At a time when quotas and preferences are under attack nationwide, Barbara Bergmann courageously show that without the help of affirmative action America will never be able to attain a truly race-blind and sex-blind society, for it is naive to imagine that the abolition of affirmative action will lead to a system based solely on ability. Women and minorities do in fact need assistance in cases where prejudice or habit leads to preference for white males in all openings. Free of the posturing that has so often degraded this debate, In defence of Affirmative Action is a clarion call to maintain affirmative action as a just and indispensable solution to a chronic problem in American society.

In the labor market and workplace, anti-discrimination rules, affirmative action policies, and pay equity procedures exercise a direct effect on gender relations. But what can be done to influence the ways that men and women allocate tasks and responsibilities at home? In Gender Equality, Volume VI in the Real Utopias series, social scientists Janet C. Gornick and Marcia K. Meyers propose a set of policies--paid family leave provisions, working time regulations, and early childhood education and care--designed to foster more egalitarian family divisions of labor by strengthening men's ties at home and women's attachment to paid work. Their policy proposal is followed by a series of commentaries--both critical and supportive--from a group of distinguished scholars, and a concluding essay in which Gornick and Meyers respond to a debate that is a timely and valuable contribution to egalitarian politics.

Volume V in the acclaimed Real Utopias Project series, edited by Erik Olin Wright. Are there ways that contemporary capitalism can be rendered a dramatically more egalitarian economic system without destroying its productivity and capacity for growth? This book explores two proposals, unconditional basic income and stakeholder grants, that attempt just that. In a system of basic income, as elaborated by Philippe van Parijs, all citizens are given a monthly stipend sufficient to provide them with a no-frills but adequate standard of living. This monthly income is universal rather than means-tested, and it is unconditional - receiving the basic income does not depend upon performing any labor services or satisfying other conditions. It affirms the idea that as a matter of basic rights, no one should live in poverty in an affluent society. In a system of stakeholder grants, as discussed by Bruce Ackerman and Anne Alstott, all citizens upon reaching the age of early adulthood receive a substantial one-time lump-sum grant sufficiently large so that all young adults would be significant wealth holders. Ackerman and Alstott propose that this grant be in the vicinity of $80,000 and be financed by an annual wealth tax of roughly 2 percent. A system of stakeholder grants, they argue, "expresses a fundamental responsibility: every American has an obligation to contribute to a fair starting point for all."