Zócalo Public SquareIs Rising Inequality Slowly Poisoning Our Democracy? – Zócalo Public Square https://legacy.zocalopublicsquare.org Ideas Journalism With a Head and a Heart Mon, 21 Oct 2024 07:01:54 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 Is Rising Inequality Slowly Poisoning Our Democracy? https://legacy.zocalopublicsquare.org/2015/04/22/is-rising-inequality-slowly-poisoning-our-democracy/ideas/up-for-discussion/ https://legacy.zocalopublicsquare.org/2015/04/22/is-rising-inequality-slowly-poisoning-our-democracy/ideas/up-for-discussion/#respond Wed, 22 Apr 2015 07:01:22 +0000 Zocalo https://legacy.zocalopublicsquare.org/?p=59752 Back in the 1980s, President Reagan famously took a jab at the policies of Lyndon Johnson with the remark, “In the ’60s we waged a war on poverty, and poverty won.” Since then, poverty has apparently continued its victorious march. According to the Census, 43.3 million people were living in poverty in 2013—down from the year before, but way up from 2007 prerecession numbers. With the 2016 presidential election cranking up, soon the airwaves will swell with candidates’ ideas for how to remedy the woes of America’s poor. What should we do about economic disadvantage—particularly in a country that holds the concept of equality as a democratic principle in such high regard? As a preview for Zócalo’s fifth annual book prize event “Can Democracy Exist Without Equality?”, we asked scholars: What effects could increasing inequality have on democracy in America?

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]]> Back in the 1980s, President Reagan famously took a jab at the policies of Lyndon Johnson with the remark, “In the ’60s we waged a war on poverty, and poverty won.” Since then, poverty has apparently continued its victorious march. According to the Census, 43.3 million people were living in poverty in 2013—down from the year before, but way up from 2007 prerecession numbers.

With the 2016 presidential election cranking up, soon the airwaves will swell with candidates’ ideas for how to remedy the woes of America’s poor. What should we do about economic disadvantage—particularly in a country that holds the concept of equality as a democratic principle in such high regard?

As a preview for Zócalo’s fifth annual book prize event “Can Democracy Exist Without Equality?”, we asked scholars: What effects could increasing inequality have on democracy in America?

The post Is Rising Inequality Slowly Poisoning Our Democracy? appeared first on Zócalo Public Square.

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