Kelly And Witko Summary

Analyzing Inequality
Economic inequality is a major issue in the United States. The space between the classes is growing, with the high class getting extraordinarily richer and the middle and lower class seeing little economic advancement. Many people look to the Federal Government to solve this problem. However the Federal Government efforts are only slowing the growth of inequality not reversing it. Kelly, and Witko, analyze both the effect of the Federal Government, and the State level governments on American economic inequality in the article “Federalism and American Inequality”. Through the article Kelly and Witko, attempt to improve our knowledge of inequality. They argue that the State Governments, can have an influence on inequality.
Kelly and Witko make three hypothesis that they attempt to prove in their article. First of
Their first conclusion “both levels of government influence pre and post-redistribution state income inequality” supports their first and third hypothesis (Kelly, 2012, p. 423). Secondly they conclude that the power resource theory was a relatively useful prediction of state income inequality. With their research supporting the view that stronger unions and left party governmental control lead to “lower levels of inequality” (Kelly, 2012, p. 424). Although their conclusions supported their hypothesis, Kelly and Witko encourage interested researcher to continue the research and reevaluate they hypotheses. The article “Federalism and American Inequality” explores the issue of American economic inequality in a new way. Although this article did not present a perfect cure for inequality, that was never its goal. Simply it was an attempt to increase our understanding of inequality in our nation, and encourage both Federal, State, and Local Governments, along with citizens to use whatever influence they might have to fight