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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Brett Christophers: “The Price Is Wrong: Why Capitalism Won’t Save The Planet”
Recorded on March 12, 2024, this video features a lecture by Brett Christophers, Professor of Human Geography at Uppsala University’s Institute for Housing and Urban Research. The talk was delivered as part of the BESI Climate Seminar, presented by the Berkeley Economy and Society Initiative (BESI).
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VIDEO: Simon Johnson, “Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity”
Watch a recap of a talk by Simon Johnson, Ronald A. Kurtz (1954) Professor of Entrepreneurship at MIT Sloan School of Management. Johnson discussed his recent co-authored book, Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity, based on a thousand years of history and contemporary evidence.
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VIDEO: Peter Spiegler, “Marketcrafting”
Watch the video of a talk by Peter Spiegler, Senior Researcher at The New Institute of Political Economy, focused on his co-authored report, “Marketcrafting: A 21st-Century Industrial Policy.”
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BESI Hosts Talk by Heather Boushey, Member of Council of Economic Advisers
BESI Hosts Heather Boushey, Member of President Biden’s Council of Economic Advisers and Chief Economist to the Invest in America Cabinet.
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Podcast Features Brutger’s Paper on Private Firms and WTO Dispute Escalation
A recent podcast features an interview with Prof. Ryan Brutger on his paper, “Litigation for Sale: Private Firms and WTO Dispute Escalation.”
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Jake Grumbach Receives APSA’s 2023 Best Book Award
Congratulations to Jacob (Jake) Grumbach on receiving the 2023 Merze Tate – Elinor Ostrom Outstanding Book Award for “Laboratories against Democracy: How National Parties Transformed State Politics.”
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Panel: U.S. Industrial Policy at the Crossroads
Recorded on Sept. 12, 2023, this program brought together scholarly debates about industrial policy with a discussion of the practical challenges of designing and implementing industrial policy in the United States.
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BESI Initiative Seeks to Bridge Political Economy and Sociology
BESI co-sponsored a conference focused on how the fields of sociology and political economy could be bridged.
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Leah Stokes: “Making Climate Policy: The Inflation Reduction Act”
BESI presented a talk by Leah Stokes, a professor from UC Santa Barbara, on the creation and ramifications of the Inflation Reduction Act for climate policy.
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Wealth and Taxes: Panel Discussion with Gabriel Zucman, Duncan Wigan
BESI co-sponsored a panel featuring experts explaining aspects of the global ecosystem of tax avoidance, including how corporations and individuals move across multiple legal jurisdictions to maintain wealth and avoid paying taxes.