Unequal Democracy - Larry M. Bartels

Unequal Democracy

The Political Economy of the New Gilded Age - Second Edition
Buch | Softcover
424 Seiten
2018 | Second Edition
Princeton University Press (Verlag)
978-0-691-18107-3 (ISBN)
23,65 inkl. MwSt
An acclaimed examination of how the American political system favors the wealthy-now fully revised and expandedThe first edition of Unequal Democracy was an instant classic, shattering illusions about American democracy and spurring scholarly and popular interest in the political causes and consequences of escalating economic inequality. This r
An acclaimed examination of how the American political system favors the wealthy—now fully revised and expanded

The first edition of Unequal Democracy was an instant classic, shattering illusions about American democracy and spurring scholarly and popular interest in the political causes and consequences of escalating economic inequality. This revised, updated, and expanded second edition includes two new chapters on the political economy of the Obama era. One presents the Great Recession as a "stress test" of the American political system by analyzing the 2008 election and the impact of Barack Obama's "New New Deal" on the economic fortunes of the rich, middle class, and poor. The other assesses the politics of inequality in the wake of the Occupy Wall Street movement, the 2012 election, and the partisan gridlock of Obama’s second term. Larry Bartels offers a sobering account of the barriers to change posed by partisan ideologies and the political power of the wealthy. He also provides new analyses of tax policy, partisan differences in economic performance, the struggle to raise the minimum wage, and inequalities in congressional representation.

President Obama identified inequality as "the defining challenge of our time." Unequal Democracy is the definitive account of how and why our political system has failed to rise to that challenge. Now more than ever, this is a book every American needs to read.

Larry M. Bartels holds the May Werthan Shayne Chair of Public Policy and Social Science at Vanderbilt University. His books include Democracy for Realists: Why Elections Do Not Produce Responsive Government (with Christopher H. Achen) and Presidential Primaries and the Dynamics of Public Choice (both Princeton). He is a trustee of the Russell Sage Foundation, a fellow of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences.

Preface to the Second Edition xi

Preface to the First Edition xv

1 The New Gilded Age 1

Escalating Economic Inequality 7

Interpreting Inequality 16

Economic Inequality as a Political Issue 23

Inequality and American Democracy 28

2 The Partisan Political Economy 33

Partisan Patterns of Income Growth 35

A Partisan Coincidence? 38

Partisan Differences in Macroeconomic Policy 48

Macroeconomic Performance and Income Growth 52

Do Presidents Still Matter? 57

Partisan Redistribution 62

Democrats, Republicans, and the Rise of Inequality 69

3 Partisan Biases in Economic Accountability 74

Myopic Voters 76

The Electoral Timing of Income Growth 82

Class Biases in Economic Voting 87

The Wealthy Give Something Back: Partisan Biases in Campaign Spending 93

The Political Consequences of Biased Accountability 98

4 Do Americans Care about Inequality? 105

Egalitarian Values 108

Rich and Poor 113

Perceptions of Inequality 118

Facts and Values in the Realm of Inequality 124

5 Homer Gets a Tax Cut 136

The Bush Tax Cuts 138

Public Support for the Tax Cuts 144

Unenlightened Self-Interest 150

The Impact of Political Information 155

The Long Sunset 163

6 The Strange Appeal of Estate Tax Repeal 170

Public Support for Estate Tax Repeal 173

Is Public Support for Repeal a Product of Misinformation? 181

Did Interest Groups Manufacture Public Antipathy to the Estate Tax? 189

Elite Ideology and the Politics of Estate Tax Repeal 193

7 The Eroding Minimum Wage 198

The Economic Effects of the Minimum Wage 202

Public Support for the Minimum Wage 205

The Politics of Congressional Inaction 209

Democrats, Unions, and the Eroding Minimum Wage 217

Local Action 223

The Earned Income Tax Credit 228

8 Economic Inequality and Political Representation 233

Congressional Representation 235

Unequal Responsiveness 239

Partisan Differences in Responsiveness 248

Systemic Responsiveness 249

Plutocracy? 254

Why the Poor Are Unrepresented 257

9 Stress Test: The Political Economy of the Great Recession 269

The 2008 Election and "the New New Deal" 274

Reaction and Gridlock 281

The Political Impact of the Recession 286

But Did It Work? 295

Geithner's World 301

Not the New New Deal 305

10 The Defining Challenge of Our Time? 309

A "National Conversation"? 311

The Class War Gets Personal: Inequality as an Issue in the 2012 Campaign 315

Obama and Inequality 329

The Political Challenge 334

11 Unequal Democracy 342

Who Governs? 344

Partisan Politics and the "Have-nots" 347

Political Obstacles to Economic Equality 352

The City of Utmost Necessity 358

Postscript 365

References 367

Index 385

Erscheinungsdatum
Reihe/Serie Russell Sage Foundation Co-pub
Zusatzinfo 51 b/w illus., 53 tables
Verlagsort New Jersey
Sprache englisch
Maße 133 x 203 mm
Themenwelt Sozialwissenschaften Politik / Verwaltung Politische Theorie
Sozialwissenschaften Politik / Verwaltung Staat / Verwaltung
Wirtschaft Volkswirtschaftslehre Wirtschaftspolitik
ISBN-10 0-691-18107-1 / 0691181071
ISBN-13 978-0-691-18107-3 / 9780691181073
Zustand Neuware
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