A Tolerance for Inequality
American Public Opinion and Economic Policy
Format:Hardback
Publisher:The University of Chicago Press
Published:14th Nov '25
Should be back in stock very soon
A nuanced reassessment of US democratic responsiveness and public opinion on economic policy that explores the real reasons government does not do more to mitigate inequality.
Many believe that the United States’ growing economic inequality is the result of a political system that has been captured by wealthy elites. But is economic capture actually the problem? In A Tolerance for Inequality, Andrew J. Taylor examines this question from multiple angles, drawing on public opinion data and analyses of representation in Congress. Taylor finds that economic policy outcomes are more reflective of public opinion than the common wisdom suggests.
Broadly, less-affluent Americans’ policy preferences are not meaningfully different from the preferences of other Americans, and Washington is responsive to these preferences. Although politicians are more affluent, on average, than most Americans, this does not prevent them from representing the economic views of their poorer constituents. Today’s Democratic Party is more interested in regulation and supplying public goods than redistributing wealth downwards, and political reforms designed to provide more equal outcomes are largely misguided. In short, Americans get the kind of economy they at least say they want.
“Some political scientists argue that American society and public opinion abhor economic inequality and that it is harmful to democracy. This book challenges that view, arguing that aggregate public opinion in the United States shows greater support for inequality than is commonly assumed and far less divergence between higher-and lower-income groups than expected…the book is worth reading and appropriate for collections on American politics and public opinion.”
* Choice *“Economic inequality is high and rising, without much political response. Most stay that’s because our political institutions overrepresent the views of the rich. But Andrew Taylor finds that poor Americans don’t prioritize solving inequality or redistributive policy. They want their representatives to focus more on distributive politics and constituency service and that’s what they do. It’s a corrective to a lot of common social science assumptions.”
* The Science of Politics *“Drawing from decades of research on public opinion and public policy, Taylor challenges the conventional wisdom that American policymaking has a strong upper-class bias. Meticulously researched and carefully written, Taylor’s book reframes the debate on inequality in American politics. Just as importantly, it encourages political scientists to think deeply about how our own biases and preconceptions affect the questions that we ask and the answers that we find.” -- Christopher Ellis | Bucknell University
“A Tolerance for Inequality breaks new ground and makes a significant intellectual contribution by focusing on those areas where the connections between economic and political inequality are least established. Taylor evaluates claims about the role of inequality in American politics, countering the view that economic inequality leads to overwhelming political inequality. The result is a point-by-point examination that not only raises important qualifications but proposes valuable alternative interpretations.” -- Matt Grossmann | author of "How Social Science Got Better: Overcoming Bias with More Evidence, Diversity, and Self-Reflect
ISBN: 9780226843636
Dimensions: 229mm x 152mm x 28mm
Weight: 567g
320 pages