Abstract
‘Politics in the new Gilded Age’ explores how the debate over unequal riches has migrated into party politics. Democratic politicians take stronger positions against income inequality than most Republicans. Republicans argue that smaller government and encouragement of the private sector will lift fortunes for all. The parties raise much of their national campaign money from a fairly small donor base that comprises about 10 percent of the ordinary public. However, political parties and elections engage and represent regular citizens. Americans may be economically unequal, but the party system tends to equalize them politically. The super-rich, divided as they are between the two parties, cannot control elections and their outcomes.
