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The Economic Other: Inequality in the American Political Imagination
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About The Economic Other: Inequality In The American
Product Description Economic inequality is at a record high in the United States, but public demand for redistribution is not rising with it. Meghan Condon and Amber Wichowsky show that this paradox and other mysteries about class and US politics can be solved through a focus on social comparison. Powerful currents compete to propel attention up or down—toward the rich or the poor—pulling politics along in the wake. Through an astute blend of experiments, surveys, and descriptions people offer in their own words, The Economic Other reveals that when less-advantaged Americans compare with the rich, they become more accurate about their own status and want more from government. But American society is structured to prevent upward comparison. In an increasingly divided, anxious nation, opportunities to interact with the country’s richest are shrinking, and people prefer to compare to those below to feel secure. Even when comparison with the rich does occur, many lose confidence in their power to effect change. Laying bare how social comparisons drive political attitudes, The Economic Other is an essential look at the stubborn plight of inequality and the measures needed to solve it. Review "While, as the authors argue, to compare is human, a lot goes into which comparisons we make. Whether individuals engage in upward or downward comparison makes a huge difference in how they construct inequality in their minds and their political responses to this inequality. Condon and Wichowsky argue that which comparisons individuals choose to engage in, and which ones they are encouraged to make by the media and the political machinery determines how they react. Their ability to connect the dots between economic trends, social psychology, and politics of identity construction create an engaging book with tremendous salience for the present political moment." ― Population and Development Review "[The Economic Other] explores the central role of social comparison in the politics of inequality, focusing on ways that race and gender determine the nature and impact of cross-class comparisons. . . . [The book] investigates why Americans have not demanded more economic redistribution despite the substantial increases in income inequality. . . . [and] evaluates whether these reinforcing patterns regarding social comparison can be interrupted." ― Journal of Economic Literature “This book offers a wide range of insights and valuable causal inferences, serves as a methodological model that will likely be referenced in the future, and is sufficiently theoretically overabundant that scholars and students will likely be reading and building on it for many years to come.” ― Perspectives on Politics "Why are ordinary citizens so indifferent to socioeconomic inequality? Condon and Wichowsky offer a fresh, brilliant explanation to this central question of our time: the psychology of social comparison. Looking up at the privileged fosters awareness of inequality and support for ameliorating measures, but it is also uncomfortable and, therefore, rare. For emotional self-preservation, people would rather look down at the less fortunate, which undercuts mobilization around inequality. Engagingly written, theoretically sophisticated, and full of fascinating new data, this volume is a stand-out among the many books now examining inequality." -- Andrea Campbell, MIT "It is no longer deniable that social class matters in United States politics. Condon and Wichowsky lay open how it works for the thoughts and behaviors of members of the public. Their careful and lucid analyses show us that in this context of economic inequality, people are often comparing themselves to others whom they perceive to be faring better or worse and that these comparisons matter for our contemporary politics. This is a sophisticated take that maintains a focus on gender and race and treats economic distinctions as the social and political phenomena that they are." -- Katherine J.
