01 April 2008

Republican Presidents and Income Inequality in America


"My examination of the partisan politics of economic in equality, in chapter 2, reveals that Democratic and Republican presidents over the past half-century have presided over dramatically different patterns of income growth.

On average, the real incomes of middle-class families have grown twice as fast under Democrats as they have under Republicans, and the real incomes of working poor families have grown six times as fast under Democrats as they have under Republicans.

These substantial partisan differences persist even after allowing for differences in economic circumstances and historical trends beyond the control of individual presidents. They suggest that escalating in equality is not simply an inevitable economic trend— and that a great deal of economic in equality in the contemporary United States is specifically attributable to the policies and priorities of Republican presidents."

Unequal Democracy: The Political Economy of the New Gilded Age by Larry M. Bartels