Political Inequality in an Age of Democracy

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Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1135102279
Total Pages : 154 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (351 download)

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Book Synopsis Political Inequality in an Age of Democracy by : Joshua Kjerulf Dubrow

Download or read book Political Inequality in an Age of Democracy written by Joshua Kjerulf Dubrow and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-07-11 with total page 154 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The world has witnessed the creation of new democracies and the maturing of old ones. Yet, everywhere there is democracy, there is also political inequality. Voices of everyday folk struggle to be heard; often, they keep silent. Governments respond mostly to the influential and the already privileged. Our age of democracy, then, is the old age of inequality. This book builds on U.S. scholarship on the topic of political inequality to understand its forms, causes and consequences around the world. Comprised of nine theoretical, methodological and empirical chapters, this path-creating edited collection contains original works by both established and young, up-and-coming social scientists, including those from Latin America, Eastern Europe, Greece and the U.S. Political Inequality in an Age of Democracy addresses the present and future of the concept of political inequality from multi-disciplinary and cross-national perspectives.

Political Inequality in an Age of Democracy

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Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1135102341
Total Pages : 230 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (351 download)

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Book Synopsis Political Inequality in an Age of Democracy by : Joshua Kjerulf Dubrow

Download or read book Political Inequality in an Age of Democracy written by Joshua Kjerulf Dubrow and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-07-11 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The world has witnessed the creation of new democracies and the maturing of old ones. Yet, everywhere there is democracy, there is also political inequality. Voices of everyday folk struggle to be heard; often, they keep silent. Governments respond mostly to the influential and the already privileged. Our age of democracy, then, is the old age of inequality. This book builds on U.S. scholarship on the topic of political inequality to understand its forms, causes and consequences around the world. Comprised of nine theoretical, methodological and empirical chapters, this path-creating edited collection contains original works by both established and young, up-and-coming social scientists, including those from Latin America, Eastern Europe, Greece and the U.S. Political Inequality in an Age of Democracy addresses the present and future of the concept of political inequality from multi-disciplinary and cross-national perspectives.

Remaking America

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Publisher : Russell Sage Foundation
ISBN 13 : 1610445104
Total Pages : 288 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (14 download)

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Book Synopsis Remaking America by : Joe Soss

Download or read book Remaking America written by Joe Soss and published by Russell Sage Foundation. This book was released on 2007-11-08 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the past three decades, the contours of American social, economic, and political life have changed dramatically. The post-war patterns of broadly distributed economic growth have given way to stark inequalities of income and wealth, the GOP and its allies have gained power and shifted U.S. politics rightward, and the role of government in the lives of Americans has changed fundamentally. Remaking America explores how these trends are related, investigating the complex interactions of economics, politics, and public policy. Remaking America explains how the broad restructuring of government policy has both reflected and propelled major shifts in the character of inequality and democracy in the United States. The contributors explore how recent political and policy changes affect not just the social standing of Americans but also the character of democratic citizenship in the United States today. Lawrence Jacobs shows how partisan politics, public opinion, and interest groups have shaped the evolution of Medicare, but also how Medicare itself restructured health politics in America. Kimberly Morgan explains how highly visible tax policies created an opportunity for conservatives to lead a grassroots tax revolt that ultimately eroded of the revenues needed for social-welfare programs. Deborah Stone explores how new policies have redefined participation in the labor force—as opposed to fulfilling family or civic obligations—as the central criterion of citizenship. Frances Fox Piven explains how low-income women remain creative and vital political actors in an era in which welfare programs increasingly subject them to stringent behavioral requirements and monitoring. Joshua Guetzkow and Bruce Western document the rise of mass incarceration in America and illuminate its unhealthy effects on state social-policy efforts and the civic status of African-American men. For many disadvantaged Americans who used to look to government as a source of opportunity and security, the state has become increasingly paternalistic and punitive. Far from standing alone, their experience reflects a broader set of political victories and policy revolutions that have fundamentally altered American democracy and society. Empirically grounded and theoretically informed, Remaking America connects the dots to provide insight into the remarkable social and political changes of the last three decades.

