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American Interest American Interest Pre-PublicationPublicity Copy Copy AutumnWinterVacationSummerWinter (September/October)(January/February) (July/August) ((May/June)Jan./Feb.) 200 2009 20099 2011, (Vol. 2009(Vol. (Vol. IV Vol. IV,(Vol. ,IV, No. No.VI, No. V,3 ) No.5)No. 6) 3 1) The following article, in whole or in part, may not be copied, downloaded, stored, further transmitted, transfered, distributed, altered or otherwise used, in any form or by any means, except: • one stored electronic and one paper copy of any article solely for your personal, non-commercial use; or • with prior written permission of The American Interest LLC. To subscribe to our online version, visit www.The-American-Interest.com To subscribe to our print version, call 1-800-767-5273 or mail the form below to: TheTHE American AMERICAN Interest INTEREST P.O.PO BOXBox 15115338 NorthMOUNT Hollywood, MORRIS, CA IL 61054-752191615 BEST OFFER! Yes, send me two years (12 issues) of � Yes, send me one year (6 issues) for only $39*. I’ll The American InteresT for only $69*. save $5.75 off the cover price. I’ll save 23% off the cover price! Name Address 1 Address 2 City State Zip Country E-mail Credit Card Exp. Name on Card Tel. No. Signature Date *Please*Please*Please allow allow allowallow 4-6 4–6 4–64–6 weeks weeks weeksweeks for for forfor delivery delivery deliverydelivery of of ofoffirst first firstfirst issue. issue.issue.issue. Add AddAdd Add$14 $14$14$14 per per perperyear yearyearyear forforfor � Payment enclosed deliverydeliveryfordelivery shipping to toto addresses addressesaddresses & handling in inin Canada CanadaCanadato addresses and andand outside$33 $33$33 per perper the year yearyear U.S. for forfor and delivery deliverydelivery Canada. to toto ad adad--- � Bill me later A95PPCA01PPCA91A95PPCPPC dressesdressesdresses outside outsideoutside the thethe U.S. U.S.U.S. and andand Canada. Canada.Canada. A96PPC CONTENTS Th e Am e r i c A n in T e r e s T • Vo l u m e Vi, nu m b e r 3, Wi n T e r (JA n u A r y /Fe b r u A r y ) 2011 PLUTOCRACY & DEMOCRACY 4 A Letter from the Editor: Terms of Contention by Adam Garfinkle There is no consensus about what plutocracy and democracy mean, or how they interact to shape 21st-century American politics. POLITICS 16 American Dreams, American Resentments by Walter Russell Mead 4 As went the 19th-century family farm, so goes the 20th-century homeowners’ dream. 22 Left Out by Francis Fukuyama How do we explain the puzzling weakness of liberal populism? ECONOMICS & FINANCE 29 The Inequality That Matters by Tyler Cowen Most claims about inequality are groundless. One, however, is not. 39 Hedging Risk 101 by Sebastian Mallaby & Matthew Klein We have to learn to live with a large and sophisticated financial sector. 50 The Leopard and the House Cat by Jessica Einhorn The problem with confusing uncertainty and risk. LAW 57 Courting Plutocracy by Ruth Wedgwood The legacy of American jurisprudence recognizes no contradiction between liberty and wealth—at least not yet. 107 62 Lobbypalooza by Ellen P. Aprill & Richard L. Hasen Why the law can’t trump the power of money in American politics. 74 Shells, Shams and Corporate Scams by Lucy Komisar The plutocracy is trying to neuter efforts to clamp down on tax evasion. 2 THE AMERIC A N IN T ERES T NATION-BUILDING IN AMERICA 79 The Kids Are Not Alright by Michael A. Rebell EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE It’s not just foolish to cut education in tough times; in many cases Francis Fukuyama, chairman it’s illegal. Charles Davidson, publisher & CEO Walter Russell Mead, editor-at-large 88 No-Cost Stimulus & director, The American Interest Online by Robert E. Litan Eliot Cohen Josef Joffe How to get the economy going again without busting the budget. Adam Garfinkle, editor Daniel Kennelly, senior managing editor Mark Nugent, associate editor Noelle Daly, assistant editor Damir Marusic, associate publisher REVIEWS Katherine Hall, assistant to the publisher Erica Brown, Michelle High, 96 The State of Afghanistan editorial consultants by Marin Strmecki Simon Monroe, R. Jay Magill, Jr., illustrators The Obama Administration can’t avoid state-building if it wants to cover design by Damir Marusic exit the war safely. EDITORIAL BOARD Anne Applebaum, Peter Berger, 101 The State of Lebanon Zbigniew Brzezinski, Tyler Cowen, by Lee Smith Niall Ferguson, Robert H. Frank, William A. Galston, Owen Harries, A tale of seduction, credulousness and betrayal in the Levant. G. John Ikenberry, Stephen D. Krasner, Bernard-Henri Lévy, Sebastian 107 The State of Statelessness Mallaby, C. Raja Mohan, Ana Palacio, by Henry Farrell Itamar Rabinovich, Ali Salem, Lilia Two books on anarchism suggest a new role for an old political Shevtsova, Takashi Shiraishi, Mario Vargas Llosa, Wang Jisi, Ruth philosophy. Wedgwood, James