In The Crisis of the Middle-Class Constitution, Ganesh Sitaraman explains how and why “the basic foundation upon which our middle-class constitution was based — the prerequisite of relative economic equality — is crumbling.” Obviously, economic inequality is inevitable whenever and wherever there is inequality of opportunity.

What must be done to resolve the crisis? “First, we have to acknowledge that the collapse of the middle class constitution poses an existential threat to our republic. Will we accept oligarchy and the threat of demagogues and tyrants? Or will we restore the economic preconditions for our republic?”

“Second, we can try to sever the link between economic inequality with political inequality. Campaign finance reforms, lobbying reforms, ethics and conflict of interest rules, and revolving door laws are all part of this strategy, as are broader reforms like guaranteeing the right to vote.”

“The final task is to rebuild the middle class and reduce the degree of inequality in this country. Like the reformers of the Progressive Era, we need to revive economic policies like antitrust in order to increase competition and break up monopolies.”

He wrote The Crisis of the Middle-Class Constitution in order to share his thoughts about how to prepare for and then achieve these and other political as well as economic objectives. In this context, we are again reminded of James Madison’s insight that the multiple ambiguities embedded in the Constitution made it an inherently “living” document. For it was designed not to offer clear answers to the sovereignty question (or, for that matter, to the scope of executive or judicial authority) but instead to provide a political arena in which arguments about those contested issues could continue in a deliberative fashion.

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Ganesh Sitaraman is an Associate Professor of Law at Vanderbilt Law School and a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress. From 2011 to 2013, he served as Policy Director to Elizabeth Warren during her successful Senate campaign, and then as her Senior Counsel in the United States Senate. He also served as an advisor to Warren when she was chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel for the Trouble Assets Relief Program (TARP). Professor Sitaraman has been a research fellow at the Counterinsurgency Training Center – Afghanistan in Kabul, a visiting fellow at the Center for a New American Security, the inaugural public law fellow and a lecturer at Harvard Law School, and a law clerk to Judge Stephen F. Williams on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. To learn more about him and his work, please click here.

The Crisis of the Middle-Class Constitution was published by Albert A. Knopf (March 2017)