Rising Inequality and American Politics
Files
Description
Income inequality has increased sharply in the United States since the early 1970s, and there are no signs of any reversal in this trend even during the recent recession. There is dispute about the extent of this increase, whether it is temporary (and even about whether it is real), and why it has occurred. Without being able to settle any of these disputes, it seems likely that political factors have played some kind of a role—possibly only a permissive one—and that we can choose policies that would limit the extent and nature of the inequality if we choose to. But, our capacity to make such choices is fragile and could be threatened by growing inequality itself. It has often been thought that extreme inequality is dangerous to popular rule. Aristotle argued that should the poor or the rich monopolize power they would inevitably govern in their own (class) interest. He thought it wise, therefore, for a popular government to restrict the franchise in order to assure that authority will be exercised by the middle class—those between the poor and the rich—because their interests are a kind of compromise or balance between them. But, if the middle class is too small to rule effectively, he thought it would be desirable to devise other means of inducing moderate rule—specifically, institutions of mixed government (which he called “politeia”)—to check the tendencies of either the rich or poor to corrupt the state.
Source Publication
The New Gilded Age: The Critical Inequality Debates of Our Time
Source Editors/Authors
David B. Grusky, Tamar Kricheli-Katz
Publication Date
2012
Recommended Citation
Ferejohn, John A., "Rising Inequality and American Politics" (2012). Faculty Chapters. 494.
https://gretchen.law.nyu.edu/fac-chapt/494