Unequal and Unrepresented

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Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691203687
Total Pages : 350 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (912 download)

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Book Synopsis Unequal and Unrepresented by : Kay Lehman Schlozman

Download or read book Unequal and Unrepresented written by Kay Lehman Schlozman and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-03-03 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How American political participation is increasingly being shaped by citizens who wield more resources The Declaration of Independence proclaims equality as a foundational American value. However, Unequal and Unrepresented finds that political voice in America is not only unequal but also unrepresentative. Those who are well educated and affluent carry megaphones. The less privileged speak in a whisper. Relying on three decades of research and an enormous wealth of information about politically active individuals and organizations, Kay Schlozman, Henry Brady, and Sidney Verba offer a concise synthesis and update of their groundbreaking work on political participation. The authors consider the many ways that citizens in American democracy can influence public outcomes through political voice: by voting, getting involved in campaigns, communicating directly with public officials, participating online or offline, acting alone and in organizations, and investing their time and money. Socioeconomic imbalances characterize every form of political voice, but the advantage to the advantaged is especially pronounced when it comes to any form of political expression--for example, lobbying legislators or making campaign donations—that relies on money as an input. With those at the top of the ladder increasingly able to spend lavishly in politics, political action anchored in financial investment weighs ever more heavily in what public officials hear. Citing real-life examples and examining inequalities from multiple perspectives, Unequal and Unrepresented shows how disparities in political voice endanger American democracy today.

Inequality, Democracy, and Economic Development

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Author :
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780521576758
Total Pages : 388 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (767 download)

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Book Synopsis Inequality, Democracy, and Economic Development by : Manus I. Midlarsky

Download or read book Inequality, Democracy, and Economic Development written by Manus I. Midlarsky and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1997-12-04 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines the sources of democracy, the relationship between economic development and thresholds of democracy, and responses to democratization.

Marketing Democracy

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Author :
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 9780742501539
Total Pages : 314 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (15 download)

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Book Synopsis Marketing Democracy by : David Stewart Mason

Download or read book Marketing Democracy written by David Stewart Mason and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2000 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Using a rich set of data from public opinion surveys conducted in the European post-communist states, this book explores popular attitudes on social, economic, and political justice focusing ultimately on OwhatOs fair?O

Unequal Democracy

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Author :
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691181071
Total Pages : 423 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (911 download)

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Book Synopsis Unequal Democracy by : Larry M. Bartels

Download or read book Unequal Democracy written by Larry M. Bartels and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2018-05-29 with total page 423 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Voice and Inequality

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Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0197542166
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (975 download)

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Book Synopsis Voice and Inequality by : Carew Boulding

Download or read book Voice and Inequality written by Carew Boulding and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021-05-13 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first large-scale study of political participation in eighteen Latin American democracies, focusing on the political participation of the region's poorest citizens. Political regimes in Latin America have a long history of excluding poor people from politics. Today, the region's democracies survive in contexts that are still marked by deep poverty and some of the world's most severe socioeconomic inequalities. Keeping socioeconomic inequality from spilling over into political inequality is one of the core challenges facing these young democracies. In Voice and Inequality, Carew Boulding and Claudio Holzner offer the first large-scale empirical analysis of political participation in Latin America. They find that in recent years, most (but not all) countries in the region have achieved near equality of participation across wealth groups, and in some cases poor people participate more than wealthier individuals. How can this be, given the long history of excluding poor people from the political arena in Latin America? Boulding and Holzner argue that key institutions of democracy, namely civil society, political parties, and competitive elections, have an enormous impact on whether or not poor people turn out to vote, protest, and contact government officials. Far from being politically inert, under certain conditions the poorest citizens can act and speak for themselves with an intensity that far exceeds their modest socioeconomic resources. When voluntary organizations thrive in poor communities and when political parties focus their mobilization efforts on poor individuals, they respond with high levels of political activism. Poor people's activism also benefits from strong parties, robust electoral competition and well-functioning democratic institutions. Where electoral competition is robust and where the power of incumbents is constrained, the authors find higher levels of participation by poor individuals and more political equality. Precisely because the individual resource constraints that poor people face are daunting obstacles to political activism, Voice and Inequality focuses on the features of democratic politics that create opportunities for participation that have the strongest impact on poor people's political behavior. Ultimately, Voice and Inequality provides important insights about how the elusive goal of political equality can be achieved even in contexts of elevated poverty and inequality.

