America's Inequality Trap

Nathan J. Kelly

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9780226665504, 9780226665474
• eBook ISBN: 9780226665641
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Political Economy
• Index: Politics & International Relations

The gap between the rich and the poor has grown dramatically in the United States and is now at its widest since at least the early 1900s. While by most measures the economy has been improving, soaring cost of living and stagnant wages have done little to assuage economic anxieties. Conditions like these seem designed to produce a generation-defining intervention to balance the economic scales and enhance opportunities for those at the middle and bottom of the country's economic ladder—but we have seen nothing of the sort.

Nathan J. Kelly argues that a key reason for this is that rising concentrations of wealth create a politics that makes reducing economic inequality more difficult. Kelly convincingly shows that, when a small fraction of the people control most of the economic resources, they also hold a disproportionate amount of political power, hurtling us toward a self-perpetuating plutocracy, or an "inequality trap." Among other things, the rich support a broad political campaign that convinces voters that policies to reduce inequality are unwise and not in the average voter's interest, regardless of the real economic impact. They also take advantage of interest groups they generously support to influence Congress and the president, as well as state governments, in ways that stop or slow down reform. One of the key implications of this book is that social policies designed to combat inequality should work hand-in-hand with political reforms that enhance democratic governance and efforts to fight racism, and a coordinated effort on all of these fronts will be needed to reverse the decades-long trend.
 

Index

The letter f following a page number denotes a figure, and the letter t denotes a table.

Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010, 5, 127, 148, 149

Aldrich, J., 93

American National Election Studies (ANES), 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 83, 156

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009, 149

Banaji, M. R., 48

Bank Holding Company Act (BHCA) of 1956, 110–12, 114, 115

Banking Act of 1933, 107–10, 115

banking reform. See financial sector deregulation

Bartels, L. M., 14, 21, 43, 101

Bénabou, R., 20

Black Lives Matter, 159

Boehner, J., 93

Bonica, A., 102

Brady, H. E., 23, 68, 100

Brown, M., 47

Bush, G. H. W., 38

Bush, G. W., 21, 38, 43

business interests, 5, 18, 23, 65

capital gains tax, 59–60, 60f, 90

Capital in the Twenty-First Century (Piketty), 27

Chen, J., 71

Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), 102

Chong, D., 44

Citrin, J., 44

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), 150

civil rights groups, 95

Civil Works Administration (CWA), 150

Clinton, H. R., 1–2

Clinton, W. J., 38, 89

Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) of 1977, 114

Conditional Party Government framework, 93–94

conditional status quo bias (CSQB), 131; conditional hypothesis, testing of, 139–40; conditional status quo bias effects, analysis of, 141–42, 142f; inequality levels and, 131–34; self-reinforcing inequality, question of, 138–40, 139f; status quo bias, variables in, 139–40, 141, 142. See also policy stagnation; status quo bias

conflict theory, 68, 69

Conley, P., 44

contemporary politics, 1–2; Democratic vs. Republican politics, inequality conditions and, 5; economic discontent and, 1, 2, 4; economic inequality/racial animus, regressive policy preferences and, 4; economic/political powers, linkage between, 2–3; filibuster power and, 130, 134, 139–40, 141, 159; financial sector regulations, weakening of, 5, 90; income concentration trend and, 4, 5–6; inequality conditions and, 2–3, 3f, 4, 5, 6; plutocracy, self-perpetuation of, 3; post-2016 election Republican policy and, 5; progressive policies, suppression of, 4; public opinion, conservative shift and, 4; racial resentment and, 1, 2, 4; resource concentration, response to, 3; rigid partisanship and, 1, 2, 5; Senate, characteristics of, 130, 133–34; Trump, Republicans’ control of, 2; wealth gap, reinforcement of, 3, 4, 5. See also Democratic Party; democratic politics; economic power; election outcomes; financial sector deregulation; inegalitarian policy convergence; inequality trap; inequality trap escape; partisanship; plutocracy; policy action; policy stagnation; political power; public opinion; Republican Party; 2016 election

Contract with America, 89

Cooperative Congressional Election Study (CCES), 69, 84, 85, 102

Cramer, K. J., 2, 36

Crown Zellerbach pulp/paper conglomerate, 113

Dahl, R. A., 16, 18

Daley, D., 70

Democratic Leadership Council, 95

Democratic Party:...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• CONTENTS
• ONE  /  Contemporary Politics and the Perpetuation of Inequality
• TWO  /  An Inescapable Plutocracy?
• THREE  /  Public Preferences and Economic Inequality
• FOUR  /  Elections and the Inequality Trap
• FIVE  /  Partisan Convergence and Financial Deregulation
• SIX  /  Polarization and Policy Stagnation
• SEVEN  /  Can We Escape the Trap?
• Acknowledgments
• Notes
• References
• Index