Progressive taxation,where higher incomes are taxed at higher rates, played a significant role in reducing income inequality in many countries for much of the twentieth century. Recent moves in some advanced economies away from this system may help account for rising inequality in those nations. But what made progressive taxation politically viable in the first place?

How do eligible voters become actual voters? Latinos—the nation’s largest and fastest growing minority group—currently comprise about 15 percent of the population, but are only 9 percent of the eligible U.S. electorate. And only a small percentage of eligible voters ever cast a vote in a national election.

The health of a nation’s democracy is inextricably linked to the strength of its civil society. In the United States, civil society is more racially stratified than many of its workplaces and government institutions. To examine the impact that segregated civil society may have on American public life, Michael Dawson of the University of Chicago’s Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture is organizing a two-day conference to be held at the Johnson Foundation in Racine, Wisconsin on January 11-12, 2002.