Political Cleavages and Social Inequalities

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Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 0674269926
Total Pages : 657 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (742 download)

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Book Synopsis Political Cleavages and Social Inequalities by : Amory Gethin

Download or read book Political Cleavages and Social Inequalities written by Amory Gethin and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2021-12-14 with total page 657 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The empirical starting point for anyone who wants to understand political cleavages in the democratic world, based on a unique dataset covering fifty countries since World War II. Who votes for whom and why? Why has growing inequality in many parts of the world not led to renewed class-based conflicts, seeming instead to have come with the emergence of new divides over identity and integration? News analysts, scholars, and citizens interested in exploring those questions inevitably lack relevant data, in particular the kinds of data that establish historical and international context. Political Cleavages and Social Inequalities provides the missing empirical background, collecting and examining a treasure trove of information on the dynamics of polarization in modern democracies. The chapters draw on a unique set of surveys conducted between 1948 and 2020 in fifty countries on five continents, analyzing the links between voters’ political preferences and socioeconomic characteristics, such as income, education, wealth, occupation, religion, ethnicity, age, and gender. This analysis sheds new light on how political movements succeed in coalescing multiple interests and identities in contemporary democracies. It also helps us understand the conditions under which conflicts over inequality become politically salient, as well as the similarities and constraints of voters supporting ethnonationalist politicians like Narendra Modi, Jair Bolsonaro, Marine Le Pen, and Donald Trump. Bringing together cutting-edge data and historical analysis, editors Amory Gethin, Clara Martínez-Toledano, and Thomas Piketty offer a vital resource for understanding the voting patterns of the present and the likely sources of future political conflict.

Education, Democracy and Inequality

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Author :
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 1137489766
Total Pages : 249 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (374 download)

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Book Synopsis Education, Democracy and Inequality by : Bryony Hoskins

Download or read book Education, Democracy and Inequality written by Bryony Hoskins and published by Springer. This book was released on 2019-06-27 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book posits that national education systems are enhancing socioeconomic inequalities in political engagement. While the democratic ideal is social equality in political engagement, the authors demonstrate that the English education system is recreating and enhancing entrenched democratic inequalities. In Europe, the UK has the strongest correlation between social background and voting behaviours. Examining the role of the school and the education system in the potential reproduction of these inequalities, the authors draw upon the theories of Bourdieu and Bernstein and compare the English school system to other European countries to analyse barriers that are put along the way to political engagement. In times of political disaffection, frustration and polarisation, it is particularly important to uncover why young people from disadvantaged backgrounds are less likely to engage politically, and to help inspire future generations to use their voice. This timely book will be of interest and value to students and scholars of educational inequality and political engagement.

Youth and Politics in Times of Increasing Inequalities

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Publisher : Springer Nature
ISBN 13 : 3030636763
Total Pages : 276 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (36 download)

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Book Synopsis Youth and Politics in Times of Increasing Inequalities by : Marco Giugni

