The American Political Economy: Politics, Markets, and Power (Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics)

This volume brings together leading political scientists to explore the distinctive features of the American political economy. The introductory chapter provides a comparatively informed framework for analyzing the interplay of markets and politics in the United States, focusing on three key factors: uniquely fragmented and decentralized political institutions; an interest group landscape characterized by weak labor organizations and powerful, parochial business groups; and an entrenched legacy of ethno-racial divisions embedded in both government and markets. Subsequent chapters look at the fundamental dynamics that result, including the place of the courts in multi-venue politics, the political economy of labor, sectional conflict within and across cities and regions, the consolidation of financial markets and corporate monopoly and monopsony power, and the ongoing rise of the knowledge economy. Together, the chapters provide a revealing new map of the politics of democratic capitalism in the United States. "Since the 1980s, income concentration has increased dramatically, with the top 1% increasing their share from 10.7% in 1980 to 20.2% in 2014 (an 89% increase), and the top 0.01% income share increasing even more - by approximately 230%. Before the turn of the 21st century, scholars seeking to explain rising inequality emphasized structural economic change and demographics, focusing on factors such as deindustrialization, globalization, aging, union decline, and skill-biased technological change (Alderson and Nielsen 2002; Berman et al. 1998; Bound and Johnson 1992; Danziger and Gottschalk 1995; Goldin and Katz 2008). In this work, politics and policy played at most a peripheral role in explaining the ebb and flow of American inequality. But newer scholarship has given politics a more central place in our understanding of income disparity"-- Provided by publisher. Leading political scientists provide a new framework for understanding the interplay of politics and economics in the US, drawing on comparative and historical perspectives to identify distinctive features of the US landscape and how these have interacted with one another over time to create unique patterns of power and inequality.