Equality and Democracy: A New Press Back-To-Basics Book [Paperback]

Philip Green (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 1999 | Series: New Press Back-to-Basics Book

The first book in The New Press Back-to-Basics Series restates the importance of equality in an age of growing inequality. What is the role of equality in today's America? What are the arguments to be made for it, now that it is under increasing attack? Philip Green, whose scholarly books on equality and inequality have become basic texts of political analysis, here reexamines this most basic assumption of our democracy to get at the fundamental questions underlying current debate. Tackling the seeming conflict between a belief in equality and a meritocracy, Green demonstrates how an emphasis on merit ultimately promotes equality rather than inequality, and shows that it is both possible and economically sound for our society to move in the direction of increased equality. Further, he shows how a true belief in equal opportunity will change the way in which we think about political representation, welfare, child care, affirmative action, and the obligations of the citizens of affluent societies to the rest of the world. Equality and Democracy takes on these crucial questions with great clarity. Without recourse to jargon, Green analyzes complex political debates around equality, explaining the range of arguments, and evaluating their potential for bringing equality back to a central place in America's future. Equality and Democracy is both an original work of political theory and a compelling analysis of the direction political action ought to take in the twenty-first century. The New Press Back-to-Basics Series is a series revisiting and exploring the basic tenets underlying American democracy. Future volumes will address such fundamental topics as liberty, taxation, and social welfare.

Product Details

• Paperback: 238 pages
• Publisher: New Press, The (February 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565843908
• ISBN-13: 978-1565843905
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,757,274 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The unreality of equality, October 5, 1999

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J. Grattan "Ideas can move the world" (Lawrenceville, GA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Equality and Democracy: A New Press Back-To-Basics Book (Paperback)

The author acknowledges and then seems to immediately forget that a society-wide ethos of equality is not even remotely attainable. Clearly a class state exists that enforces the subordination of the working class to capitalist owners as well as other inequalities. Also, the extant rhetoric of equal opportunity merely reinforces the inequality of starting points.

The author discusses a hypothetical meritorious equality that is based on the common humanity of all and a recognition of the equality of most contributions to society that then should result in near equality of reward. A democratic state would have to be a major player in maintaining this equality by, for example, being the employer of last resort for any who desired to work.

The author is unconvincing in attempting to describe the New Deal order with the rise of industrial unions as the forerunner to his strong equal opportunity society. That era of accommodation proved to be short-lived. Now capital has reasserted itself and the rhetoric of the free market is ascendent. Consideration of equality and social justice is not part of the politics of resentment and greed.

The book is somewhat dissatisfying because its difficult to get a handle on the propspects for equality and what it would entail using present day reality as a starting point. Are we talking remade men here? The author seems to lurch back and forth across the line of feasibility or even the current existence of equality. As a mostly theoretical book on equality no effort is made to compare an equality society with, say, an existing social democratic society. Its just hard to get a good feel for the substance and significance of this book.