Join us for an engaging conversation with Jeffrey A. Winters, '82 Northwestern University Professor, and Chris Howell, James Monroe Professor Emeritus of Politics, Oberlin College, as they examine Winters's new book, The Blind Spot: How Oligarchs Dominate Our Democracy Friday, November 6 at 4:30pm, Wilder 101.
Copies of The Blind Spot will be available for purchase and personalized signing.
Abstract
An urgent and revealing examination of how the ultra-rich dominate democracies, hoard political power, and maintain inequality that “grips like a political thriller, warns like an alarm, and astonishes on every page” (Jonathan Eig, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for King: A Life).
The wealthy and powerful few have dominated the many throughout most of human history. This is now more starkly visible than ever—a time when the gulf between oligarchs and average citizens is larger than any gap that existed during infamous feudal and slave societies of antiquity. We are hurtling ever deeper into a state of inequality that oligarchs of past eras could only have dreamed of; but for the first time in history, this domination is being accomplished through democracy. We aren’t in open revolt against the system—in fact, we seemingly keep voting to prop it up. Why?
In The Blind Spot, political scientist Jeffrey Winters delivers a timely, “provocative, accessible” (Kirkus Reviews) account of how we reached this era of in-your-face oligarchy. Tracing the evolution of wealth power through the modern democratic era, he demonstrates how domination by oligarchs isn’t a flaw in our democracy, but rather a foundational feature—one that allows the wealthy to limit the agenda, control the marketplace of ideas, and rewire the law to defend, hide, and increase their money and power.
“A work of fearful urgency” (Yanis Varoufakis, author of Technofeudalism), The Blind Spot ultimately sounds a clarion call for change, arming us not only with a vital lens through which we can understand just how bad our political reality has become, but also with bold ideas for how we might shift the balance of power.
Author
Jeffrey Winters is an American political scientist at Northwestern University, specializing in the study of oligarchy. Renowned for his groundbreaking work on oligarchs and elites, Winters wrote the influential book Oligarchy, which reintroduced the term to modern audiences and won the American Political Science Association’s 2012 Luebbert Prize for the best book in comparative politics. Winters has lectured extensively in Europe, Latin America, Asia, and the United States. His work has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, The New Yorker, on National Public Radio, ABC News, NBC News, CBS News, and PBS.
Moderator
Chris Howell, James Monroe Professor Emeritus of Politics, Oberlin College, is the author of numerous books and articles on labor politics, comparative political economy and left parties in Western Europe.
