BESI’s Capitalism and Democracy Research Cluster brings together UC Berkeley faculty and researchers from across political science, law, and public policy to identify the challenges to effective democratic governance and develop politically viable solutions.
Our research focuses on the contemporary United States, where the world’s foremost economy coexists uneasily with besieged and crisis-ridden institutions. In particular, we investigate how the preferences and behavior of powerful economic interests — extraordinarily wealthy individuals, large corporations, and business associations — play an outsized role in politics.
Our work reveals how a rapidly changing and highly unequal economy contributes to political gridlock, rising discontent, and institutional instability. Our task is ultimately to identify the preconditions for building a sustainable balance between the demands of capitalism and the imperative of democratic citizenship.
The latest in Capitalism & Democracy
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Yoni Appelbaum and Jerusalem Demsas on Housing, Mobility, and the Thwarting of Economic Opportunity
On March 11, BESI welcomed Yoni Appelbaum and Jerusalem Demsas for a highly anticipated conversation on America’s housing crisis and the decline of mobility in this country. Appelbaum and Demsas, both journalists at The Atlantic, have recently offered long-form critiques on the topic. In his book, Stuck: How the Privileged and the Propertied Broke the…
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Panel: ‘Democratic Backsliding in the United States’
Legal and political scholars contextualize the rapidly infolding constitutional crisis.
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BESI Director Paul Pierson Joins KQED’s ‘Forum’ for Discussion on Billionaires in the White House
Are we now a ‘broligarchy’? A record 13 billionaires could end up serving in Trump’s administration.
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BESI Director Paul Pierson’s ‘Partisan Nation’ Featured in Opportunity Now
Berkeley Political Economy program director Steven Vogel was also invited to share a book recommendation.
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Designated Emphasis in Political Economy Student Co-Authors Paper in Leading Poli-Sci Journal
Lobo and Brutger’s collaboration began when Lobo enrolled in Brutger’s political science graduate course.
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BESI in the news
BESI Director Paul Pierson and BESI Climate lead Jonas Meckling recently offered insights in the New York Times.
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Susan Helper: “Industrial Strategy: Theory And Practice”
Recorded on April 19, this video features a talk by Susan Helper, Carlton Professor of Economics at Case Western Reserve University and former Senior Advisor for Industrial Strategy in the Biden Administration. Professor Helper reflects on her experience designing and implementing strategies for supply chains such as electric vehicles, personal protective equipment, and clean energy.
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Has US Antitrust Reached A Turning Point? A Panel Discussion
The Biden administration has taken some bold moves to rein in big tech and to challenge market concentration more broadly. Who is winning this battle and why? What are the possibilities for and constraints on a fundamental shift in market power in America? Watch the video of a BESI panel bringing together scholars who study…
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Nick Romeo: “The Alternative: How To Build A Just Economy”
Recorded on March 19, 2024, this video features a talk by Nick Romeo, New Yorker journalist and lecturer at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, focused on his book, The Alternative: How to Build a Just Economy. The discussant was Sarang Shah, PhD student in the UC Berkeley Department of Political Science. The talk…
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Moving The Needle: What Tight Labor Markets Do For The Poor
Recorded on March 12, this panel focused on the book Moving the Needle: What Tight Labor Markets Do for the Poor, by Katherine S. Newman, UC System Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and UC Berkeley Chancellor’s Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Public Policy, and Elisabeth S. Jacobs, Deputy Director, WorkRise and Associate Vice President, Executive…