Extended Summary

As the gap between rich and poor continues to widen, the heated debate on economic inequality has become a political hotspot in the US and Europe. This development has attracted the attention of numerous academics and has been the subject of various studies. In particular, French economist Thomas Piketty’s groundbreaking analysis of economic inequality in the West occupies an important place. The book, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, is an inquisitive work that has attracted a great deal of attention in both popular and academic circles, and it offers meaningful and compelling warnings about the future of capitalism. The book has been noted for its bold and provocative predictions of the continued rise of inequality in the twenty-first century, as well as for its comprehensive presentation of detailed historical statistics on inequality. While most people can see the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer, Piketty has demonstrated this phenomenon with solid data and analysis. According to him, capitalism tends to increase wealth and inequality. So, Piketty says, it’s time to see if a few zeros need to be taken out of the ten-figure fortunes that the world’s club of billionaires has amassed.

This inequitable dynamic of capitalism is not due to the way free markets are described in textbooks (e.g. natural monopolies) or the failures of economic institutions (e.g. the failure to regulate these monopolies), but rather to the fundamental way capitalism works. At this point, Capital in the Twenty-First Century describes the dangers of socio-economic inequality in the history of capitalism. It shows how inequality can fundamentally undermine sustainable economic growth and how the damage is done over time. Piketty has convincingly documented in detail how neoliberal policies have unleashed the worst socio-economic inequalities in history. His analysis is supported by a recent Oxfam report that shows that just eight multi-billionaires own the same amount of capital as half the world’s population.

This article analyses how Piketty has provided momentum for an egalitarian agenda by examining the key conceptual, historical and normative claims of Capital in the Twenty-First Century. By addressing Piketty’s fundamental conceptual and historical claims about the dynamics of inequality, the normative claims of his explanations of inequality are discussed. Within this framework, Capital in the Twenty-First Century attempts to set an agenda for the future by addressing some strategies for an egalitarian socio-economic system as a political philosophy and by showing the role of politics in determining alternative approaches.