Class Politics in the United States :: Politics Political Essays

A distinctive feature film of US politics, in comparison with most other industrialized kingdoms in the world, is its virtual lack of class-based politics. President George W. Bush, for instance, has said that class is for European democracies or aboutthing elseit isnt for the linked States of America. We are not going to be dissever by class (cited in Harrigan, 2000 6). And this seems to be the general attitude that pervades wholly of American society, to the extent where militating on the basis of class could even be seen as culturally abhorrent. It is a fact that in the 1990s, trade substance membership accounted for only 15 percent of all wage and recompense workers, down from 25 percent in 1975. This is despite 30 percent of all workers still employed in blue-collar jobs as of 1996 (McKay, 2001 226 Vanneman and Cannon, 1987 5). between the two major political parties, the Democrats and the Republicans, there are only relatively minor ideological differences, with the f ormer leaning slightly more to the better-looking side, while the later are more conservative, though incomplete articulates anything near resembling class politics. This has led to much speculation among scholars as to wherefore this could be the case. A number of reasons have been posed, including 1. America is mainly a middle class society, with an individualistic culture high levels of social mobility and equation of opportunity, which are prized over collective action. 2. America does not have a feudal past, from which class cleavages can be drawn. 3. America is the fatest industrialized nation in the world, and therefore has an overall higher standard of living, which minimizes any potentiality for class action. 4. The American working class is divided sharply on ethnic and racial lines. 5. The American two-party system makes it difficult for bag political parties to develop. However, despite this lack of class politics, the US continues to experience some of the most e xacerbated income and wealth inequalities in the industrialized world, with the gap between the rich and the poor growing over the past thirty years. In addition, the harmonise of the population living in poverty, according to official figures, is at well-nigh 14-16 percent (McKay, op. cit. 27). This raises the question as to the nature of class in the United States, and as to how the US class structure (if one exists) is reflected in mainstream politics.