Paul Pierson Books
Paul Pierson is a professor of political science at the University of California, Berkeley, specializing in comparative politics and public policy.
Known for: American Amnesia: How the War on Government Led Us to Forget What Made America Prosper, Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer—and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class
Books by Paul Pierson
American Amnesia: How the War on Government Led Us to Forget What Made America Prosper
In this influential work, political scientists Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson argue that the United States has suffered from a collective 'amnesia' about the crucial role government has played in fo...
Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer—and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class
Winner-Take-All Politics explores how the American political system has increasingly favored the wealthy over the past several decades. Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson argue that rising inequality is...
Key Insights from Paul Pierson
The Mixed Economy
Every advanced economy is a blend of public and private, but America’s distinctive genius was how it managed that blend. For much of the 20th century, we embraced what we call the mixed economy—a dynamic balance between market competition and government cooperation. Markets generated innovation, dis...
From American Amnesia: How the War on Government Led Us to Forget What Made America Prosper
The Golden Age of Shared Prosperity
From the end of World War II to the early 1970s, America experienced an unprecedented era of widely distributed prosperity. The middle class expanded, wages grew in tandem with productivity, and the social contract seemed solid. This was the golden age of the mixed economy, when bipartisan consensus...
From American Amnesia: How the War on Government Led Us to Forget What Made America Prosper
The Great Divergence
We begin with the unmistakable numbers. By the end of the 1970s, America’s economic landscape began to shift dramatically. The postwar promise—that hard work would translate into upward mobility—started to fracture. The top one percent of earners, who had once taken home a modest portion of national...
From Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer—and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class
The Washington Shift
Something remarkable happened in Washington during the last forty years—a fundamental shift in how power operates. The center of gravity moved away from broad public interests toward those who could afford permanent representation in the capital. Lobbying exploded as an industry not of petitioners b...
From Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer—and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class
About Paul Pierson
Paul Pierson is a professor of political science at the University of California, Berkeley, specializing in comparative politics and public policy.
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Paul Pierson is a professor of political science at the University of California, Berkeley, specializing in comparative politics and public policy.
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