A new financial middle class is emerging in countries like Indonesia, Kenya and Vietnam—people who can now borrow, save and invest through banks and formal financial systems for the first time—and this project will investigate how their economic power reshapes democratic politics. This matters because existing research has focused on the very poor or the very rich in developing democracies, leaving a gap in understanding how middle-class financial aspirations influence government policy. The project asks whether these newly financially active citizens will push for broader social protections and more accountable governance, or whether their demands will narrow democratic space by aligning policy with the interests of a relatively small, well-off group. If successful, the research will produce the first systematic comparative data on how financial inclusion affects democratic consolidation in Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. This could help policymakers, international development organisations and financial regulators anticipate whether expanding formal financial systems strengthens or weakens democratic institutions—a question with direct implications for how aid programmes and financial sector reforms are designed in emerging economies.
View original technical description
This pioneering project breaks new ground through the first systematic investigation in comparative perspective of the economic, political and social dynamics of the emergence of new financial middle classes in emerging market democracies. How does the emergence of a new financial middle class - that is citizens with the ability to borrow, save and invest via the formal financial system - impact democratic consolidation in emerging market democracies and vice versa? In what ways do middle class aspirations for social protection and mobility, situated at the intersection of state designs to grow the middle class and ongoing dynamics of financial sector expansion, give rise to new constellations of financial and social policy provision? And to what extent do these new political dynamics narrow down democratic space in fostering close alignment between government interests and the policy preferences of a small group of comparatively well to do citizens, or enable new, more expansive forms of (financial) citizenship, conceptualised as the ability to access, participate in and mobilise around the governance of the financial system, and polity at large? These are the questions this project seeks to address through the generation of rich sets of new quantitative and qualitative data, deploying large N and small n analysis, with an empirical focus on Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, where original fieldwork will be conducted. Its research objectives are threefold: i) to comprehensively map the rise of the financial middle class in emerging market democracies and their financial strategies and aspirations; ii) to systematically assess the impact of emerging market democracy middle classes on financial policymaking and social policy provision; and iii) to critically interrogate contentious political mobilisations around emerging discourses of financial governance and citizenship.
Plain English summaries and category classifications on this site are generated by AI and may not perfectly reflect the original research.
Is something wrong? Let us know