RealClearPolicy Newsletters: Original Articles
Classless Society: An American Myth?
Dear Reader —
A defining feature of today’s politics is the outsized role that the social category of “class” plays on both Right and Left. Books and articles decry the “new aristocracy” and “dream hoarders” while others praise Trump’s populist “revolt.” Perhaps not since the early decades of the last century have references to class distinctions and anxieties permeated our national debates quite so much.
Though unsurprising, now, from our post-2016 vantage, it nevertheless marks a sharp turn from the days when accusations of “class warfare” were political fighting words. To invoke the category was almost taboo, an implicit betrayal of the American myth of a classless society.
But that myth was never all that American. To be sure, we are essentially a middle-class society, both economically and culturally. Politically, our democratic republic disallows hereditary titles of nobility and recognizes the sovereignty of the people. But social and economic divisions have always been with us — a fact not lost on the country’s founders.
Indeed, the existence of class divisions was one the motivations given by James Madison for our constitutional government. Though Madison’s analysis of political “factions” is well remembered today, less often recalled is that a primary cause of such factions is the “various and unequal distribution of property.” He calls it the “most common and durable source of factions,” and maintains that the “regulation” of the “various interests” created by such inequality “forms the principal task of modern Legislation.”
In so doing, Madison does not anticipate Marx so much as place himself within an ancient tradition that takes the distribution of wealth to be an essential problem — both practical and moral — for politics. Thus Plutarch tells of how Lycurgus, the founder of Sparta, after having “fashioned a … constitution” made reforms to address the “terrible inequality” and the “concentration of wealth in the hands of a few.” Similarly, Aristotle (hardly a social democrat) wondered what distribution was necessary for a stable and flourishing polis.
There is disagreement today about how to define social or economic class and how to measure inequality. And we still disagree about how — or whether — to advance policies that address these phenomena. Madison himself did not believe that such inequalities could ever be fully eradicated. The “causes of faction,” including class divisions, “cannot be removed.” Rather “relief is only to be sought in the means of controlling its effects.”
How is this to be done? Madison’s answer is the “republican principle,” which balances the interests of various factions without abolishing them through a representative system of government. This is not a panacea for all social and economic problems, but rather provides a political framework in which solutions may be sought and rival goods contested. Faction “may clog the administration, it may convulse the society; but it will be unable to execute and mask its violence under the forms of the Constitution.”
There is a tendency to see our Constitution as outdated, incapable of grappling with complex and growing problems, such as social division and economic inequality. But Madison reminds us that our form of government was a direct response to such problems. Today, when our own society is convulsed by factionalism on both Right and Left, such a vision seems rather timely.
These are some of the many issues lately taken up at RealClearPolicy. Below you will find just a few highlights.
— M. Anthony Mills, editor | RealClearPolicy
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The Case for Merit-Based Worker Solidarity. Michael Thulen Jr. urges his fellow labor leaders to commit themselves to earning rather than assuming worker support.
Republicans Need a Realistic Plan for Government Reform. James C. Capretta argues that neither the administration nor Congress has yet offered a viable plan to make government more efficient.
The Policymaker’s Dilemma: Believe Economists or Innovators? Mark P. Mills argues that predictions of a low-growth future overlook how technology drives the economy.
What You Need to Know About Congress’s DACA Discharge Petition. The bipartisan group No Labels provides an overview in our pages.
GOP Farm Bill Is Hypocritical on Welfare Reform. Caroline Kitchens argues that a Republican effort to use the Farm Bill to enact welfare reform is both bad policy and bad politics.
How Yale’s “Failed” Income-Share Experiment Worked for Me. In RealClearEducation, Blair Levin praises a controversial alternative to student loans.
Teachers Need New Tools to Make School Discipline Fair. Also in RealClearEducation, Catherine Bradshaw argues for equipping teachers with culturally responsive practices in their classrooms.
Trump’s Drug Pricing Speech Mostly Hit the Right Notes. In RealClearHealth, Sally C. Pipes offers qualified praise for the president’s plan to reduce prescription drug costs.
CDC Neglect Is Killing Americans. Also in RealClearHealth, John P. Walters faults the government for failing to treat the opioid crisis as a genuine epidemic like Ebola or HIV and AIDS.
Wyoming Is at the Forefront of Carbon Recovery Technology. In RealClearEnergy, Wyoming Gov. Matthew Mead touts a new environmental initiative in his state.
