The Politics of Income Inequality in the United States [Paperback]

Using income surveys and various political-economic data, this book shows that income inequality is fundamental to the dynamics of US politics.Do political dynamics influence distributional outcomes in the United States? Utilizing mass income surveys, elite surveys, and aggregate time series, as well as theoretical insights from both American and comparative politics, Kelly shows that income inequality responds to public opinion, policymaking, and partisan power and is therefore fundamental to the U.S. macro political system.Do political dynamics influence distributional outcomes in the United States? Utilizing mass income surveys, elite surveys, and aggregate time series, as well as theoretical insights from both American and comparative politics, Kelly shows that income inequality responds to public opinion, policymaking, and partisan power and is therefore fundamental to the U.S. macro political system.This book revolves around one central question: Do political dynamics have a systematic and predictable influence on distributional outcomes in the United States? The answer is a resounding yes. Utilizing data from mass income surveys, elite surveys, and aggregate time series, as well as theoretical insights from both American and comparative politics, Kelly shows that income inequality is a fundamental part of the U.S. macro political system. Shifts in public opinion, party control of government, and the ideological direction of policy all have important consequences for distributional outcomes. Specifically, shifts to the left produce reductions in inequality through two mechanisms  explicit redistribution and market conditioning. Whereas many previous studies focus only on the distributional impact of redistribution, this book shows that such a narrow strategy is misguided. In fact, market mechanisms matter far more than traditional redistribution in translating macro political shifts into distributional outcomes.1. Explaining income inequality; 2. The distribul