Why do some democracies fail to help their poor? Ethnic diversity and identity politics may provide answers

Democracies are traditionally seen as more effective at helping the poor than non-democracies. Chingun Anderson writes that although evidence for this is convincing, there are cases where the democratic system does little to benefit lower socioeconomic groups. He argues that a possible reason for this is that higher ethnic diversity negatively affects the successful organisation that is needed to campaign for pro-poor policies.