Two leading US political scientists discuss how globalisation, economic inequality and democratic erosions are reshaping American political life.

Drawing on their new volume, The American Political Economy: Politics, Markets, and Power, Paul Pierson and Kathleen Thelen lay out a comparatively informed framework for understanding how business power, union decline, racial inequity, government weakness and regional disparities are impacting contemporary American politics and policy.

Meet our speakers and chair

Paul Pierson is the John Gross Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley, Director of the Berkeley Center for the Study of American Democracy and Co-Director of the multi-university Program on American Political Economy. His research focuses on American political economy and public policy. He is author or co-author of six books, including Winner Take All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class, with Jacob Hacker.

Kathleen Thelen is Ford Professor of Political Science at MIT and a permanent external member of the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies. Her work centers on the origins, evolution, and contemporary political economies of the rich democracies. She is the author of Varieties of Liberalization and the New Politics of Social Solidarity. Her awards include the Friedrich Schiedel Prize for Politics & Technology (2021) and the Aaron Wildavsky Enduring Contribution Prize (2019).

Peter Trubowitz (@ptrubowitz) is Professor of International Relations and Director of the Phelan US Centre at the London School of Economics and Political Science and Associate Fellow at Chatham House.

More about this event

The LSE's Phelan United States Centre (@LSE_US) is a hub for global expertise, analysis and commentary on America. Our mission is to promote policy-relevant and internationally-oriented scholarship to meet the growing demand for fresh analysis and critical debate on the United States.

You can order the book, The American Political Economy: Politics, Markets and Power, (UK delivery only) from our official LSE Events independent book shop, Pages of Hackney.

This event forms part of LSE’s Shaping the Post-COVID World initiative, a series imagining what the world could look like after the crisis, and how we get there.

Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEUSCapitalism

Podcast & Video

A podcast of this event is available to download from Rethinking American Political Economy.

A video of this event is available to watch at Rethinking American Political Economy.

Podcasts and videos of many LSE events can be found at the LSE Public Lectures and Events: podcasts and videos channel.