Politics (and Ideology) Matters

Larry Bartels' new book, Unequal Democracy: The Political Economy of the New Gilded Age, is full of fascinating insights into the politics of inequality. I hope to do a longer post on the book at some point, but until then, wanted to share one of Bartels' conclusions:

Scholars of political participation and liberal activists often seem to suppose that the cure for political inequality is to educate and mobilize the disadvantaged in support of specific progressive policies. However, the evidence of unresponsiveness to the views of low-income citizens presented in chapter 9 [of Bartel's book] and in [Martin] Gilen's work suggests that that strategy is very unlikely to be politically effective. ....

If "voice" is "likely to be futile" for people on the losing end of economic inequality, is there any hope for progress? My analysis points to two related bright spots in an otherwise gloomy picture. First, the correlation between class positions and political views is not so substantial that support for egalitarian policies is limited to "those mired in poverty." ....

[Second], my analyses suggest that the specific policy views of citizens, whether rich or poor, have less impact in the policy-making process than the ideological convictions of elected officials. .... policy choices seem to depend more on the partisan ideologies of key policy makers than on the details of public opinion. Thus, even if poor people have negligible direct influence on the day-to-day decisions of elected officials, they--and their ideological allies--may have substantial indirect influence by altering the balance of power between Democrats and Republicans in the making of public policy.

In essence, reducing poverty and inequality will require more progressives in positions of power. Yet, modern-day anti-poverty advocacy is largely legislative advocacy, advocacy conducted by groups funded by non-partisan and mostly non-ideological foundations. As political scientist Andrew Rich has noted:

... the leaders of liberal think tanks are often preoccupied by deeply held commitments to producing objective research, on the one hand, and to connecting their work to issue-based grassroots activism, on the other hand. These commitments are compatible with the tenets of liberal ideology, but they are far less helpful to fighting a war of ideas.

This dominant liberal approach has met with limited success over the last few decades. Bartels' research helps to explain why.