Emory University. He is the author of a number of books and articles. His books include The Returns to Power: A Political Theory of Economic Inequality (2023); Presidential Decrees in Russia: A Comparative Perspective (2014); and The Politics of Inequality in Russia (2011). Remington's current research concerns the political sources of economic inequality in the United States, Russia, China and Germany, as well as issues related to education, skill formation, and workforce development.
Remington applied the “Page 99 Test” to The Returns to Power and reported the following:
The material on page 99 gives a straightforward account of the way that tax cuts in the US over the past 40 years have led to greater economic inequality but not higher economic growth. This passage is one of the kinds of evidence that the book cites to show the way our policies in recent decades have been skewed in favor of the wealthy through the political alliance of powerful economic interests with policymakers. Much of the book presents similar kinds of factual evidence about other policy areas making the same point. These include our policies toward financial regulation, labor, health care, education, and antitrust, when we reversed course from the postwar era of economic regulation and labor union strength. So page 99 is a reasonable indication of the kinds of data and graphs the book presents, but the theoretical argument of the book is presented in other parts of the book. The book combines a lot of economic data and analysis with political science research to build a fuller explanation of the reasons economic inequality in the US is so high and why it has been so harmful for economic opportunity as well as for democracy.Visit Thomas F. Remington's website.
The book looks outside the US at other cases to show that a paradigm shift to economic liberalization and deregulation can have similar long-term effects--but doesn't have to. Separate chapters on Russia and China show that the opening to a market economy after dismantling a communist planned economy led to highly concentrated wealth and a stifling of any opening for political liberty. In contrast, Germany's economic reconstruction is discussed in another chapter and shown to be a case where the liberalization of a totalitarian, centrally controlled economy was accompanied by safeguards against high economic inequality and unbalanced political power. The result has been a robust democracy with a high level of economic well-being without a high level of economic inequality.
--Marshal Zeringue
Posts
