Bartel's Unequal Democracy

During the past couple of decades, the decline in the middle class has been associated to the political agenda of the Republican Party. By ending governmental subsidies and other programs created to build the middle class, has ultimately ceased the growth. However, realizing the importance of the middle class to our fragile economic platform, the Democratic and Independent political parties are desperately trying to create and revamp the middle class

In other words, America has a widening gap between its wealthy and poor. As the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, there is a problem emerging: the disappearance of the middle class. Low-wage workers continue to fall behind those who make higher wages, and this only widens the gap between the two. There has been an economic boom in the United States, which has made the country more prosperous than it has ever been. That prosperity does not reach all people; it seems to only favor the rich. Rising economic segregation has taken away many opportunities for the poor to rise in America today. The poor may find that the economic boom has increased their income; however, as their income increase so does the prices they must for their living expenses (Dreier, Mollenkopf, & Swanstrom 19).

The United States of America experienced several reform movements from 1825 to 1850. The reformers sought to improve religion, rehabilitation of criminals and mental patients, education, slavery, and women’s rights. Each demonstrated democratic ideals to the extent that the reformers sought to incorporate the values of liberty and equality into their reform movements to improve the quality of life but did so at the expense and dismay of others.

No matter where one goes there will always be a set of rules that govern what behaviors are acceptable, and therefore create a certain society around that. Robert Dahl wrote the essay entitled “Why Democracy?” to explain the effects of government own its citizens. The Midshipman Regulations are no exception to influencing the society of the regiment. They create a society that closely mirrors the society Dahl envisions in his essay. The Midshipman Regulations intentionally create a certain kind of atmosphere that provides an outlet for moral responsibility, to develop as a person, but at the same time restricts numerous freedoms. Dahl’s idea of a democratic society closely follows what the Midshipmen Regulations are trying to create, but would

The preliminary point into an inquiry of distributive justice is to disconnect the conjunction of “distributive,” and “justice”. For the purpose of this essay, I will inherit and accept John Rawls explanation of justice from A Theory of Justice. “Justice,” according to Rawls, “is the first virtue of social institutions.” Therefore, from a societal perspective, justice as the first virtue negates the utilitarian maxim that a loss of freedom for one would be acceptable if there was a greater good to be shared by others. In a truly just society, all people are treated fair. The questions of individual liberties are taken as settled. In the just society, liberty, rights, and fairness are not subject to a utilitarian calculation nor are they susceptible to political bargaining.

Americans today live in a distinctly unequal society. Inequality is now wider than it used to be in the last century, and the division in income, wages, and wealth are broader than they are in other developed economies of the world. Wealth inequality is the imbalance of wealth or income within a society, and it is one of the most vital economic challenge the US is facing today because the distribution of wealth is more dispersed, making the inequality in wealth distribution at its highest. While the matter has been discussed for many years, the actual income disparity in the U.S. has heightened and is now verging on an extreme gap that portends to impede long-term economic growth. The huge gap between the wealthy and poor is squeezing the U.S. economy, the wealth gap threatens economic growth by diminishing social mobility and producing a less-educated workforce who are not able to compete in the global economy. unrestrained level of income inequality causes political pressures, it discourages trade, investment, and hiring. The present level of income inequality in the U.S. is shrinking GDP growth, and the world's largest economy is struggling to recover from the Great Recession.

1. Shames makes multiple connections between America’s frontier history and consumer behavior, or the attitude of most Americans that “More is better”. These connections quickly become obvious for, in order to have “more”, growing is required. First, America’s means of growth was land, particularly the unexplored land of the West. This abundance of land gave people opportunities to achieve better lives. Once all of that was taken when the frontier was claimed, Americans then turned to the economy as the new vehicle of growth during the twentieth century. And so, consumerism stemmed from this hunger for more. Americans equated having more goods and services to happier, fuller, and better lives.

Tim Dickinson published an intriguing article in the Rolling Stone, “How the GOP Became the Party of the Rich”, which scrutinizes the complicated history of the American government. Dickinson’s objective is to persuade the audience that the Republican party is giving leniency towards the upper class through the reduction of taxes, which results in the upper class becoming even more wealthy and the middle and lower classes struggling to make ends meet. He not only utilizes credible sources in order to convey the unreasonable actions of the Republican party, but also uses a multitude of historical facts pertaining to the central concept of his argument to strengthen his statement.

My fellow conservatives and Republicans our countrymen that are Democrats have a valid point. No society can remain strong with wealth disparity in wealth and diminishing opportunities for upward mobility. This is not a novel argument. All the great philosophers of the Western tradition have articulated this. Yet, in 1916, William John Henry Boetcker, a Presbyterian minister,

In this article, however, the United States middle-class citizen did not receive more income after the inflation. This is the crucial evidence, which shows that the middle-class in America is not the richest now.

The Princeton academic Larry M. Bartels provides an interesting challenge to conventional wisdom, providing a political explanation for an economic problem greatly effecting the entirety of the United States. In his book, Unequal Democracy, Bartels unveils the strong relationship between politics and economics, identifying political policies to be a key element in the inequality issue among Americans. The non-partisan political scientist emphasizes the notable differences that Republican and Democratic policies have on middle and low income families in America. Bartels establishes that Democratic policies have improved economic growth and reduced income inequality between the classes while Republican policies have produced economic contractions

In Robert Reich documentary “Inequality for All” he makes a compelling discussion about the serious crises that the United States faces due the widening economic gap. He looks to raise awareness of the U.S. economic gap between the rich and poor. According to Reich the widening divide in America is real and growing. Income levels at the middle and labor class is stagnant and are at it’s lowest levels compared to upper class incomes since the beginning of WWII and is growing wider each year. Reich suggests that the economy runs more smoothly when the middle class has jobs with fair wages, when unions are strong, and when middle class workers have some extra money to spend if possible when the government uses the tax policy properly and when it raises the minimum wage regularly to control the income gap between labor and management. In other words Reich argues that economically healthy middle and labor class equality is the foundation of a thriving economy and is necessary to maintaining a sound national infrastructure and educational system within

Rousseau describes democracy as a form of government that “has never existed and never will” ; yet twenty-six countries in the world are considered to be full democracies. How can this be possible? Rousseau’s concept of democracy supports the most fundamental and basic premise of democracy – one in which all citizens directly participate. While his idea of democracy cannot be considered an effective indictment of what passes for democracy today, it is not Rousseau’s account which is flawed but that in modern society is would be practically impossible to achieve this idea of democracy.

Income inequality has been a rising problem in the United States for the past few decades. One of the main issues surrounding this years is election, especially for the Democratic candidates is income inequality and how to address it. Public opinion on income inequality and the government’s role in changing it can easily shape how the election turns out this year which can make great differences to the lives of American’s for years to come.

Winston Churchill once remarked that “democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried”. In agreement with his statement, this paper will examine the problems of democratic governments using specific examples, and compare it to the failure of fascist governments in Nazi Germany and Italy and communist governments in the Soviet Union and China.