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Full-Text Articles in Inequality and Stratification
Personal Responsibility For Systemic Inequality, Martha T. Mccluskey
Personal Responsibility For Systemic Inequality, Martha T. Mccluskey
Contributions to Books
Published as Chapter 15 in Research Handbook on Political Economy and Law, Ugo Mattei & John D. Haskell, eds.
Equality has faded as a guiding ideal for legal theory and policy. An updated message of personal responsibility has helped rationalize economic policies fostering increased inequality and insecurity. In this revised message, economic “losers” should take personal responsibility not only for the harmful effects of their individual economic decisions, but also for the harmful effects of systemic failures beyond their individual control or action. In response to the 2008 financial crisis, this re-tooled message of personal responsibility promoted mass austerity in …
How The "Unintended Consequences" Story Promotes Unjust Intent And Impact., Martha T. Mccluskey
How The "Unintended Consequences" Story Promotes Unjust Intent And Impact., Martha T. Mccluskey
Journal Articles
In the guise of critical analysis of the limits of law reform, the familiar phrase “unintended consequences” serves to rationalize rising inequality and to undermine democratic accountability. This paper examines how the phrase promotes a story of disentitlement, using the recent financial crisis as an example. By naturalizing inequality as power beyond law’s reach, this phrase’s message that benign law is likely to bring unequal consequences dovetails with a seemingly contradictory message that benign intent, rather than harmful impact, is what primarily counts for evaluating inequality.
As part of a LatCrit XV symposium taking a “bottom-up” view of the recent …