Contents in Detail

Preface and Acknowledgments
Introduction
What Is an Ideology?
Borders and Property
Taking Ideology Seriously
Collective Learning and the Social Sciences
The Sources Used in This Book: Inequalities and Ideologies
Human Progress, the Revival of Inequality, and Global Diversity
The Return of Inequality: Initial Bearings
The Elephant Curve: A Sober Debate about Globalization
On the Justification of Extreme Inequality
Learning from History: The Lessons of the Twentieth Century
On the Ideological Freeze and New Educational Inequalities
The Return of Multiple Elites and the Difficulty of Forging an Egalitarian Coalition
Rethinking Justice in Ownership, Education, and Immigration
The Diversity of the World: The Indispensability of the Longue Durée
On the Complementarity of Natural Language and Mathematical Language
Outline of the Book
Part One: Inequality Regimes in History
1. Ternary Societies: Trifunctional Inequality
The Trifunctional Logic: Clergy, Nobility, Third Estate
Ternary Societies and the Formation of the Modern State
The Delegitimation of Ternary Societies: Between Revolutions and Colonizations
On Ternary Societies Today
On the Justification of Inequality in Ternary Societies
Divided Elites, United People?
Ternary Societies and State Formation: Europe, India, China, Iran
2. European Societies of Orders: Power and Property
Societies of Orders: A Balance of Powers?
Trifunctional Order, the Promotion of Free Labor, and the Fate of Europe
The Size and Resources of the Clergy and Nobility: The Case of France
The Shrinking Nobility and Clergy in the Late Ancien Régime
How to Explain the Decline in the Number of Nobles?
The Nobility: A Propertied Class Between the Revolution and the Restoration
The Christian Church as a Property-Owning Organization
The Wealthy Church versus Wealthy Families and Inheritance Practices
Ecclesiastical Property—The Basis of Economic Law and Capitalism?
3. The Invention of Ownership Societies
The “Great Demarcation” of 1789 and the Invention of Modern Property
Corvées, Banalités, Loyers: From Feudalism to Proprietarianism
Lods and the Superposition of Perpetual Rights under the Ancien Régime
Can Property Be Placed on a New Footing Without Measuring Its Extent?
Knowledge, Power, and Emancipation: The Transformation of Ternary Societies
The Revolution, the Centralized State, and Learning about Justice
Proprietarian Ideology: Between Emancipation and Sacralization
On the Justification of Inequality in Ownership Societies
4. Ownership Societies: The Case of France
The French Revolution and the Development of an Ownership Society
Reducing Inequality: The Invention of a “Patrimonial Middle Class”
Paris, Capital of Inequality: From Literature to Inheritance Archives
Portfolio Diversification and Forms of Property
The Belle Époque (1880–1914): A Proprietarian and Inegalitarian Modernity
The Tax System in France from 1880 to 1914: Tranquil Accumulation
The “Quatre Vieilles,” the Tax on Capital, and the Income Tax
Universal Suffrage, New Knowledge, War
The Revolution, France, and Equality
Capitalism: A Proprietarianism for the Industrial Age
5. Ownership Societies: European Trajectories
The Size of the Clergy and Nobility: European Diversity
Warrior Nobilities, Owner Nobilities
The United Kingdom and Ternary-Proprietarian Gradualism
The British Aristocracy, a Proprietarian Nobility
Ownership Societies in Classic Novels
Burke’s Peerage: From Baronets to Petro-Billionaires
The House of Lords, Protector of the Proprietarian Order
The Battle for Progressive Taxation and the Fall of the House of Lords
Ireland Between Trifunctional, Proprietarian, and Colonialist Ideology
Sweden and the Constitutionalization of a Society of Four Orders
One Man, One Hundred Votes: Hyper-Censitary Democracy in Sweden (1865–1911)
Shareholder Society, Censitary Suffrage: What Limits to the Power of Money?
