Inequality and Democracy in the United States: What We Know and What We Need to Learn

Research on social inequality has produced mounting evidence that disparities of income, wealth, and access to opportunity are growing more sharply in the United States than in other advanced countries - in fact, the very richest one percent of Americans have pulled away not only from the poor, but also from the middle class. As this disparity becomes more pronounced, scholars have sought to analyze the political implications of rising inequalities. Many Americans expect that the government will intervene to provide public facilities that equalize opportunity, even as economic inequalities increase. But as the gap between the haves and the have-nots widens, political support for public investment may decline among the rich at the very time that it is most needed by the poor.

With support from the Foundation, the American Political Science Association Task Force on Inequality and American Democracy will produce a volume entitled Inequality and American Democracy: What We Know and What We Need to Learn. The volume will pull together research from three working groups that have been assessing inequality as it pertains to political participation, governance, and public policy. The chapters will survey recent scholarship about inequalities of political voice, inequalities in governmental process, and the impact of public policies on security, opportunity, and citizen participation in the United States. Theda Skocpol of Harvard University and Lawrence Jacobs of the University of Minnesota will edit the volume.