The Returns to Power : A Political Theory of Economic Inequality

An unconventional perspective on contemporary economic inequality in America and its dangers for democracy, using comparisons with Russia, China and Germany. Since the economic liberalization wave that began in the late 1970s, inequality around the world has skyrocketed. In The Returns to Power, Thomas F. Remington examines the rise of extreme economic inequality in the United States since the late 1970s by drawing comparisons to the effects of market reforms in transition countries such as Russia, China, and Germany.Employing an unconventional comparative framework, he brings together the latest scholarship in economics and political science and draws on Russian, Chinese, and German-language sources.As he shows, the US embraced deregulation and market-based solutions around the same time that China and Russia implemented major privatization and liberalization reforms.The long-term result was increasing inequality in all three nations.To illustrate why, Remington contrasts the effects