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Author: Sotiris Rizas Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing ISBN: 1527523721 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 223
Book Description
The response of the middle classes to the financial crisis of 2008 is a central theme in the political systems of most developed, Western countries. This book approaches middle class politics from a historical perspective, looking at its progression since the early 1900s. The middle classes contributed significantly and in various ways to the evolution of mass politics in the West, with middle class intellectuals oriented to social and political reform, such as Leonard Hobhouse, Herbert Croly and Leon Bourgeois, influencing the setup of politics and the building of institutions in the early 20th century, and with lower-middle class disaffection fuelling protest politics in the 1890s and 1900s. The rise of Fascism in the interwar period owed much to the perception of liquidation permeating the middle classes in the 1920s and the 1930s as a result of post-World War I hardship and the Crash of 1929-31. Conversely, mass affluence during the “trente glorieuses” was the result of the post-World War II growth strategies adopted by conservatives and social democrats alike. The rise of Thatcherism led to the emergence of a more consumerist and market-oriented middle class that enjoyed a high living standard, but was subjected simultaneously to the turbulences of globalization and the fluctuations of the markets. Political realignments that are currently taking shape after the Crash of 2008 are related to the loss of status and purchasing power of the vast middle class formed during the postwar years. It is also of historical significance to compare various middle class responses in the 2010s to those to the Crash of the 1920s and 1930s. Although authoritarianism and Fascism were the ultimate outcomes of interwar politics, there were, and still are, viable democratic and socially inclusive alternatives.
Author: Sotiris Rizas Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing ISBN: 1527523721 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 223
Book Description
The response of the middle classes to the financial crisis of 2008 is a central theme in the political systems of most developed, Western countries. This book approaches middle class politics from a historical perspective, looking at its progression since the early 1900s. The middle classes contributed significantly and in various ways to the evolution of mass politics in the West, with middle class intellectuals oriented to social and political reform, such as Leonard Hobhouse, Herbert Croly and Leon Bourgeois, influencing the setup of politics and the building of institutions in the early 20th century, and with lower-middle class disaffection fuelling protest politics in the 1890s and 1900s. The rise of Fascism in the interwar period owed much to the perception of liquidation permeating the middle classes in the 1920s and the 1930s as a result of post-World War I hardship and the Crash of 1929-31. Conversely, mass affluence during the “trente glorieuses” was the result of the post-World War II growth strategies adopted by conservatives and social democrats alike. The rise of Thatcherism led to the emergence of a more consumerist and market-oriented middle class that enjoyed a high living standard, but was subjected simultaneously to the turbulences of globalization and the fluctuations of the markets. Political realignments that are currently taking shape after the Crash of 2008 are related to the loss of status and purchasing power of the vast middle class formed during the postwar years. It is also of historical significance to compare various middle class responses in the 2010s to those to the Crash of the 1920s and 1930s. Although authoritarianism and Fascism were the ultimate outcomes of interwar politics, there were, and still are, viable democratic and socially inclusive alternatives.
Author: David Roediger Publisher: Haymarket Books ISBN: 1642597279 Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 212
Book Description
The Sinking Middle Class challenges the “save the middle class” rhetoric that dominates our political imagination. The slogan misleads us regarding class, nation, and race. Talk of middle class salvation reinforces myths holding that the US is a providentially middle class nation. Implicitly white, the middle class becomes viewed as unheard amidst supposed concerns for racial justice and for the poor. Roediger shows how little the US has been a middle class nation. The term seldom appeared in US writing before 1900. Many white Americans were self-employed, but this social experience separated them from the contemporary middle class of today, overwhelmingly employed and surveilled. Today’s highly unequal US hardly qualifies as sustaining the middle class. The idea of the US as a middle class place required nurturing. Those doing that ideological work—from the business press, to pollsters, to intellectuals celebrating the results of free enterprise—gained little traction until the Depression and Cold War expanded the middle class brand. Much later, the book’s sections on liberal strategist Stanley Greenberg detail, “saving the middle class” entered presidential politics. Both parties soon defined the middle class to include over 90% of the population, precluding intelligent attention to the poor and the very rich. Resurrecting radical historical critiques of the middle class, Roediger argues that middle class identities have so long been shaped by debt, anxiety about falling, and having to sell one’s personality at work that misery defines a middle class existence as much as fulfillment.
