This
book was written to show that ‘the forces that used to shape inequality have
not in fact changed beyond recognition’ (p. 22). This claim is justified by historical
data records and the well-documented rise of wealth and market income inequality
as measured by the Gini coefficient. The author argues that ‘Only specific
types of violence have consistently forced down inequality’ (p. 6). The types
of violence he refers to are pandemics (like the Black Death), state collapse (e.g.
the Roman Empire), transformative revolutions (as in China and Russia) and mass
mobilization warfare. His empirical results are derived from a broad economic
history literature and his focus on individual inequality in market income and
wealth is constrained by limitations in the historical data. Individual market
incomes, however, do not provide a complete picture of economic well-being in
European countries after the Second World War. Redistributive mechanisms such as
progressive taxation and public cash and in-kind transfers have gained significant
influence on the distribution of economic well-being. Several studies carried out at Statistics
Norway have shown that redistributive policies are of vital importance in most European
countries, as illustrated by data for Norway where estimates of the Gini
coefficient in 2013 decreased from 0.43 for individual market income to 0.18
when household sharing and redistributive policies are taken into account. Technological
changes and lack of relevant tax policies may continue to produce increased concentration
in market income and wealth, but the crucial and unanswered question is whether
the accompanying increased economic power of the rich transforms into increased
political power and weakening of the welfare state.