Inequality trends result from shifting collective action capacity, not fixed laws.

Evidence

Of course, this decreasing inequality did not reflect immutable laws, but was, instead, the outcome of factors such as changing possibilities for collective action within the labour force, destabilization following the two world wars, institutional structures, and policy inventions. The focus on changing relations of power makes the power resources approach central for an understanding of the reversals as well as the expansion of the welfare state, of increasing as well as of decreasing inequality. — Walter Korpi, The Iceberg of Power below the Surface, 24

Categorization

• XREF: Supplies the causal content behind Korpi’s union-density and left-party-strength measures: collective action capacity drives distributive outcomes. — connects to: Twentieth-century power equalization resulted from collective action and policy inventions — Walter Korpi, The Iceberg of Power below the Surface:…, 23