Suchergebnisse

"Since the 1980s, income concentration has increased dramatically, with the top 1% increasing their share from 10.7% in 1980 to 20.2% in 2014 (an 89% increase), and the top 0.01% income share increasing even more - by approximately 230%. Before the turn of the 21st century, scholars seeking to explain rising inequality emphasized structural economic change and demographics, focusing on factors such as deindustrialization, globalization, aging, union decline, and skill-biased technological change (Alderson and Nielsen 2002; Berman et al. 1998; Bound and Johnson 1992; Danziger and Gottschalk 1995; Goldin and Katz 2008). In this work, politics and policy played at most a peripheral role in explaining the ebb and flow of American inequality. But newer scholarship has given politics a more central place in our understanding of income disparity"--

This volume brings together leading political scientists to explore the distinctive features of the American political economy. The introductory chapter provides a comparatively informed framework for analyzing the interplay of markets and politics in the United States, focusing on three key factors: uniquely fragmented and decentralized political institutions; an interest group landscape characterized by weak labor organizations and powerful, parochial business groups; and an entrenched legacy of ethno-racial divisions embedded in both government and markets. Subsequent chapters look at the fundamental dynamics that result, including the place of the courts in multi-venue politics, the political economy of labor, sectional conflict within and across cities and regions, the consolidation of financial markets and corporate monopoly and monopsony power, and the ongoing rise of the knowledge economy. Together, the chapters provide a revealing new map of the politics of democratic capitalism in the United States.

As wages stagnate but living costs keep rising, the pressure on working people grows more intense. The issue of living standards has become one of the most urgent challenges for politicians in both Britain and America. 'The squeezed middle' brings together experts from both sides of the Atlantic to ask what the UK can learn from the US. American workers have not benefited from growth for an entire generation - the average American worker earned no more in 2009 than in 1975. Now British workers are undergoing a similar experience. No longer can they assume that when the economy grows their wages will grow with it. This collection brings together for the first time leading economic and policy thinkers to analyse the impact of different policies on those on low-to middle incomes and to explain what lessons the UK can learn from America's 'lost generation'. This timely book is essential reading for everyone concerned about the living standards crisis, an issue which could decide elections as well as shaping the future for millions of working families