GAPS AND GLISSANDOS: INEQUALITY, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, AND SOCIAL MOBILITY IN 24 COUNTRIES*

Intergenerational mobility has been seen as influenced by both level of economic development and political democracy. Here, with a sample of 24 countries, the first of these relationships is assessed. The observed effect of economic development (GNP/capita) on mobility we conclude to be a spurious consequence of the shape of the stratification system, indicated here by the shape of both reward distributions and occupational distributions. Some discussion precedes this analysis about how the shape of a stratification system should affect mobility. Some discussion follows about how the shape of the system must affect political democracy, and leads us to a partial reinterpretation of the findings of Rubinson and Quinlan (1977) on this topic.