Unequal Democracy: The Political Economy of the New Gilded Age - Second Edition

by Larry M. Bartels

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691181073
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	05/29/2018
Series:	Russell Sage Foundation Co-pub
Edition description:	Second Edition
Pages:	424
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.80(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

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.

Table of Contents

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

What People are Saying About This

Patterson

Unequal Democracy completes the story of why America's wealthy have become superrich. As Larry Bartels, one of the nation's top political scientists, convincingly demonstrates, the rich get richer when the Republicans are in power and when the less affluent fail to vote. This book is essential reading for anyone who wants answers to why so many of America's working- and middle-class families are struggling to get by.
— Thomas E. Patterson, Harvard University

Gary Orfield

Economists tend to see economic inequality as the unhappy but unavoidable result of markets—working-class people have to become relatively poorer because they are competing in a globalized world. This book suggests that economists are wrong and that the growing inequality in America is not the product of world forces but of Republican administrations during which income grows more slowly, inequality soars, and no one notices because they pump up the economy during election years. Low-income people have very little influence but which party is in power makes a vast difference for their fate. If you care about economic justice, you need to seriously examine the powerful data in this book and recognize that we can choose a better, fairer society.
— Gary Orfield, University of California, Los Angeles

From the Publisher

“This book suggests that economists are wrong and that the growing inequality in America is not the product of world forces but of Republican administrations during which income grows more slowly, inequality soars, and no one notices because they pump up the economy during election years. If you care about economic justice, you need to seriously examine the powerful data in this book and recognize that we can choose a better, fairer society.”—Gary Orfield, University of California, Los Angeles

“This is a fantastic book, a real tour de force. It is a hugely important study of increasing economic inequality in America and the failure of the political system to mitigate its effects on poor citizens. It is the best work that has been done on the political economy of income inequality.”—Thomas Mann, Brookings Institution

“Unequal Democracy is the sort of book to which every political scientist should aspire—it is methodologically rigorous, conceptually serious, and above all, it addresses urgent concerns of our fellow citizens. As Bartels shows, much of what we think we know about the politics of economic inequality is dead wrong. Bartels’s perplexing and often unexpected discoveries should help refocus the gathering public debate about inequality and what to do about it.”—Robert D. Putnam, author of Bowling Alone

“Unequal Democracy completes the story of why America’s wealthy have become superrich. As Larry Bartels, one of the nation’s top political scientists, convincingly demonstrates, the rich get richer when the Republicans are in power and when the less affluent fail to vote. This book is essential reading for anyone who wants answers to why so many of America’s working- and middle-class families are struggling to get by.”—Thomas E. Patterson, Harvard University

“No political scientist is more widely or rightly respected than Larry Bartels, and Unequal Democracy is a brilliant book that only he could have written. The book proves beyond a reasonable doubt that the main fault for sizable socioeconomic inequalities in America lies not in our economy but in our increasingly polarized and partisan politics. With intellectual force, Unequal Democracy pulls back the sheets on Washington’s pamper-the-rich policy process and offers ideas about how we can do better by average citizens and the poor. It is Bartels at his very best, and his very best is the best there is.”—John J. DiIulio, Jr., University of Pennsylvania, former director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives

DiIulio

No political scientist is more widely or rightly respected than Larry Bartels, and Unequal Democracy is a brilliant book that only he could have written. The book proves beyond a reasonable doubt that the main fault for sizable socioeconomic inequalities in America lies not in our economy but in our increasingly polarized and partisan politics. With intellectual force, Unequal Democracy pulls back the sheets on Washington's pamper-the-rich policy process and offers ideas about how we can do better by average citizens and the poor. It is Bartels at his very best, and his very best is the best there is.
— John J. DiIulio, Jr., University of Pennsylvania, former director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives

Thomas Mann

This is a fantastic book, a real tour de force. It is a hugely important study of increasing economic inequality in America and the failure of the political system to mitigate its effects on poor citizens. It is the best work that has been done on the political economy of income inequality.
— Thomas Mann, Brookings Institution

