Financial Deregulation, Income Inequality, and Partisan Politics from the Great War to the Great Recession

Author

Eric Reed Keller, University of Tennessee - KnoxvilleFollow

Date of Award

8-2015

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Political Science

Major Professor

Nathan Kelly

Committee Members

Jana Morgan, Paul Gellert, Adrienne Smith

Abstract

This study examines how financial deregulation and partisan politics shaped American market-based income distribution from 1914 to 2012 through a process called market conditioning. By using time-series data analysis, I access the effect of legislative and bureaucratic financial deregulation on market-based income concentration for the very wealthy. Then, I use process-tracing to determine why both political parties converged in the 1980s to support financial deregulation. I find financial deregulation does increase market-based income for top income earners, especially the top .01 percent. In addition, I determine that both parties were captured by neoliberal economic ideology and through the bureaucracy, shaped the financial free market in favor of the top income earners.

Recommended Citation

Keller, Eric Reed, "Financial Deregulation, Income Inequality, and Partisan Politics from the Great War to the Great Recession. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 2015.
https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/3432