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The Piketty phenomenon: why has Capital become a publishing sensation?

Wade, Robert Hunter (2014) The Piketty phenomenon: why has Capital become a publishing sensation? International Affairs, 90 (5). pp. 1069-1083. ISSN 0020-5850

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Identification Number: 10.1111/1468-2346.12157

Abstract

Why has Piketty's Capital become a publishing sensation? Not for revolutionary findings; its message that western societies have experienced increases in inequality of income and wealth over the long term is hardly new. Of the several reasons discussed in this article, attention is paid in particular to the book's timing and its claim to reveal the laws of income and wealth distribution in western societies. Had the book been published before 2008 it would have been much less successful. Piketty's revelation of the big trends and their underlying logic helps to objectify, legitimize and offer a kind of catharsis for surging middle-class anxieties during the Great Recession. These anxieties have been further intensified by evidence that over 90 per cent of the increase in disposable income in the United States has accrued to the top 1 per cent of the population in the past several years, and a not much lower percentage to the top 1 per cent in Britain. In the conclusion it is argued that if Piketty's forecasts are even remotely accurate, capitalism will lose its core claim to legitimacy.

Item Type: Article
Official URL: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(IS...
Additional Information: © 2014 John Wiley & Sons
Divisions: International Development
Subjects: H Social Sciences > HB Economic Theory
Date Deposited: 10 Nov 2014 12:07
Last Modified: 07 Jan 2024 01:18
URI: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/60118

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