The Inegalitarian Tendencies of Nineteenth-Century Ownership Societies
The Three Challenges of Ownership Society
Part Two: Slave and Colonial Societies
6. Slave Societies: Extreme Inequality
Societies with Slaves; Slave Societies
The United Kingdom: The Abolition Compensation of 1833–1843
On the Proprietarian Justification for Compensating Slaveholders
France: The Double Abolition of 1794–1848
Haiti: When Slave Property Becomes Public Debt
Abolition of 1848: Compensation, Disciplinary Workshops, and Indentured Workers
Forced Labor, Proprietarian Sacralization, and the Question of Reparations
United States: Abolition by War, 1860–1865
On the Impossibility of Gradual Abolition and Compensation in the United States
On the Proprietarian and Social Justification of Slavery
“Reconstruction” and the Birth of Social Nativism in the United States
Brazil: Imperial and Mixed-Race Abolition, 1888
Russia: The Abolition of Serfdom with a Weak State, 1861
7. Colonial Societies: Diversity and Domination
The Two Ages of European Colonialism
Settler Colonies, Colonies Without Settlement
Slave and Colonial Societies: Extreme Inequality
Maximal Inequality of Property, Maximal Inequality of Income
Colonization for the Colonizers: Colonial Budgets
Slave and Colonial Extraction in Historical Perspective
From the Brutality of Colonial Appropriation to the Illusion of “Gentle Commerce”
On the Difficulty of Being Owned by Other Countries
Metropolitan Legality, Colonial Legality
Legal Forced Labor in the French Colonies, 1912–1946
Late Colonialism: South African Apartheid, 1948–1994
The End of Colonialism and the Question of Democratic Federalism
From the Franco-African Union to the Mali Federation
8. Ternary Societies and Colonialism: The Case of India
The Invention of India: Preliminary Remarks
India and the Quaternary Order: Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, Shudras
Brahminic Order, Vegetarian Diet, and Patriarchy
The Multicultural Abundance of the Jatis, the Quaternary Order of the Varnas
Hindu Feudalism, State Construction, and the Transformation of Castes
On the Peculiarity of State Construction in India
The Discovery of India and Iberian Encirclement of Islam
Domination by Arms, Domination by Knowledge
British Colonial Censuses in India, 1871–1941
Enumerating Social Groups in Indian and European Trifunctional Society
Literate Landowners, Administrators, and Social Control
Colonial India and the Rigidification of Castes
Independent India Faces Status Inequalities from the Past
Successes and Limits of Affirmative Action in India
Property Inequalities and Status Inequalities
Social and Gender Quotas and the Conditions of Their Transformation
9. Ternary Societies and Colonialism: Eurasian Trajectories
Colonialism, Military Domination, and Western Prosperity
When the State Was Too Small to Be the Night Watchman
Interstate Competition and Joint Innovation: The Invention of Europe
On Smithian Chinese and European Opium Traffickers
Protectionism and Mercantilism: The Origins of the “Great Divergence”
Japan: Accelerated Modernization of a Ternary Society
On the Social Integration of Burakumin, Untouchables, and Roma
Trifunctional Society and the Construction of the Chinese State
Chinese Imperial Examinations: Literati, Landowners, and Warriors
Chinese Revolts and Missed Opportunities
An Example of a Constitutional Clerical Republic: Iran
On the Anticolonialist Legitimacy of the Shiite Clergy
Egalitarian Shiite Republic, Sunni Oil Monarchies: Discourses and Realities
Equality, Inequality, and Zakat in Muslim Countries
Proprietarianism and Colonialism: The Globalization of Inequality
Part Three: The Great Transformation of the Twentieth Century
10. The Crisis of Ownership Societies
Rethinking the “Great Transformation” of the First Half of the Twentieth Century
The Collapse of Inequality and Private Property (1914–1945)
From European Proprietarianism to American Neo-Proprietarianism
The End of Ownership Society; the Stability of Wage Inequalities
Decomposing the Decline of Private Property (1914–1950)
Expropriations, Nationalizations-Sanctions, and the “Mixed Economy”
Private Saving, Public Debt, and Inflation
Liquidating the Past, Building Justice: Exceptional Taxes on Private Capital
From Declining Wealth to Durable Deconcentration: The Role of Progressive Taxation
On the Anglo-American Origins of Modern Fiscal Progressivity
The Rise of the Fiscal and Social State
On the Diversity of Tax Payments and the Role of Fiscal Progressivity
Ownership Societies, Progressive Taxation, and World War I
On the Role of Social and Ideological Struggles in the Fall of Proprietarianism
On the Need for Socially Embedded Markets
Imperial Competition and the Collapse of European Equilibrium
From Abnormal Military Tribute to a New Military Order
The Fall of Ownership Society and the Transcendence of the Nation-State
Federal Union Between Democratic Socialism and Ordoliberalism
11. Social-Democratic Societies: Incomplete Equality
On the Diversity of European Social Democracies
The New Deal in the United States: A Bargain-Basement Social Democracy
On the Limits of Social-Democratic Societies
Public Property, Social Property, Temporary Property
Sharing Powers, Instituting Social Ownership: An Unfinished History
Successes and Limitations of German Co-Management
On the Slow Diffusion of German and Nordic Co-Management
Socialists, Labourites, Social Democrats: Intersecting Trajectories
From a European Directive on Co-Management to Proposition “2x + y”
Beyond Co-Management: Rethinking Social Ownership and Power Sharing
Cooperatives and Self-Management: Capital, Power, and Voting Rights
Social Democracy, Education, and the End of US Primacy
The United States: An Early Leader in Primary and Secondary Education
US Lower Classes Left Behind Since 1980
On the Impact of the Legal, Fiscal, and Educational System on Primary Inequalities
Higher Education and the New Educational and Social Stratification
Can One Buy a Place in a University?