Q. Wilson 113 Is China Bad for Africa? by Brian Levy ADVERTISING & SYNDICATION On balance, no. It turns out that greed works after all. Damir Marusic [email protected] 118 Contagious Narcissism (202) 223-4408 by John G. Rodwan, Jr. The dissipation and ego that were Norman Mailer’s life have now website sired lesser children. www.the-american-interest.com Subscriptions: Call (800) 362-8433 or visit www.the- american-interest.com. One year (6 issues): $39 print; $19 NOTES & LETTERS online; $49 for both. Two years (12 issues): $69 print; $38 online; $98 for both. Please add $14 per year for print-sub- scription delivery to Canada and $33 per year for delivery to 124 Winter Note: The Wounded Home Front addresses outside the United States and Canada. Postmaster and subscribers, send subscription orders and changes of by Robert D. Kaplan address to: The American Interest, P.O. Box 15115, North A supporter of the Iraq War reckons the human costs of Hollywood, CA 91615. The American Interest (ISSN 1556- 5777) is published six times a year by The American Interest “small wars.” LLC. Printed by Fry Communications, Inc. Postage paid in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. ©2011, The American Interest LLC. Application for mailing at periodical pricing is 128 Yankee Doodle pending in Washington, DC and additional mailing offices. Editorial offices: 1730 Rhode Island Ave. NW, Suite 707, Washington, DC 20036. Tel.: (202) 223-4408. Fax: (202) 223-4489. Email: [email protected]. Wi n T e r (JA n u A r y /Fe b r u A r y ) 2011 3 PLUTOCRACY & DEMOCRACY POLITICS Things have gone deeply wrong with the American economy in recent years, but blaming the problem on plutocracy is much too simple. Left Out Francis Fukuyama he answer to the question “Is America remains as simple as those articulated above, a plutocracy?” might seem either trivial the basic answer will not change or be of Tor obvious depending on how one de- much interest. fines the term. Plutocracy, says the dictionary, This is not, however, what this issue of The simply means “rule by the rich.” If the query is American Interest means by plutocracy. We taken literally to mean that the non-rich—the mean not just rule by the rich, but rule by and vast majority of American citizens—have no for the rich. We mean, in other words, a state influence in American democracy, or that the of affairs in which the rich influence govern- country is self-consciously ruled by some hid- ment in such a way as to protect and expand den collusive elite, the answer is obviously “no.” their own wealth and influence, often at the On the other hand, if the question is taken to expense of others. As the introductory essay mean, “Do the wealthy have disproportionate to this issue shows, this influence may be ex- political influence in the United States?” then ercised in four basic ways: lobbying to shift the answer is obviously “yes”, and that answer regulatory costs and other burdens away from would qualify as one of the most unsurprising corporations and onto the public at large; imaginable. Wealthy people have had dispro- lobbying to affect the tax code so that the portionate influence in most polities at most wealthy pay less; lobbying to allow the fullest times in history. possible use of corporate money in political Of course, one can argue endlessly over campaigns; and, above all, lobbying to enable who qualifies as being rich, whether the rich lobbying to go on with the fewest restrictions. constitute a social class capable of collec- Of these, the second has perhaps the deepest tive action, how open or closed that class is, historical legacy. what constitutes real political power in to- Scandalous as it may sound to the ears of day’s America, and so on. But if the question Republicans schooled in Reaganomics, one critical measure of the health of a modern de- Francis Fukuyama is Olivier Nomellini Senior mocracy is its ability to legitimately extract tax- Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute of Stanford es from its own elites. The most dysfunctional University. societies in the developing world are those 22 THE AMERIC A N IN T ERES T whose elites succeed either in legally exempting Periods of rapid growth nearly always increase themselves from taxation, or in taking advan- concentrations of capital and hence income tage of lax enforcement to evade them, thereby inequality, but, as pro-market advocates have shifting the burden of public expenditure onto repeatedly told us, growth also nearly always the rest of society. trickles down over time to all or nearly all We therefore raise a different and more class cohorts. interesting set of questions regarding the re- As the years went by and those outsized lationship between money and power in con- gains at the top of the income distribution temporary America.
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