Author Meets Critics: "Unequal Democracies" with Noam Lupu & Jonas Pontusson

Session Submission Type: Author meet critics

Session Description

While economic inequality has risen in every affluent democracy in North America and Western Europe, the last three decades have also been characterized by falling or stagnating levels of state-led economic redistribution. Why have democratically accountable governments not done more to distribute top-income shares to citizens with low- and middle-income? Unequal Democracies offers answers to this question, bringing together contributions that focus on voters and their demands for redistribution with contributions on elites and unequal representation that is biased against less-affluent citizens. While large and growing bodies of research have developed around each of these perspectives, this volume brings them into rare dialogue. Chapters also incorporate analyses that center exclusively on the United States and those that examine a broader set of advanced democracies to explore the uniqueness of the American case and its contribution to comparative perspectives.

Sub Unit

• Division 11: Comparative Politics

Chairs

• Noam Lupu Vanderbilt University

• Jonas Pontusson University of Geneva

Presenters

• Peter A. Hall Harvard University

• Jane R. Gingrich University of Oxford

• Martin Gilens UCLA Department of Public Policy

• David Rueda University of Oxford