Putnam

Unequal Democracy is the sort of book to which every political scientist should aspire—it is methodologically rigorous, conceptually serious, and above all, it addresses urgent concerns of our fellow citizens. As Bartels shows, much of what we think we know about the politics of economic inequality is dead wrong. Bartels's perplexing and often unexpected discoveries should help refocus the gathering public debate about inequality and what to do about it.
— Robert D. Putnam, author of "Bowling Alone"

Editorial Reviews

"Winner of the 2009 Gladys M. Kammerer Award, American Political Science Association"

Winner of the 2009 Leon D. Epstein Outstanding Book Award, Political Organizations and Parties Section of the American Political Science Association

From the Publisher

…a provocative new book by Princeton professor Larry M. Bartels, one of the country's leading political scientists.
—The Washington Post

Dan Balz

For a book targeted at both academic and nonacademic audiences, Bartels strikes a nice balance between exhaustive empirical rigor and accessibility. . . . Bartels gives us a wide-ranging framework for thinking about the ways that citizens interact with the political system, and in so doing maps an agenda for the next generation of research on American democracy in action.

Public Opinion Quarterly - Nicholas J. G. Winter

For a book targeted at both academic and nonacademic audiences, Bartels strikes a nice balance between exhaustive empirical rigor and accessibility. . . . Bartels gives us a wide-ranging framework for thinking about the ways that citizens interact with the political system, and in so doing maps an agenda for the next generation of research on American democracy in action.

Public Opinion Quarterly - Nicholas J.G. Winter

The book is exemplary throughout in its transparency with regard to the data and Bartels's analytic strategy for using them, in its attention to alternative explanations for a given outcome, and in its balance between not over-reaching and asserting a clear, controversial, and important thesis. . . . Full of evidence, insights, and surprises. . . . The book is never less than provocative and is often revelatory.

Perspectives on Politics - Jennifer Hochschild

Prodigiously researched and cogently argued, Bartels's timely work should interest academics and lay readers alike.

Journal of Southern History - Blake A. Ellis

[E]xtraordinarily insightful.

Newark Star-Ledger - Bob Braun

A short review cannot convey the rich variety of arguments and data Bartels deploys in making his case. Some of his analysis focuses on broadly characterized partisan differences, some on high profile examples such as the politics of the minimum wage and the estate tax. He will have done a considerable service if the next time we start thinking about economics we also think about politics. Bartels shows that social issues do not create as strong a headwind against class-based voting as is often assumed and that lower income voters do tend to vote Democratic while upper-income voters do tend to vote Republican. Unequal Democracy offers an important case for why this might be.

Science - Robert Grafstein

Unequal Democracy makes the choice voters face clear: Democratic policies spread the wealth and Republican policies protect the wealthy.

The Huffington Post - Julian E. Zelizer

Bartels is the political scientist of the moment. Along with Obama, Bill Clinton also read and recommends Unequal Democracy. [M]ost people on the street could have told Bartels that the working poor fare better under Democrats . . . but the importance of these and some other findings in the book . . . is that they use scholarly methods to provide political explanations for economic problems.

New York Review of Books - Michael Tomasky

Unequal Democracy makes the choice voters face clear: Democratic policies spread the wealth and Republican policies protect the wealthy.
— Julian E. Zelizer

The Huffington Post

[I recommend] Larry M. Bartels's Unequal Democracy. Especially at this time every thoughtful American needs to learn as much as possible about the relationship of politics to economics.
— Bill Clinton

Daily Beast

Many Americans know that there are characteristic policy differences between the [Republican and Democratic] parties. But few are aware of two important facts about the post-World War II era, both of which are brilliantly delineated in a new book, Unequal Democracy, by Larry M. Bartels, a professor of political science at Princeton. Understanding them might help voters see what could be at stake, economically speaking, in November.

New York Times - Alan Blinder

Larry Bartels's Unequal Democracy is a major landmark in political scientists' efforts to grapple with inequality. . . . Bartels has done so much, and has done it so well, that anyone who quibbles with his interpretations or suggests that he has left important questions unanswered is likely to seem ungenerous, even churlish. . . . Unequal Democracy should be taken as a major contribution and as a touchstone for further research.
— Benjamin I. Page

Perspectives on Politics

Prodigiously researched and cogently argued, Bartels's timely work should interest academics and lay readers alike.
— Blake A. Ellis

Journal of Southern History

[I recommend] Larry M. Bartels's Unequal Democracy. Especially at this time every thoughtful American needs to learn as much as possible about the relationship of politics to economics.

