Response to “American Democracy in an Age of Inequality

Bibliographic Data

ID7945319
AuthorsFrances Fox Piven (City University of New York, corresponding author)
Year2006
Volume39
Issue1
Pages43-46
Publication date2006-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePS Political Science & Politics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1049-0965 • E-ISSN: 1537-5935
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s1049096506060100
OpenAlexW2102359774
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited4

The APSA Task Force on Inequality and American Democracy's Report (2004), American Democracy in an Age of Inequality , concludes that progress toward realizing our ideals of democracy “may have stalled, and in some arenas reversed” as a result of growing inequality. Political participation, whether through voting, or campaign contributions, or organizational activities, reflects the distribution of economic resources, and as resources come to be more unequal, so is participation increasingly skewed toward the better-off. As a result, the Report goes on to argue, the issues and positions of the affluent are heard by politicians, and louder voices give the affluent greater influence. I agree with this conclusion, so far as it goes. Disparities in voting, money, and organization matter in the political process, and economic inequalities inevitably affect these disparities. None of this is new, of course. While inequalities have increased during the past three decades, they have increased during earlier periods in American history. This is normal politics in the United States, sometimes worse, sometimes better

Democracy · Development economics · Economics · Inequality · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Voting · Income, Poverty, and Inequality · Law · Social Policy and Reform Studies

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