Thoughts on Larry M. Bartels’ “Unequal Democracy”

I recently read and presented on Larry M. Bartels’ 2008 book, Unequal Democracy in a class that I’m taking this semester. I really enjoyed the book and would recommend it to anyone  interested in policy, political science, or inequality. I was particularly struck by Bartels’ ability to translate complex quantitative models into a story about partisan differences in economic policy that anyone can understand.

Bartels uses concrete data and advanced statistical methods to show that there has been a consistent trend in the United States where low and middle-income individuals fared better economically under Democratic administrations, while only the affluent benefited under Republican administrations. He shows that this is not a coincidence; the income disparity under Republicans and Democrats is larger than what would be observed by chance, or due to exogenous events. He uses time-series data, multiple regression, probits, and other methods familiar only to those who have taken a course in advanced quantitative methods, but he uses those methods to tell an artful story that seems to engage the reader, regardless of his or her training in statistical models.