Download or read book Youth and Politics in Times of Increasing Inequalities written by Marco Giugni and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-07-22 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Young people are very often the driving forces of political participation that aims to change societies and political systems. Rather than being depoliticized, young people in different national contexts are giving rise to alternative politics. Drawing on original survey data collected in 2018, this edited volume provides a detailed analysis of youth participation in nine European countries by focusing on socialization processes, different modes of participation and the mobilization of youth politics. "This volume is an indispensable guide to understanding young European’s experience and engagement of politics, the inequalities that shape young people’s political engagement and are sometimes replicated through them, and young people’s commitment to saving the environment and spreading democratic ideals. Based on compelling and extensive research across nine nations, this volume makes important advances in key debates on youth politics and provides critical empirical insights into which young people engage, influences on young people’s politics, how young people engage, why some young people don’t engage, and trends across nations. The volume succeeds in the herculean task of focusing on specific national contexts while also rendering a comprehensive picture of youth politics and inequality in Europe today." —Jennifer Earl, Professor of Sociology, University of Arizona, USA "Forecasts by social scientists of young people’s increasingly apathetic stance towards political participation appear to have been misplaced. This text, drawing data and analysis across and between nine European countries, captures the changing nature of political ‘activism’ by young people. It indicates how this is strongly nuanced by factors such as social class and gender identity. It also highlights important distinctions between young people’s approaches towards more traditional (electoral) and more contemporary (non-institutional) forms of participation. Critically, it illuminates the many ways in which youth political participation has evolved and transformed in recent years. Wider social circumstances and experiences are identified as highly significant in preparing young people for, and influencing their levels of participation in, both protest-oriented action and electoral politics." —Howard Williamson, Professor of European Youth Policy, University of South Wales, UK "This book is an incredible guide to understanding the role and sources of inequalities on young people’s political involvement. Country specific chapters allow the authors to integrate a large number of the key and most pressing issues regarding young people’s relationship to politics in a single volume. Topics range from social mobility and the influence of socioeconomic (parental) resources and class; young people’s practice in the social sphere; the intersection of gender with other sources of inequalities; online participation and its relationship with social inequalities; the impact of harsh economic conditions; the mobilization potential of the environmental cause; to the role of political organizations. Integrating all these pressing dimensions in a common framework and accompanying it with extensive novel empirical evidence is a great achievement and the result is a must read piece for researchers and practitioners aiming to understand the challenges young people face in developing their relationship to politics." —Gema García-Albacete, Associate Professor of Political Science, University Carlos III Madrid, Spain

Unequal Democracy

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Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780691172842
Total Pages : 424 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (728 download)

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Book Synopsis Unequal Democracy by : Larry M. Bartels

Download or read book Unequal Democracy written by Larry M. Bartels and published by . This book was released on 2016-01-09 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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 and expanded 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.

Inequality and American Democracy

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Author :
Publisher : Russell Sage Foundation
ISBN 13 : 9780871544131
Total Pages : 268 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (441 download)

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Book Synopsis Inequality and American Democracy by : Lawrence R. Jacobs

Download or read book Inequality and American Democracy written by Lawrence R. Jacobs and published by Russell Sage Foundation. This book was released on 2005-08-25 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In Inequality and American Democracy, editors Lawrence R. Jacobs and Theda Skocpol headline a distinguished group of political scientists in assessing whether rising economic inequality now threatens hard-won victories in the long struggle to achieve political equality in the United States." "Most Americans accept that the vagaries of the economy will produce some financial inequality, but also expect American democracy to guarantee equality of citizens, regardless of class. Inequality and American Democracy tackles the complex relationships between economic, social, and political inequality with authoritative insight, showcases a new generation of critical studies of American democracy, and highlights an issue of growing concern for the future of our democratic society."--BOOK JACKET.

Democracy, America, and the Age of Globalization

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Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780511367243
Total Pages : 163 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (672 download)

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Book Synopsis Democracy, America, and the Age of Globalization by : Jay R. Mandle

Download or read book Democracy, America, and the Age of Globalization written by Jay R. Mandle and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 163 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Because political campaigns in the United States are privately funded, America's political system is heavily biased toward the interests of wealthy campaign contributors. As a result, government policies have largely ignored the growth in income inequality caused by technological change and economic globalization. This omission has been tolerated because most Americans do not support interventionist government policies. They believe that the government serves the interests of the campaign donors rather than the public. This skepticism concerning the public sector's fairness must be overcome before effective programs to offset mounting inequality can be implemented. Though in recent years legislation to reform the financing of political campaigns has been adopted, private wealth continues to dominate the political process. Political cynicism therefore persists. A voluntary system of public funding of candidates for office is required to generate the trust in the public sector necessary to reverse the trend toward inequality.

