presentation

The abstract (250 words) and five-minute presentation summarise the final research proposal that the student intends to write. This will be a way to gain feedback from peers.
 

• Ansell, B.W., 2010. From the Ballot to the Blackboard:The Redistributive Political Economy of Education, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Roemer, J.E. et al., 2009. The Oxford Handbook of Economic Inequality. 1st ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Atkinson, Anthony B, and François Bourguignon, 2000. Handbook of Income Distribution. Vol. 1, Oxford: Elsevier Science & Technology.

Essay (85%, 4000 words) in Winter Term Week 1.

Blog post (15%) weekly.

Essay

A 4,000-word final essay based on a topic on inequality.

Blog posts

Weekly blog posts (150 words each) to be submitted by 10pm the night before class.