Extreme wealth inequality makes common legislation impossible in a democracy
Evidence
Democracy does not require absolute social and economic equality, but it cannot withstand large and fixed extremes of wealth and poverty, because these undermine the work of legislating in common. As Jean-Jacques Rousseau insisted, when such extremes prevail, shared values vanish, and class powers and resentments become decisive, making the act of combining to rule together impossible. Precisely such extremes have been generated in the United States over the past thirty years through neoliberal deregulation and the dismantling of public institutions that served modest redistributive functions and advanced equal opportunity over inherited privilege. — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 363
Categorization
- XREF: Revives Rousseau’s argument from On the Social Contract, sharing ground with Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century on inequality dynamics. — connects to: Unchecked market forces produce wealth divergence threatening democracy — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 136; Rousseau held that bounded wealth inequality is required for democratic law — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s…, 654; Formal political equality masks deep economic servitude that hollows out democracy — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism: An Intervention, 406 (+10 more)
Broader Connections
- Formal political equality masks deep economic servitude that hollows out democracy
#expands(0.82) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 406 - Political freedom is impossible without economic freedom
#expands(0.78) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 407 - Voluntary agreement is impossible between parties of unequal power
#complicates(0.75) - Escaping inequality requires political contestation, not moral or legal transcendence
#expands(0.75) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 457 - Substantive democracy in a caste society requires deliberately equalizing the value of devalued citizens
#expands(0.74) — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 1321 - Formal legal equality masks substantive inequality between rich and poor
#corroborates(0.72) - Neoliberal rationality makes inequality normal and normative in democracy
#expands(0.72) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 63 - Subordinating politics to markets failed to produce either freedom or equality
#corroborates(0.72) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 457 - Democratic existence needs wealth limits, public-good citizenship, and discerning citizens
#expands(0.72) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 365 - Formal legal equality alone cannot produce fair outcomes after generations of structural disadvantage.
#corroborates(0.72) — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 986