Author: Ganesh Sitaraman Publisher: Vintage ISBN: 0451493923 Category : Law Languages : en Pages : 433
Book Description
In this original, provocative contribution to the debate over economic inequality, Ganesh Sitaraman argues that a strong and sizable middle class is a prerequisite for America’s constitutional system. A New York Times Notable Book of 2017 For most of Western history, Sitaraman argues, constitutional thinkers assumed economic inequality was inevitable and inescapable—and they designed governments to prevent class divisions from spilling over into class warfare. The American Constitution is different. Compared to Europe and the ancient world, America was a society of almost unprecedented economic equality, and the founding generation saw this equality as essential for the preservation of America’s republic. Over the next two centuries, generations of Americans fought to sustain the economic preconditions for our constitutional system. But today, with economic and political inequality on the rise, Sitaraman says Americans face a choice: Will we accept rising economic inequality and risk oligarchy or will we rebuild the middle class and reclaim our republic? The Crisis of the Middle-Class Constitution is a tour de force of history, philosophy, law, and politics. It makes a compelling case that inequality is more than just a moral or economic problem; it threatens the very core of our constitutional system.
Author: Joshua Kurlantzick Publisher: Yale University Press ISBN: 030018896X Category : Political Science Languages : en Pages : 404
Book Description
DIVSince the end of the Cold War, the assumption among most political theorists has been that as nations develop economically, they will also become more democratic—especially if a vibrant middle class takes root. This assumption underlies the expansion of the European Union and much of American foreign policy, bolstered by such examples as South Korea, the Philippines, Taiwan, and even to some extent Russia. Where democratization has failed or retreated, aberrant conditions take the blame: Islamism, authoritarian Chinese influence, or perhaps the rise of local autocrats./divDIV /divDIVBut what if the failures of democracy are not exceptions? In this thought-provoking study of democratization, Joshua Kurlantzick proposes that the spate of retreating democracies, one after another over the past two decades, is not just a series of exceptions. Instead, it reflects a new and disturbing trend: democracy in worldwide decline. The author investigates the state of democracy in a variety of countries, why the middle class has turned against democracy in some cases, and whether the decline in global democratization is reversible./div
Author: Richard V. Reeves Publisher: Brookings Institution Press ISBN: 0815739133 Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 52
Book Description
A better future for the middle class is no longer an aspiration. It is a necessity. The disintegration of the American Dream is more visible than ever before. The understanding—the contract—that existed between individuals willing to work and contribute and a society willing to support those individuals when they needed it is falling apart. Now is the time to draft a new contract with America's middle class. One that rewards work and service, improves upward mobility, and reduces inequality. In A New Contract with the Middle Class Brookings senior fellows Isabel Sawhill and Richard Reeves outline the foundations of what that new contract should be, based on discussions they had across the country with middle-class Americans. Sawhill and Reeves' recommendations provide solutions to issues that came up time and time again in these conversations: money, time, relationships, health, and respect. Some of the bold recommendations included in A New Contract with the Middle Class: • Eliminate virtually all income taxes paid by the middle class. • Raise the minimum wage and subsidize wages below the median with a worker tax credit. • Offer scholarships for those who undertake at least a year of national service. • Ensure four weeks of paid leave per year. • Align school and working hours and boost child care to help working parents. America is only as strong as the American middle-class. A New Contract with the Middle Class proposes a new way forward.
Author: Peter Temin Publisher: MIT Press ISBN: 0262535297 Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 288
Book Description
Why the United States has developed an economy divided between rich and poor and how racism helped bring this about. The United States is becoming a nation of rich and poor, with few families in the middle. In this book, MIT economist Peter Temin offers an illuminating way to look at the vanishing middle class. Temin argues that American history and politics, particularly slavery and its aftermath, play an important part in the widening gap between rich and poor. Temin employs a well-known, simple model of a dual economy to examine the dynamics of the rich/poor divide in America, and outlines ways to work toward greater equality so that America will no longer have one economy for the rich and one for the poor. Many poorer Americans live in conditions resembling those of a developing country—substandard education, dilapidated housing, and few stable employment opportunities. And although almost half of black Americans are poor, most poor people are not black. Conservative white politicians still appeal to the racism of poor white voters to get support for policies that harm low-income people as a whole, casting recipients of social programs as the Other—black, Latino, not like "us." Politicians also use mass incarceration as a tool to keep black and Latino Americans from participating fully in society. Money goes to a vast entrenched prison system rather than to education. In the dual justice system, the rich pay fines and the poor go to jail.
