“The Blind Spot: How Oligarchs Dominate Our Democracy”
A Zoom Conversation with Professor Jeffrey A. Winters ’82, Northwestern University
The wealthy and powerful few have dominated the many throughout most of human history. Today with politicians bought and paid for across the political spectrum, the gulf between oligarchs and average citizens is larger than any gap that existed during European feudalism or the slave society of Imperial Rome. One thing is clear: the world is heading into an even deeper state of inequality, one that oligarchs of past eras could only have dreamed of. Strangely enough, for the first time in history, this domination is accomplished through democracy. Yet we aren’t in open revolt against the system. In fact, we seemingly keep voting to prop it up. Why?
In his just released book The Blind Spot: How Oligarchs Dominate Our Democracy, political scientist Jeffrey Winters delivers a timely, incisive account of how we reached this era of in-your-face oligarchy. Tracing the evolution of wealth power through the modern democratic era, he demonstrates how domination by oligarchs isn’t just a flaw in our democracy, but a foundational feature—allowing the wealthy to limit the agenda, control the marketplace of ideas, and rewire the law to defend, hide, and increase their money and power. Now, in an extraordinary paradox, we exist in a state of “participatory inequality,” a world in which the 99.99 percent of us participate openly, freely, and democratically in our own ongoing exclusion and exploitation.
During the Zoom conversation, Jeffrey will provide a vital lens through which we can understand just how bad our political reality has become and will offer bold ideas for how we might shift the balance of power. Although powerful oligarchs do not cede power willingly, this period of shocking inequality is nevertheless an opportunity for change.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Jeffrey A. Winters ’82 is Professor of Political Science and Director of the Equality Development and Globalization Studies Program at Northwestern University. He specializes on oligarchs and elites in the United States from independence to the present, as well as in contemporary Southeast Asia, medieval Europe, and ancient Athens and Rome. In addition to oligarchy, important themes in his work include economic inequality, wealth concentration, the rule of law, authoritarianism, and democracy in the U.S. as well as in post-colonial states. He is a specialist on the region of Southeast Asia, especially Indonesia. In addition to The Blind Spot, Jeffrey has authored other highly regarded books including Oligarchy which won APSA’s 2012 Gregory M. Luebbert Award for the Best Book in Comparative Politics. At Oberlin, Jeffrey majored in Government. He earned his PhD from Yale.
