The Crisis of the Middle-Class Constitution by Ganesh Sitaraman

The Crisis of the Middle-Class Constitution by Ganesh Sitaraman

In this original, provocative contribution to the debate over economic inequality, Ganesh Sitaraman argues that a strong and sizable middle class is a prerequisite for America's constitutional system.

For most of Western history, Sitaraman argues, constitutional thinkers assumed economic inequality was inevitable and inescapable--and they designed governments to prevent class divisions from spilling over into class warfare. The American Constitution is different. Compared to Europe and the ancient world, America was a society of almost unprecedented economic equality, and the founding generation saw this equality as essential for the preservation of America's republic. Over the next two centuries, generations of Americans fought to sustain the economic preconditions for our constitutional system. But today, with economic and political inequality on the rise, Sitaraman says Americans face a choice: Will we accept rising economic inequality and risk oligarchy or will we rebuild the middle class and reclaim our republic?

The Crisis of the Middle-Class Constitution is a tour de force of history, philosophy, law, and politics. It makes a compelling case that inequality is more than just a moral or economic problem; it threatens the very core of our constitutional system.

GANESH SITARAMAN is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and a professor of law at Vanderbilt Law School. Senator Elizabeth Warren has had him as her policy director and senior counsel for a long time. Sitaraman has written about foreign and domestic policy for publications such as The New York Times, The New Republic, The Boston Globe, and The Christian Science Monitor, and is the author of The Counterinsurgent's Constitution: Law in the Age of Little Wars, which won the Palmer Civil Liberties Award in 2013. He is a Harvard Law School graduate who served as an editor on the Harvard Law Review.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781101973455
ISBN 10	1101973455
Title	The Crisis of the Middle-Class Constitution
Author	Ganesh Sitaraman
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Random House USA Inc
Year published	2018-02-06
Number of pages	432
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.