Political ideologies and their historical development

Political Ideologies

Paul Krugman, the 2008 Nobel Laureate in economics, published his book Conscience of Liberal in 2007. The book outlines Krugman's political views, in particular focusing on the causes of America's growing income disparity. Krugman outlines the political differences that he feels have driven the two main parties, including how those differences have come about and who is to blame for the current state of American political. He does this by examining the 20th century in the context of both income disparity and the ways in which government policy impacts this disparity. From this study he draws the conclusion that the Democratic Party lowers income inequality and the Republican Party increases it.

In the book's opening, Krugman outlines clearly the values that underlie the arguments he later constructs. He draws on the years of his youth, a time of low income disparity, as his ideal age. With income disparity low and unions strong, the middle class of the U.S. rose to prominence during this era, which Krugman views as something of a golden age. His view of the years subsequent, in particular the past three decades, is less charitable, citing the alarming growth in income disparity as evidence. He examines the entire 20th century, and concludes that unlike the mid-20th century, recent decades have taken on a look and feel more like the early part of the century, representing a new gilded age.

From this basic point-of-view, Krugman then expands on the political changes that have occurred. Krugman appears to abandon his economic training somewhat here, and takes more of an approach that shifts in income disparity among Americans have tended to be more policy-driven than market driven. This rationale is reasonable, given that domestic economic policy, or lack thereof, does to a large extent determine the amount of control over the economy that government can have.

The New Deal, Krugman argues, represented the end of the original gilded age. As unions became stronger, middle class wealth improved and the lifestyle to which we have become accustomed developed. Over time, however, the policies in the New Deal that allowed the middle class to flourish have been dismantled. Krugman takes the stance that this has occurred as the deliberate work of the Republican Party. The economic elite, he postulates, have dictated policy, resulting in tax cuts to the wealthy, the weakening of labor unions and other policies that have seen the income disparity in the United States grow. As a result of these policies, the middle class has seen its real income stagnate while the wealth of the richest Americans has increased at near exponential rates.

There is a considerable amount of blame placed in this book by Krugman towards the Republican Party. He contends, among other things, that the Republican Party's sharp shift to the right in recent decades does not correspond with the general public as a whole; that Republican politics are to blame for today's current divisive political climate; and the GOP has been taken over by a small group of ultra-right who have pushed explosive issues in order to distract from more core issues of economic equality. The civil rights movement gave the GOP the ability to exploit racism to attract southern white voters, who previously supported the Democratic Party.

Krugman also offers some solutions, including a strongly argued chapter on health care reform, increasing taxes on the wealthy and casting aside the politics of inclusiveness and Democrats reaching across the aisle.

Krugman's strength as a writer is that he is able to convey his ideas simply, including some highly complex economic concepts. However, he steers relatively clear of muscular economic writing in Conscience of a Liberal, preferring the position the book as something of a call to arms for the liberal movement. While this approach allows him to cover a wide range of ground and be fairly convincing in doing so, it also hampers his arguments by removing what should be the key to his credibility. His economic arguments strike more as a recitation of facts and figures rather than the heavy lifting he of which he is obviously capable. As his credibility stems from his work as a prize-winning economist, and this book lacks that to some extent, it seems as though the book is a long-form blog or other such opinion piece.

There is an element of urgency in his work, however, best evidenced in the chapter about health care. Krugman ties the demise of conservatism to universal health care access, something he views as the centerpiece of an egalitarian America. The conservative agenda is viewed by Krugman as not being congruent with the beliefs of everyday Americans, but rather with a small elite. He views modern conservatism as effectively on the way out, a belief backed by a contention that racism is declining and the lack of affordable health care will be the issue that galvanizes Americans into realizing how little conservatism has given them. Krugman spends little time on the "hot button" issues such as abortion and gay rights that have long driven political disparity, a choice that supports his view that these issues are mere distractions to the true discussions about the state of the economy, environment and the health of the American middle class.

Krugman has attempted with this work to create a manifesto of sorts for the left, and he appears to have been successful. Many of the topics discussed in this book remain highly potent today, from the importance of health care reform to the divisiveness of Republican politics. His arguments may not have the depth that they should, given his credentials, but at the same time they are strong enough to help clarify the Democratic mission, something that is represented in the Obama adminstration's actions thus far in their term.