Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington is Making the Rich Richer

Title

Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington is Making the Rich Richer

Alternative title

Published Date

2011-02-10

Publisher

Type

Presentation

Abstract

Keywords

Description

Over the past few decades, the U.S. has seen a growing inequality of incomes between the middle class and the rich. In their lively and provocative book, Winner-Take-All Politics, renowned political scientists Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson demonstrate convincingly that the usual suspects – foreign trade and financial globalization, technological changes in the workplace, increased education at the top – are largely innocent of the charges against them. Instead, they indict an unlikely suspect and take us on an entertaining tour of the mountain of evidence against the culprit. The guilty party is American politics. Over the past few decades, the U.S. has seen a growing inequality of incomes between the middle class and the rich. In their lively and provocative book, Winner-Take-All Politics, renowned political scientists Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson demonstrate convincingly that the usual suspects – foreign trade and financial globalization, technological changes in the workplace, increased education at the top – are largely innocent of the charges against them. Instead, they indict an unlikely suspect and take us on an entertaining tour of the mountain of evidence against the culprit. The guilty party is American politics. Professor Jacob Hacker joined us to discuss his most recent book, Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer – and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class (2010). Professor Larry Jacobs moderated a conversation with Professor Hacker following his presentation. Jacob S. Hacker, Ph.D., is the Stanley B. Resor Professor of Political Science at Yale University, and a Resident Fellow at the Institution for Social and Policy Studies. He is also a Fellow at the New America Foundation in Washington, D.C., and a former Junior Fellow of the Harvard Society of Fellows. Hacker received a B.A. from Harvard in 1994 and a Ph.D. from Yale in 2000. An expert on the politics of U.S. health and social policy, his most recent book, Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer--and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class (2010), was written with Paul Pierson. He is also author of The Great Risk Shift: The New Economic Insecurity and the Decline of the American Dream (2006, in paperback January 2008), The Divided Welfare State: The Battle over Public and Private Social Benefits in the United States (2002), and The Road to Nowhere: The Genesis of President Clinton's Plan for Health Security (1997), co-winner of the Brownlow Book Award of the National Academy of Public Administration. He is also co-author, with Paul Pierson, of Off Center: the Republican Revolution and the Erosion of American Democracy (2005) and has edited two volumes – most recently, Health at Risk: America's Ailing Health System and How to Heal It (2008).

Related to

Replaces

License

Series/Report Number

Funding information

Isbn identifier

Doi identifier

Previously Published Citation

Other identifiers

Suggested citation

Jacobs, Lawrence R. (2011). Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington is Making the Rich Richer. Retrieved from the University Digital Conservancy, https://hdl.handle.net/11299/217652.

Content distributed via the University Digital Conservancy may be subject to additional license and use restrictions applied by the depositor. By using these files, users agree to the Terms of Use. Materials in the UDC may contain content that is disturbing and/or harmful. For more information, please see our statement on harmful content in digital repositories.