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This chapter examines the fundamental hypothesis of the True Wealth of Nations project—that the economic and cultural criteria identified in the tradition of Catholic social thought provide an effective path to sustainable prosperity for all—from a Thomistic perspective. After pointing out some key features of Thomas's theological framework and contrasting it with the modern day more secular perspective, it focuses on three issues. First, it discusses how Thomas understood the end of this-worldly (earthly) human flourishing in relationship to our final end, which for Thomas lies in the beatific vision. Second, turning to the question of how prosperity is understood, it discusses Thomas's understanding of the relationship between material well-being and virtue, which Thomas identifies with human flourishing. Third, it examines Thomas's understanding of material well-being in itself. The chapter concludes with an assessment of the degree to which we could or should incorporate Thomas' s perspective.

Income is the standard indicator of low-end households’ living standards. With income as the measure, the comparative evidence suggests that economic growth has tended to be the principal driver of improved living standards, though government social programs have been the chief conduit through which growth trickles down. Material deprivation may be a better indicator. With deprivation as the measure, the available evidence suggests an even stronger and more direct impact of social policy.

This introductory chapter begins with a discussion of how the US government and European countries define and measure poverty. US and European researchers and policy makers face similar issues as they seek to improve their measurement of income, poverty, and material well-being. To learn more about European efforts, the University of Maryland School of Public Policy and the OECD convened more than 100 scholars and government officials from twenty-four countries in Paris, France, in March 2009. At the conference, eighteen papers were presented in five broad topics together with commentaries by US scholars on each area. A selection of twelve of those eighteen original papers that focus more narrowly on poverty measurement along with the American commentaries are contained in this volume. An overview of the subsequent chapters is presented.

This chapter reviews evidence about two complex trends: the increase in economic inequality and the decrease in union membership. In two fundamental ways, class inequalities underlie this inquiry into both the roots and the consequences of inequalities of political voice. Inequalities of political participation are, first, grounded in disparities in income, occupation, and especially education. As this chapter demonstrates, social class has multiple consequences for differences in individual and collective political participation. Second, inequalities on the basis of class shape the content of political conflict. That is, class differences are an important source of political division. Although the list of contentious political issues in contemporary America is long and varied, there can be no doubt that matters associated with differences in income and material well-being are critically important in generating political conflict.

In 2010, the European Union (EU) committed to lifting at least 20 million people out of poverty and social exclusion, using income poverty, severe material deprivation, and (quasi-)joblessness as metrics to measure progress on this goal. As part of a broader set of commonly agreed indicators, the EU also (crudely) measures the impact of transfers by comparing income poverty rates before and after social transfers. This chapter develops a regression approach to study the effects of transfers on material deprivation by predicting the material deprivation rate before social transfers. We apply the method to pre-recession and post-austerity EU-SILC data for Germany, Greece, Poland, and the United Kingdom. We find that, in addition to reducing income poverty, transfers substantially reduce the extent and depth of material deprivation. Changes in social transfers, therefore, have a twofold effect on Europe’s poverty-reduction target.

This chapter reports the arguments supporting the expansion of ‘democracy’ from its individualistic orientations to an account more able to accommodate the concerns and aspirations of groups. It also presents some account of impartiality. It explores more closely the ‘liberal’ nature of democracy. An overview of the historical development of liberalism and liberal democracy, and their contemporary manifestations is given. It then investigates the current philosophical challenges to liberal democracy. Three underlying themes in Thomas Hobbes (individualism, rationalism, and the promise of material well-being) and one arguably non-Hobbesian notion form the basis of modern liberalism. The recognition of a dark side to toleration was always present throughout the development of liberalism as a political doctrine. The feminist critique of neutrality has at least three different components: state, norms and values, and scientific rationality. Community (group) rights are clearly distinct from affirmative action policies.