Women and Political Inequality in Japan

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Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1000283127
Total Pages : 14 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (2 download)

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Book Synopsis Women and Political Inequality in Japan by : Mikiko Eto

Download or read book Women and Political Inequality in Japan written by Mikiko Eto and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-12-17 with total page 14 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why are there so few Japanese women involved in the political system? In 2019, Japanese women made up 10% of the national Lower House, 21% of the Upper House, and 14% of local assemblies. According to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, this places Japan 164th out of 193 countries when it comes to women’s representation in the legislature. The percentage of women in the Lower House has only increased by fewer than two percentage points since women gained full suffrage and the right to stand for election in Japan in 1946. Eto analyses the various factors that have led to women’s low presence in the Japanese legislature. She evaluates ways in which it might be possible for Japan to catch up and, in doing so, examines how Japanese society continues to perpetuate gender-rigid expectations of people. This text is a valuable study for scholars of Japanese politics and society, and for readers with an interest in the broader issue of the representation of women in politics.

Inequality After the Transition

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Author :
Publisher : Comparative Politics
ISBN 13 : 0198826923
Total Pages : 349 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (988 download)

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Book Synopsis Inequality After the Transition by : Ekrem Karakoç

Download or read book Inequality After the Transition written by Ekrem Karakoç and published by Comparative Politics. This book was released on 2018-10-11 with total page 349 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After the Transition is an all-encompassing examination of the origins, increase, and persistence of inequality in new democracies. It challenges the conventional thinking found in much of the democratization-inequality literature, and offers a new theory. It speaks simultaneously to literature of democratization, party systems, social policy, and inequality to explain why democracies are not able to fulfill their promise to the disadvantaged and why they cannot achieve income equality. It investigates social policy programs such as pensions, unemployment benefits, and other social transfers in Poland and the Czech Republic in Post-Communist Europe, and Turkey and Spain in Southern Europe. The volume traces the origins and development of social policy, from the formation of nation-states to the present, and considers how different political regimes, whether totalitarian; post-totalitarian; or authoritarian, designed welfare policies to prioritize civil servants and the working classes in formal sectors at the expense of the majority poor. It then demonstrates how these legacies perpetuate and widen disparities in access to welfare policies, and thus income inequality in countries where low mobilization by the poor and unstable party systems prevail. This study employs interviews with Polish, Czech, Turkish, and Spanish union leaders; bureaucrats; and business people while also conducting an original survey in Turkey to dissect the linkage between organized groups and parties. Employing a multi-method approach, two paired case studies on these countries also demystify why and how new populist parties have successfully appealed to voters and affected the trajectory of social policy, party systems and inequality. Comparative Politics is a series for researchers, teachers, and students of political science that deals with contemporary government and politics. Global in scope, books in the series are characterised by a stress on comparative analysis and strong methodological rigour. The series is published in association with the European Consortium for Political Research. For more information visit: www.ecprnet.eu. The series is edited by Emilie van Haute, Professor of Political Science, Universite libre de Bruxelles; Ferdinand Muller-Rommel, Director of the Center for the Study of Democracy, Leuphana University; and Susan Scarrow, John and Rebecca Moores Professor of Political Science, University of Houston.

On Political Equality

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Author :
Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780300126877
Total Pages : 166 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (268 download)

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Book Synopsis On Political Equality by : Robert A. Dahl

Download or read book On Political Equality written by Robert A. Dahl and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2007-01-01 with total page 166 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Robert A. Dahl, one of the world's most influential and respected political scientists, has spent a lifetime exploring the institutions and practices of democracy in such landmark books as Who Governs?, On Democracy, and How Democratic Is the American Constitution? Here, Dahl looks at the fundamental issue of equality and how and why governments have fallen short of their democratic ideals. At the center of the book is the question of whether the goal of political equality is so far beyond our human limits that it should be abandoned in favor of more attainable ends, or if there are ways to realistically address and reduce inequities. Though complete equality is unattainable, Dahl argues that strides toward that ideal are both desirable and feasible. He shows the remarkable shift in recent centuries toward democracy and political equality the world over. He explores the growth of democratic institutions, the expansion of citizenship, and the various obstacles that stand in the way of gains in political equality. Dahl also looks at the motives, particularly those of emotion and reason, that play such a crucial role in the struggle for equality. In conclusion, Dahl assesses the contemporary political landscape in the United States. He looks at the likelihood of political inequality increasing, and poses one scenario in which Americans grow more unequal in their influence over their government. The counter scenario foresees a cultural shift in which citizens, rejecting what Dahl calls ?competitive consumerism,” invest time and energy in civic action and work to reduce the inequality that now exists among Americans.