Unequal Democracy: The Political Economy of the New Gilded Age

Unequal Democracy debunks 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 that increasing inequality 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 Democracy is 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 ix Chapter 1. The New Gilded Age 1 Escalating Economic Inequality 6 Interpreting Inequality 13 Economic Inequality as a Po litical Issue 19 Inequality and American Democracy 23 Chapter 2. The Partisan Political Economy 29 Partisan Patterns of Income Growth 31 A Partisan Coincidence? 34 Partisan Differences in Macroeconomic Policy 42 Macroeconomic Per for mance and Income Growth 47 Partisan Policies and Post- Tax Income Growth 54 Democrats, Republicans, and the Rise of In equality 61 Chapter 3. Class Politics and Partisan Change 64 In Search of the Working Class 66 Has the White Working Class Abandoned the Democratic Party? 72 Have Working- Class Whites Become More Conservative? 78 Do "Moral Values" Trump Economics? 83 Are Religious Voters Distracted from Economic Issues? 90 Class Politics, Alive and Well 93 Chapter 4. Partisan Biases in Economic Accountability 98 Myopic Voters 99 The Political Timing of Income Growth 104 Class Biases in Economic Voting 110 The Wealthy Give Something Back: Partisan Biases in Campaign Spending 116 Political Consequences of Biased Accountability 120 Chapter 5. Do Americans Care about In equality? 127 Egalitarian Values 130 Rich and Poor 136 Perceptions of Inequality 143 Facts and Values in the Realm of In equality 148 Chapter 6. Homer Gets a Tax Cut 162 The Bush Tax Cuts 164 Public Support for the Tax Cuts 170 Unenlightened Self- Interest 176 The Impact of Political Information 181 Chump Change 186 Into the Sunset 193 Chapter 7. The Strange Appeal of Estate Tax Repeal 197 Public Support for Estate Tax Repeal 198 Is Public Support for Repeal a Product of Misinformation? 205 Did Interest Groups Manufacture Public Antipathy to the Estate Tax? 214 Elite Ideology and the Politics of Estate Tax Repeal 217 Chapter 8. The Eroding Minimum Wage 223 The Economic Effects of the Minimum Wage 227 Public Support for the Minimum Wage 229 The Politics of Inaction 232 Democrats, Unions, and the Eroding Minimum Wage 239 The Earned Income Tax Credit 246 Reversing the Tide 247 Chapter 9. Economic Inequality and Po litical Representation 252 Ideological Representation 254 Unequal Responsiveness 257 Unequal Responsiveness on Social Issues: The Case of Abortion 265 Partisan Differences in Repre sen ta tion 267 Why Are the Poor Unrepresented? 275 10. Unequal Democracy 283 Who Governs? 285 Partisan Politics and the "Have- Nots" 288 Political Obstacles to Economic Equality 294 The City of Utmost Necessity 298 Selected References 305 Index 317

About the Author :
Larry M. Bartels is the Donald E. Stokes Professor of Public and International Affairs and director of the Center for the Study of Democratic Politics at Princeton University.

Review :
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 "[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 "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 "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 "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 "A provocative new book by Princeton professor Larry M. Bartels, one of the country's leading political scientists."--Dan Balz, Washington Post "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 "[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 "[E]xtraordinarily insightful."--Bob Braun, Newark Star-Ledger "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 "[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, Forum "Prodigiously researched and cogently argued, Bartels's timely work should interest academics and lay readers alike."--Blake A. Ellis, Journal of Southern History "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."--Jennifer Hochschild, Perspectives on Politics "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 "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