How is the marked rise in economic inequality affecting civic participation and political expression in the United States? Is the growing gap between the very wealthy and everyone else influencing whose voice is determining political and policy issues? What are the implications of extreme economic inequality for the democratic ideal of “one person, one vote”?
These questions laid the foundation for a timely and lively conversation at the panel discussion, “Economic Inequality and Political Participation — Whose Voice Is Heard?” co-sponsored by LWVMA and Bentley University’s Valente Center for the Arts and Sciences, held on March 19, 2015.
Noah Berger, Executive Director, Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center; Katherine Levine Einstein, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Boston University; and Kay Schlozman, J. Joseph Moakley Professor of Political Science, Boston College were the speakers. Juliet Gainsborough, Associate Professor of Political Science at Bentley, moderated, and Bentley Dean Dan Everett and LWVMA Co-President Anne Borg introduced the event. Audience members participated with penetrating and thought-provoking questions.
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