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Upper Class Bias and Class Conflict in America

  • Christopher Witko EMAIL logo
From the journal The Forum

Abstract

Compared to other affluent democracies, class conflict has not been very intense nor as much of an organizing principle in American politics. However, as wages stagnate for the working class and economic inequality grows, class conflict is becoming increasingly salient. Yet, reviewing recent political science studies, I argue that rather than politics becoming a clearer class “war” between the upper and lower classes, the growing class bias in political mobilization and participation, and the resulting overrepresentation of upper class actors, has prevented a clear articulation of lower class interests or the development of broad policies that benefit virtually all Americans, leading to policies that increasingly benefit upper class individuals and organizations.


Corresponding author: Christopher Witko, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, The University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, USA

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Published Online: 2017-5-17
Published in Print: 2017-4-25

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