On Inequality of Access to Education in Europe and the United States
Educational Equality, the Root of Modern Growth
Social Democracy and Just Taxation: A Missed Opportunity
Social Democracy and the Transcendence of Capitalism and the Nation-State
Rethinking Globalization and the Liberalization of Capital Flows
The United States, Europe, and the Property Tax: An Unfinished Debate
The Progressive Wealth Tax, or Permanent Agrarian Reform
On the Inertia of Wealth Taxes Stemming from the Eighteenth Century
Collective Learning and Future Prospects for Taxing Wealth
Intersecting Trajectories and the Wealth Tax
12. Communist and Postcommunist Societies
Is It Possible to Take Power Without a Theory of Property?
On the Survival of “Marxism-Leninism” in Power
The Highs and Lows of Communist and Anticolonialist Emancipation
Communism and the Question of Legitimate Differences
On the Role of Private Property in a Decentralized Social Organization
Postcommunist Russia: An Oligarchic and Kleptocratic Turn
When Offshore Assets Exceed Total Lawful Financial Assets
The Origins of “Shock Therapy” and Russian Kleptocracy
On China as an Authoritarian Mixed Economy
Negative Public Wealth, Omnipotence of Private Property
Embracing Debt and Renouncing Fiscal Justice
On the Limits of Chinese Tolerance of Inequality
On the Opacity of Inequality in China
China: Between Communism and Plutocracy
On the Effect of the Cultural Revolution on the Perception of Inequality
On the Chinese Model and the Transcendence of Parliamentary Democracy
Electoral Democracy, Borders, and Property
On the Single-Party State and the Reformability of Party-Managed Democracy
Eastern Europe: A Laboratory of Postcommunist Disillusionment
On the “Naturalization” of Market Forces in the European Union
Postcommunism and the Social-Nativist Trap
13. Hypercapitalism: Between Modernity and Archaism
Forms of Inequality in the Twenty-First Century
The Middle East: Pinnacle of Global Inequality
Measuring Inequality and the Question of Democratic Transparency
On the Absence of Fiscal Transparency
Social Justice, Climate Justice
On Inequality of Carbon Emissions Between Countries and Individuals
On the Measurement of Inequality and the Abdication of Governments
Overcoming Opacity: A Public Financial Register
On the Impoverishment of Public Statistics in the Information Age
Neo-Proprietarianism, Opacity of Wealth, and Fiscal Competition
On the Persistence of Hyperconcentrated Wealth
On the Persistence of Patriarchy in the Twenty-First Century
On the Pauperization of Poor States and the Liberalization of Trade
Will Monetary Creation Save Us?
Neo-Proprietarianism and the New Monetary Regime
Neo-Proprietarianism and Ordoliberalism: From Hayek to the EU
The Invention of Meritocracy and Neo-Proprietarianism
From the Philanthropic Illusion to the Sacralization of Billionaires
Part Four: Rethinking the Dimensions of Political Conflict
14. Borders and Property: The Construction of Equality
Deconstructing Left and Right: The Dimensions of Sociopolitical Conflict
The Left-Wing Vote Since 1945: From the Workers’ Party to the Party of the Educated
Toward a Global Study of Electoral and Political-Ideological Cleavages
Internationalizing the Study of Ethno-Racial Cleavages and Social Nativism
Renewal of Political Parties, Declining Electoral Participation
On the Declining Turnout of the Less Advantaged Classes
On the Reversal of the Educational Cleavage: The Invention of the Party of the Educated
On the Robustness of the Reversal of the Educational Cleavage
Reversal of the Educational Cleavage; Redefinition of Occupational Cleavages
The Electoral Left and the Less Advantaged Classes: Anatomy of a Divorce
The “Brahmin Left” and the Question of Social and Educational Justice
On the Need for New Norms of Educational Justice
On Property, from Left and Right
The Left and the Self-Employed: A Twentieth-Century Chronicle of Suspicion
Strengths and Weaknesses of the “Brahmin Left” and “Merchant Right”
On the Return of Identitarian and Religious Cleavages in France
The Rise of Nativism and the Great Political-Religious Upheaval
Religious Cleavages, Cleavages Over Origins: The Discrimination Trap
Borders and Property: An Electorate Divided Four Ways
On the Instability of the Four-Way Division of the Electorate
Yellow Vests, Carbon, and the Wealth Tax: The Social-Nativist Trap in France
Europe and the Disadvantaged Classes: The Grounds for a Divorce
On the Neo-Proprietarian Instrumentalization of Europe
15. Brahmin Left: New Euro-American Cleavages
The Transformation of the US Party System
Will the Democratic Party Become the Party of the Winners of Globalization?
