The idea of equality has been a powerful shaping force in American
history, but as Harvard professors Verba and Often note (and they
are not the first), precisely what Americans mean by equality isn't
always easy to discern. By almost any measure, the US is one of the
most politically egalitarian of the industrial countries (in terms
of direct election of office holders, voting qualifications, etc.)
and also one of the most economically inegalitarian (measured by
public income assistance, social security payments, etc.). One
reason for this, Verba and Orren note, is that Americans tend
toward the notion of equality of result in the political sphere,
but toward equality of opportunity in economy. To get at further
nuances of belief, they did an opinion survey; and their first
mistake was to do it on leaders in business, labor, agriculture,
the media, and in "challenging sectors" - feminism and civil
rights. (Other groups include students from elite colleges, and
intellectuals.) Their rationale is that policy formation is an
important part of the equality issue, so they decided to focus on
those most involved in it; but there is no reason to believe that
an alternative vision of equality would emerge - since these
leaders of the "challenging sectors" are also part of the
Establishment. Indeed, Verba and Orren report universal agreement
that business executives are not only the highest paid sector of
the economy, but that they should be. Other unsurprising
discoveries are that businessmen and farmers tend to see poverty as
a function of individual incompetence, while feminists and blacks
see structural causes - but blacks are more inclined toward
positive government action to do something about it, while women
tend to want more barriers removed. (Intellectuals and media
leaders, curiously, show up in the middle of the pack on almost
every equality issue.) But Verba and Orren run their questionnaires
- jointly formulated and distributed by the Center for
International Affairs at Harvard and the Washington Post - through
so many statistical permutations that all but the most
quantitatively oriented readers will lose track of whatever it is
they are trying to argue. They conclude that some more advance can
be made on political equality (e.g., complete public campaign
funding) where a consensus exists, but that advances toward
economic equality in the economy are further off because of the
predominance of equality of opportunity. If they'd asked people on
the outside, the results might have been less predictable. (Kirkus
Reviews)
A model of meticulous and incisive scholarship, "Equality in
America" dissects American attitudes toward equality by placing
those beliefs in historical context and demonstrating a
relationship between political and economic equality. The book is
based on a study of leaders from all significant sectors of
American society, including top business and labor leaders, those
highest in the media and in political parties, and leaders from the
feminist and civil rights movements.
The book takes on the thorny puzzle of how economic inequality,
which is the inevitable result of a free economy, coexists with
political equality, which is a necessary ingredient of democracy.
In the course of their argument, the authors take issue with free
market economists and Marxist analysts, both of whom treat
self-interest as the driving force behind individual and collective
behavior, leaving little place for the role of beliefs and
values.
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