2011 David Easton Award, presented for the best book by the
Foundations of Political Theory section of APSA: "The Future of
Democratic Equality, by Joseph Schwartz, takes on three tasks, and
accomplishes all brilliantly. Any one of these tasks well fulfilled
would have been a laudable achievement. First, Schwartz argues for
the centrality of the question of equality to democratic politics.
Second, he critically analyzes and explains the shocking rise in
inequality in the United States over the last three decades. This
he does with conceptual clarity, rich interdisciplinary analysis,
and a thorough examination of hard socioeconomic data. Third, he
assails the near absence of concern for this soaring inequality
among contemporary political theorists, and offers a cogent, and
stinging, explanation that takes to task the discipline's
preoccupation with difference and identity severed from the
pragmatics of democratic equality. The Future of Democratic
Equality is a courageous and disciplined effort to tackle a hugely
important political problem and intellectual puzzle. It well
embodies the spirit of the Easton Book Award by providing
well-grounded normative theory targeted to an urgent matter of
contemporary concern. It is a must read for anyone who cares about
democracy." - Respectfully submitted by Leslie Paul Thiele,
University of Florida (chair) and Cary J. Nederman, Texas A&M
University Why has contemporary radical political theory remained
virtually silent about the stunning rise in inequality in the
United States over the past thirty years? Schwartz contends that
since the 1980s, most radical theorists shifted their focus away
from interrogating social inequality to criticizing the liberal and
radical tradition for being inattentive to the role of difference
and identity within social life. This critique brought more
awareness of the relative autonomy of gender, racial, and sexual
oppression. But, as Schwartz argues, it also led many theorists to
forget that if difference is institutionalized on a terrain of
radical economic inequality, unjust inequalities in social and
political power will inevitably persist. Schwartz cautions against
a new radical theoretical orthodoxy: that "universal" norms such as
equality and solidarity are inherently repressive and homogenizing,
whereas particular norms and identities are truly emancipatory.
Reducing inequality among Americans, as well as globally, will take
a high level of social solidarity--a level far from today's
fragmented politics. In focusing the left's attention on the need
to reconstruct a governing model that speaks to the aspirations of
the majority, Schwartz provocatively applies this vision to such
real world political issues as welfare reform, race relations,
childcare, and the democratic regulation of the global economy.
General
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