On the Political Exploitation of the Racial Divide in the United States
“Welfare Queens” and “Racial Quotas”: The Republicans’ Southern Strategy
Electoral Cleavages and Identity Conflicts: Transatlantic Views
On the Fluidity of Identities and the Danger of Fixed Categories
The Democratic Party, the “Brahmin Left,” and the Issue of Race
Lost Opportunities and Incomplete Turns: From Reagan to Sanders
The Transformation of the British Party System
On the “Brahmin Left” and the “Merchant Right” in the United Kingdom
The Rise of Identity Cleavages in the Postcolonial United Kingdom
The Politicization of Immigration in the United Kingdom from Powell to UKIP
The Divorce Between the European Union and the Disadvantaged Classes
16. Social Nativism: The Postcolonial Identitarian Trap
From the Workers’ Party to the Party of the Highly Educated: Similarities and Variants
Rethinking the Collapse of the Left-Right Party System of the Postwar Era
The Emergence of Social Nativism in Postcommunist Eastern Europe
The Emergence of Social Nativism: The Italian Case
On the Social-Nativist Trap and European Disillusionment
The Democratic Party: A Case of Successful Social Nativism?
Interstate Competition and the Rise of Market-Nativist Ideology
On Market-Nativist Ideology and Its Diffusion
On the Possibility of Social Federalism in Europe
On the Construction of a Transnational Democratic Space
Building European Parliamentary Sovereignty on National Parliamentary Sovereignty
Rebuilding Trust and Developing Common Norms of Justice
Ending the Permanent European Public Debt Crisis
Relying on the History of the Debt; Finding New Solutions
On the Political Conditions for a Social-Federalist Transformation of Europe
The Separatist Trap and the Catalan Syndrome
Ideological Dissonance, Fiscal Dumping, and the Small-Country Syndrome
The Social-Localist Trap and the Construction of the Transnational State
The Construction of Indian Political Parties and Cleavages
Indian Political Cleavages: Between Class, Caste, and Religion
The Difficult Emergence of Classist Cleavages in India
On the Perception of a Common Fate Among the Disadvantaged Classes
Classist Cleavages, Identitarian Cleavages: The Social-Nativist Trap in India
The Future of the Classist Cleavage and of Redistribution in India: Intersecting Influences
The Incomplete Politicization of Inequality in Brazil
Identity and Class Cleavages: Borders and Property
The Dead Ends and Pitfalls of the Populism Debate
17. Elements for a Participatory Socialism for the Twenty-First Century
Justice as Participation and Deliberation
On the Transcendence of Capitalism and Private Property
Sharing Power in Firms: An Experimentation Strategy
Progressive Wealth Taxes and Circulation of Capital
The Diffusion of Wealth and the Universal Capital Endowment
The Progressive Tax Triptych: Property, Inheritance, Income
On the Return to Fiscal Progressivity and Permanent Land Reform
Toward Social and Temporary Ownership
On Transparency of Wealth in One Country
On Writing Fiscal Justice into the Constitution
Basic Income and Just Wage: The Role of the Progressive Income Tax
On Progressive Taxation of Carbon Emissions
On Constructing a Norm of Educational Justice
Renouncing Educational Hypocrisy, Promoting Transparency
Just Democracy: Democratic Equality Vouchers
Toward a Participatory and Egalitarian Democracy
Just Borders: Rethinking Social Federalism on a Global Scale
Toward a Transnational Justice
Between Cooperation and Retreat: The Evolution of the Transnational Inequality Regime
Conclusion
History as a Struggle of Ideologies and Quest for Justice
On the Limits of “De-Westernizing” Our Gaze
On the Civic and Political Role of the Social Sciences
Glossary
List of Tables and Illustrations
Index