Beyond left-right: teaching inequality with four ideological lenses Online publication date: Mon, 11-Jun-2018
by Oliver Cooke; Patrick Dolenc; Kimberly Schmidl-Gagne
International Journal of Pluralism and Economics Education (IJPEE), Vol. 9, No. 1/2, 2018
Abstract: We believe the economic inequality experienced in many Western countries today threatens democratic principles. Exposing today's undergraduates to the debate over inequality is therefore vitally important. Yet, political discourse surrounding controversial public policy issues, like economic inequality, continues to grow increasingly polarised and adversarial. While we embrace controversy and intellectual disagreement in our classrooms, we believe students should be taught to think in ways that move beyond divisive dichotomies that are often framed as mutually exclusive. The traditional left-right debate over inequality in the USA is representative of this type of discourse. The pedagogical framework described here, which revolves around four political ideologies, circumvents this usual left-right constraint. By allowing students to explore the issue of inequality in a multidimensional political space, our framework engenders a more nuanced and less polarised discourse on inequality.
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