Daily Beast - Bill Clinton

[Bartels] is correct in drawing attention to the tension between the egalitarian values that Americans hold and their apparent toleration for growing economic inequality. And at every step of the argument, he defines and analyzes interesting and relevant evidence.

Forum - Richard R. John

[A] provocative new book by Princeton professor Larry M. Bartels, one of the country's leading political scientists. One of Bartels's most intriguing conclusions is that the political timing of economic growth has influenced voters. Republican presidents...have often generated significant economic growth rates in presidential election years, while Democratic presidents have not.

Washington Post - Dan Balz

Obama can connect with voters on the economy by using history as a guideline. He should start by reading Unequal Democracy, by Princeton academic Larry Bartels. The non-partisan and non-political Bartels points out devastatingly after an exhaustive study of Democratic and Republican presidents that the Democrats built a better economy and a more just society.

CNN - James Carville

Larry Bartels's Unequal Democracy is a major landmark in political scientists' efforts to grapple with inequality. . . . Bartels has done so much, and has done it so well, that anyone who quibbles with his interpretations or suggests that he has left important questions unanswered is likely to seem ungenerous, even churlish. . . . Unequal Democracy should be taken as a major contribution and as a touchstone for further research.

Perspectives on Politics - Benjamin I. Page

Bartels is the political scientist of the moment. Along with Obama, Bill Clinton also read and recommends Unequal Democracy. [M]ost people on the street could have told Bartels that the working poor fare better under Democrats . . . but the importance of these and some other findings in the book . . . is that they use scholarly methods to provide political explanations for economic problems.
— Michael Tomasky

New York Review of Books

[Bartels] is correct in drawing attention to the tension between the egalitarian values that Americans hold and their apparent toleration for growing economic inequality. And at every step of the argument, he defines and analyzes interesting and relevant evidence.
— Richard R. John

Staff Forum

[E]xtraordinarily insightful.
— Bob Braun

Newark Star-Ledger

For a book targeted at both academic and nonacademic audiences, Bartels strikes a nice balance between exhaustive empirical rigor and accessibility. . . . Bartels gives us a wide-ranging framework for thinking about the ways that citizens interact with the political system, and in so doing maps an agenda for the next generation of research on American democracy in action.
— Nicholas J. G. Winter

Public Opinion Quarterly

A short review cannot convey the rich variety of arguments and data Bartels deploys in making his case. Some of his analysis focuses on broadly characterized partisan differences, some on high profile examples such as the politics of the minimum wage and the estate tax. He will have done a considerable service if the next time we start thinking about economics we also think about politics. Bartels shows that social issues do not create as strong a headwind against class-based voting as is often assumed and that lower income voters do tend to vote Democratic while upper-income voters do tend to vote Republican. Unequal Democracy offers an important case for why this might be.
— Robert Grafstein

Science

Obama can connect with voters on the economy by using history as a guideline. He should start by reading Unequal Democracy, by Princeton academic Larry Bartels. The non-partisan and non-political Bartels points out devastatingly after an exhaustive study of Democratic and Republican presidents that the Democrats built a better economy and a more just society.
— James Carville

CNN

[A] provocative new book by Princeton professor Larry M. Bartels, one of the country's leading political scientists. One of Bartels's most intriguing conclusions is that the political timing of economic growth has influenced voters. Republican presidents...have often generated significant economic growth rates in presidential election years, while Democratic presidents have not.
— Dan Balz

Washington Post

Many Americans know that there are characteristic policy differences between the [Republican and Democratic] parties. But few are aware of two important facts about the post-World War II era, both of which are brilliantly delineated in a new book, Unequal Democracy, by Larry M. Bartels, a professor of political science at Princeton. Understanding them might help voters see what could be at stake, economically speaking, in November.
— Alan Blinder

New York Times