In the past decade, a long list of studies has documented the positive relationship between democracy and social spending. Other studies have shown a negative relationship between ethnic fractionalisation and social spending. So far, the two strands of literature have developed independently of each other. In this article, we present a class-coalition argument that links them, arguing that ethnic fractionalisation influences the effect of democracy on social spending. We test the argument in a large-N study. In line with our expectations, the findings show that democracy leads to higher levels of social spending, but only in relatively homogenous countries.