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Response to “American Democracy in an Age ofInequality”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 February 2006

Frances Fox Piven
Frances Fox Piven
Affiliation:
Graduate School of the City University of New York
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Extract

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 ofgrowing inequality. Political participation, whether through voting,or campaign contributions, or organizational activities, reflectsthe distribution of economic resources, and as resources come to bemore unequal, so is participation increasingly skewed toward thebetter-off. As a result, the Report goes on to argue, the issues andpositions of the affluent are heard by politicians, and loudervoices give the affluent greater influence. I agree with thisconclusion, so far as it goes. Disparities in voting, money, andorganization matter in the political process, and economicinequalities inevitably affect these disparities. None of this isnew, of course. While inequalities have increased during the pastthree decades, they have increased during earlier periods inAmerican history. This is normal politics in the United States,sometimes worse, sometimes better.

Information

Type
SYMPOSIUM
Information
PS: Political Science & Politics , Volume 39 , Issue 1 , January 2006 , pp. 43 - 46
Copyright
© 2006 The American Political Science Association

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