Perspectives onUnequal Democracy: The Political Economy of the New Gilded Age

Abstract

n a pre-election debate in October 2008, Senator John McCain pointed out several times that Senator Barack Obama had once said that he intended to the through his proposed tax policies. McCain clearly did not mean this observation to be a compliment or an incentive for voters to prefer his rival; his repetition of the phrase and sarcastic tone of voice conveyed McCains conviction that the is a goal that most Americans abhor. That conviction is especially striking given that it came during a period of several weeks in which the stock market plummeted, housing foreclosures and the unemployment rate rose, banks denied credit to small businesses, the ex-CEO of the bankrupt Lehman Brothers firm defended being paid hundreds of millions of dollars in recent years, and a story in the AARP newsletter featured several middle class women sleeping in their cars before going to work each day. So, do Americans oppose spreading the wealth? If so, why do they think that they would lose some of their own wealth, or that those other people whose wealth would be spread around really deserve to keep it, or what? The outcome of the presidential election in November 2008 suggests that a majority of American voters do not oppose the idea of spreading the wealth, or at least do not oppose it so much that they will vote against a candidate who purportedly endorses such a policy. But it is hard to find evidence that they support it. Larry Bartels s stunning new book, Unequal Democracy, helps us to understand the complexities of Americans' views and practices with regard to economic redistribution through its exposition of essential evidence, its historical perspective, and its telling observations and analyses. The book is exemplary throughout