Author: Joan C. Williams Publisher: Harvard Business Press ISBN: 1633693791 Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 151
Book Description
"I recommend a book by Professor Williams, it is really worth a read, it's called White Working Class." -- Vice President Joe Biden on Pod Save America An Amazon Best Business and Leadership book of 2017 Around the world, populist movements are gaining traction among the white working class. Meanwhile, members of the professional elite—journalists, managers, and establishment politicians--are on the outside looking in, left to argue over the reasons. In White Working Class, Joan C. Williams, described as having "something approaching rock star status" by the New York Times, explains why so much of the elite's analysis of the white working class is misguided, rooted in class cluelessness. Williams explains that many people have conflated "working class" with "poor"--but the working class is, in fact, the elusive, purportedly disappearing middle class. They often resent the poor and the professionals alike. But they don't resent the truly rich, nor are they particularly bothered by income inequality. Their dream is not to join the upper middle class, with its different culture, but to stay true to their own values in their own communities--just with more money. While white working-class motivations are often dismissed as racist or xenophobic, Williams shows that they have their own class consciousness. White Working Class is a blunt, bracing narrative that sketches a nuanced portrait of millions of people who have proven to be a potent political force. For anyone stunned by the rise of populist, nationalist movements, wondering why so many would seemingly vote against their own economic interests, or simply feeling like a stranger in their own country, White Working Class will be a convincing primer on how to connect with a crucial set of workers--and voters.
Author: Cheng Li Publisher: Brookings Institution Press ISBN: 0815704054 Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 417
Book Description
Decades ago, there was no distinct middle class in the People's Republic of China. Any meaningful discussion of China's economy, politics, or society must take into account the rapid emergence and explosive growth of the Chinese middle class. This book details the origins and characteristics of this dramatic change.
Author: Bryn Rosenfeld Publisher: Princeton University Press ISBN: 0691192197 Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 290
Book Description
"The conventional wisdom is that a growing middle class will give rise to democracy. Yet the middle classes of the developing world have grown at a remarkable pace over the past two decades, and much of this growth has taken place in countries that remain nondemocratic. Rosenfeld explains this phenomenon by showing how modern autocracies secure support from key middle-class constituencies. Drawing on original surveys, interviews, archival documents, and secondary sources collected from nine months in the field, she compares the experiences of recent post-communist countries, including Russia, the Ukraine, and Kazakhstan, to show that under autocracy, state efforts weaken support for democracy, especially among the middle class. When autocratic states engage extensively in their economies - by offering state employment, offering perks to those to those who are loyal, and threatening dismissal to those who are disloyal - the middle classes become dependent on the state for economic opportunities and career advancement, and, ultimately, do not support a shift toward democratization. Her argument explains why popular support for Ukraine's Orange Revolution unraveled or why Russians did not protest evidence of massive electoral fraud. The author's research questions the assumption that a rising share of educated, white-collar workers always makes the conditions for democracy more favorable, and why dependence on the state has such pernicious consequences for democratization"--
Author: Robert D. Johnston Publisher: Princeton University Press ISBN: 0691126003 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 420
Book Description
America has a long tradition of middle-class radicalism, albeit one that intellectual orthodoxy has tended to obscure. The Radical Middle Class seeks to uncover the democratic, populist, and even anticapitalist legacy of the middle class. By examining in particular the independent small business sector or petite bourgeoisie, using Progressive Era Portland, Oregon, as a case study, Robert Johnston shows that class still matters in America. But it matters only if the politics and culture of the leading player in affairs of class, the middle class, is dramatically reconceived. This book is a powerful combination of intellectual, business, labor, medical, and, above all, political history. Its author also humanizes the middle class by describing the lives of four small business owners: Harry Lane, Will Daly, William U'Ren, and Lora Little. Lane was Portland's reform mayor before becoming one of only six senators to vote against U.S. entry into World War I. Daly was Oregon's most prominent labor leader and a onetime Socialist. U'Ren was the national architect of the direct democracy movement. Little was a leading antivaccinationist. The Radical Middle Class further explores the Portland Ku Klux Klan and concludes with a national overview of the American middle class from the Progressive Era to the present. With its engaging narrative, conceptual richness, and daring argumentation, it will be welcomed by all who understand that reexamining the middle class can yield not only better scholarship but firmer grounds for democratic hope.
Author: Sotiris Rizas
Author: Sotiris Rizas
Author: David Roediger
Author: Ganesh Sitaraman
Author: Joshua Kurlantzick
Author: Richard V. Reeves
Author: Peter Temin
Author: Joan C. Williams
Author: Cheng Li
Author: Bryn Rosenfeld
Author: Robert D. Johnston