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In this highly readable book, Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson provide an intellectual counterweight to the arguments of syndicated columnists like Thomas L. Friedman, who often portray recent economic change as monolithic, corporate driven, and painful but beneficial for all.1 Hacker and Pierson not only want to challenge these notions--particularly the last--but also to connect economic changes to political policies. First, they note that the polarization of incomes and wealth is far greater than the average person may think. In fact, it is the elite of the elites that have their political agendas and needs met, while even the power of the upper middle class is severely undercut, never mind the strength of the working poor. Second, they want to demonstrate that political transformations since the 1970s have directly and indirectly contributed to these economic changes, ensuring the continued polarization of wealth, as well as a corresponding political shift in which government is really only responsive to a small sector of privileged individuals. The result is not merely a minor issue that can be reformed but a crisis of democracy.
The relevance of Winner-Take-All Politics is illustrated in the recent conflicts unfolding in Wisconsin: On one side, workers fight for very limited collective bargaining rights in an already difficult context, and on the other, Republican politicians argue that they must balance the budget with little proof that limiting workers' rights will do much of anything except to demonstrate government resolve to continue a process of "freeingâ[euro] the market by "freeingâ[euro] workers' rights. This attack on workers' rights, with similar assaults happening in other states, is the consequence of much broader dynamics, including a 40-year process of deregulation; increasingly unfair taxation by which the superrich can avoid heavy taxation while the rest of the country (including those normally viewed as well off) are unduly burdened; and political representation, policy drift, and "organized combatâ[euro] on the right that has led to a sort of fundamentalist version of conservative politics. The crisis in Wisconsin (and neighboring states) illustrates the urgency of what Hacker and Pierson discuss, but also how difficult it will be to dismantle the complex network of political forces that made it possible in the first place.
I will...