Peter is a complexity scientist who has established a new field of social science research called cliodynamics. He is the author of the book End Times: Elites, Counter-Elites, and the Path of Political Disintegration, Access Bonus Episodes on Patreon Make a one-time Donation to Democracy Paradox. If you have grown up in a household... Continue Reading →
Thomas Piketty on Equality
Thomas Piketty is Professor at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) and the Paris School of Economics and Codirector of the World Inequality Lab. He is also the author of A Brief History of Equality. Become a Patron! Pure economic factors or technological factors or the level of economic development or... Continue Reading →
Does Inequality Kill a Democracy?
Become a Patron! Inequality in Democracy It’s not controversial to say democracy is about more than elections. Most scholars recognize democracy depends on liberal rights like free speech and the rights of the accused. Liberal democracy strives to combine civil liberties with political equality. But does democracy also depend on economic equality or at least... Continue Reading →
Joseph Fishkin on the Constitution, American History, and Economic Inequality
Joseph Fishkin is a Professor of Law at UCLA School of Law. He is the coauthor (along with William E. Forbath) of The Anti-Oligarchy Constitution: Reconstructing the Economic Foundations of American Democracy. Become a Patron! For many Americans, for the first many generations really up through the mid 20th century, the constitutional order seemed... Continue Reading →
The Case for Constitutional Politics
The Constitution has Become Political By now the retirement of Justice Stephen Breyer has become old news. But the political conflict over his successor has only just begun. Republicans have made the control of the Supreme Court a key part of their political agenda. Senator Lindsey Graham recently noted in resignation the Democrats have the... Continue Reading →
Angus Deaton on Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism
Angus Deaton is the Dwight D. Eisenhower Professor of Economics and International Affairs Emeritus at Princeton University, winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Economics, and the coauthor (with Anne Case) of Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism. It's this sort of persistent loss of wages, which causes things like loss of marriage,... Continue Reading →
The Tragedy of Deaths of Despair
Deaths of Despair As we celebrate the holidays, it’s important to also remember those less fortunate than ourselves. I expect most of those reading this blog or listening to the podcast have a college degree or attend college at the moment. It’s a fortunate group, because the economy favors those with a college education. Indeed,... Continue Reading →
Amory Gethin on Political Cleavages, Inequality, and Party Systems in 50 Democracies
Amory Gethin is a PhD candidate at the Paris School of Economics and a research fellow at the world Inequality Lab. He is a coeditor (along with Clara Martinez-Toledano and Thomas Piketty) of Political Cleavages and Social Inequalities: A Study of 50 Democracies, 1948-2020. Indeed, the moderation of left-wing party’s economic policy proposals in the... Continue Reading →
Party Systems in 50 Different Democracies
Thomas Piketty is best known for the publication of Capital in the Twenty-First Century. It changed how the intellectual community thought about the problem of inequality. Despite the fact it may not have changed many opinions, it is one of the most influential books on economics in the past quarter century. It provided a language... Continue Reading →
Robert Meister Believes Justice is an Option
Robert Meister is the author of the new book Justice is an Option: A Democratic Theory of Finance for the Twenty-First Century and a Professor of Social and Political Thought in the History of Consciousness Department at the University of California Santa Cruz. So, now I've developed a way of talking about revolution as an... Continue Reading →