Unequal Democracy

by Bartels, Larry M.

• ISBN13: 9780691136639
• ISBN10: 0691136637
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-04-07
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr

Summary

Using a vast swath of data spanning the past six decades,Unequal Democracydebunks many myths about politics in contemporary America, using the widening gap between the rich and the poor to shed disturbing light on the workings of American democracy. Larry Bartels shows the gap between the rich and poor has increased greatly under Republican administrations and decreased slightly under Democrats, leaving America grossly unequal. This is not simply the result of economic forces, but the product of broad-reaching policy choices in a political system dominated by partisan ideologies and the interests of the wealthy.Bartels demonstrates that elected officials respond to the views of affluent constituents but ignore the views of poor people. He shows that Republican presidents in particular have consistently produced much less income growth for middle-class and working-poor families than for affluent families, greatly increasing inequality. He provides revealing case studies of key policy shifts contributing to inequality, including the massive Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 and the erosion of the minimum wage. Finally, he challenges conventional explanations for why many voters seem to vote against their own economic interests, contending that working-class voters have not been lured into the Republican camp by "values issues" like abortion and gay marriage, as commonly believed, but that Republican presidents have been remarkably successful in timing income growth to cater to short-sighted voters.Unequal Democracyis social science at its very best. It provides a deep and searching analysis of the political causes and consequences of America's growing income gap, and a sobering assessment of the capacity of the American political system to live up to its democratic ideals.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. ix
The New Gilded Age	p. 1
Escalating Economic Inequality	p. 6
Interpreting Inequality	p. 13
Economic Inequality as a Po litical Issue 19 Inequality and American Democracy	p. 23
The Partisan Political Economy	p. 29
Partisan Patterns of Income Growth	p. 31
A Partisan Coincidence?	p. 34
Partisan Differences in Macroeconomic Policy	p. 42
Macroeconomic Per for mance and Income Growth	p. 47
Partisan Policies and Post- Tax Income Growth	p. 54
Democrats, Republicans, and the Rise of In equality	p. 61
Class Politics and Partisan Change	p. 64
In Search of the Working Class	p. 66
Has the White Working Class Abandoned the Democratic Party?	p. 72
Have Working- Class Whites Become More Conservative?	p. 78
Do "Moral Values" Trump Economics?	p. 83
Are Religious Voters Distracted from Economic Issues?	p. 90
Class Politics, Alive and Well	p. 93
Partisan Biases in Economic Accountability	p. 98
Myopic Voters	p. 99
The Political Timing of Income Growth	p. 104
Class Biases in Economic Voting	p. 110
The Wealthy Give Something Back: Partisan Biases in Campaign Spending	p. 116
Political Consequences of Biased Accountability	p. 120
Do Americans Care about In equality?	p. 127
Egalitarian Values	p. 130
Rich and Poor	p. 136
Perceptions of Inequality	p. 143
Facts and Values in the Realm of In equality	p. 148
Homer Gets a Tax Cut	p. 162
The Bush Tax Cuts	p. 164
Public Support for the Tax Cuts	p. 170
Unenlightened Self- Interest	p. 176
The Impact of Political Information	p. 181
Chump Change	p. 186
Into the Sunset	p. 193
The Strange Appeal of Estate Tax Repeal	p. 197
Public Support for Estate Tax Repeal	p. 198
Is Public Support for Repeal a Product of Misinformation?	p. 205
Did Interest Groups Manufacture Public Antipathy to the Estate Tax?	p. 214
Elite Ideology and the Politics of Estate Tax Repeal	p. 217
The Eroding Minimum Wage	p. 223
The Economic Effects of the Minimum Wage	p. 227
Public Support for the Minimum Wage	p. 229
The Politics of Inaction	p. 232
Democrats, Unions, and the Eroding Minimum Wage	p. 239
The Earned Income Tax Credit	p. 246
Reversing the Tide	p. 247
Economic Inequality and Po litical Representation	p. 252
Ideological Representation	p. 254
Unequal Responsiveness	p. 257
Unequal Responsiveness on Social Issues: The Case of Abortion	p. 265
Partisan Differences in Repre sen ta tion	p. 267
Why Are the Poor Unrepresented?	p. 275
Unequal Democracy	p. 283
Who Governs?	p. 285
Partisan Politics and the "Have- Nots"	p. 288
Political Obstacles to Economic Equality	p. 294
The City of Utmost Necessity	p. 298
Selected References	p. 305
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