Ben Ansell research quoted in New York Times
A New York Times opinion piece (20 December) draws on insight from Ben Ansell’s 2015 book, "Inequality and Democratization", to support the author’s arguments about the worrying lack of democratic process exhibited in the latest US tax reform bill.
Ben’s co-authored 2015 book is used by the author to help refute the idea that there is "an inherent conflict between democracy and the integrity of property rights" - that is, democracy impedes the ability to accumulate and maintain wealth through demands for wealth redistribution through taxation.
“In Inequality and Democratization,” the article states, “the political scientists Ben W. Ansell and David J. Samuels show that this demand for political inclusion generally isn’t driven by a desire to use the existing institutions to plunder the elites. It’s driven by a desire to keep the elites from continuing to plunder them.”
Read the full New York Times article, entitled ‘The Tax Bill Shows the G.O.P.’s Contempt for Democracy.'