Inequality and You

Summary

The debate surrounding inequality has been prevalent in political and economic thought since the French Revolution. From then on, we have lived through different periods in which levels of inequality have fluctuated considerably. The current debate about inequality is marked by a sharp division between conservative and progressive approaches. On one hand, there are those who claim that modern differences in people’s wealth are the product of property, entrepreneurship and meritocracy. On the other, a more progressive block believes that inequality is neither economic, social or biological but instead, ideological and historical. For these thinkers, inequality could be fixed with policy making and civil society empowerment.

Professor’s bio

Dr. Martinez-Tapia received both his BA and Ph.D. from Universidad Complutense de Madrid in Political Science with an emphasis on political parties in comparative perspective. He also gained his MA in International Relations from the University of Manchester (U.K.) and has been visiting scholar at the Center for the Study of Democracy in the University of California, Irvine and at Harvard University’s Dept. of Government. Outside academia, he served as communication advisor to the Vicepresident of Spain from 2005 to 2007 with mainly speechwriting responsibilities. His most recent book, Los problemas no resueltos de la democracia. Centro y periferia en España (Madrid: Arrebato Libros, 2016), prologued by Arend Lijphart, analyses the political strategies of nationalist parties in Basque Country and Catalonia from and elite behavior’s perspective, using Manifesto Research Group content analysis data.