We must overhaul ‘the labor code and, more generally, the entire legal system’ to achieve ‘a just wage’ for everyone and ‘a more equal distribution of economic power’ (1003). Workers should have ‘half the board seats in all private firms, large or small’ and we should create ‘true social ownership of capital’ (972). First, Piketty calls for extending the right to vote to workers in all enterprises. With inequality out of control, Piketty’s answer is democratic socialism. This review engages three key ideas in Capital and Ideology: first, what democratic socialism involves second, how votes in our economic constitution are even more unequal than wealth inequality and third, how laws build markets and power sets prices. So, if things are going wrong, we should have a better ideology. Our era ‘wants to see itself as postideological but is in reality saturated by ideology’ (961). Piketty argues all societies use ideology to legitimise inequality this ‘dominant narrative’ leads to rules and rules entrench inequality (1). ‘So if you read only one, please read this one!’ Personally, I would read both: while Capital in the Twenty-First Century has a positive thesis that with our current laws, the rate of return to capital exceeds the rate of growth (r > g), Capital and Ideology builds a normative thesis, driven by this data, that we should adopt democratic or ‘participatory socialism’. ‘I think this is a much better book than the previous one,’ said Piketty, referring to Capital in the Twenty-First Century (2014). Thomas Piketty’s Capital and Ideologyis an encyclopaedic, rewarding work that merits thoughtful engagement.

Thomas Piketty (translated by Arthur Goldhammer). This encyclopaedic, rewarding work merits thoughtful engagement and is essential reading, writes Ewan McGaughey. In Capital and Ideology, Thomas Piketty proposes a vision for a fairer economic system grounded in ‘participatory’ socialism.

Capital ideology piketty