미국의 경제적 양극화와 정치적 양극화 = Economic Polarization and Political Polarization in the United States

국문 초록 (Abstract)

이 글은 미국에서 1980년대 이래 심화되고 있는 경제적 양극화와 정치적 양극화의 양태, 특성, 그리고 양자 간의 관계에 대해 논의한다. 지난 수십 년간 소득불평등이 악화되었다는 데에는 이견의 여지가 없으나, 이에 더해 자산 불평등의심화와 산업간 성장과 소득의 불평등으로 인한 이중경제 현상까지 진행되고 있어서 경제적 양극화의 심각성이 유례가 없을 정도이다. 정치적 양극화 역시 정치 엘리트와 대중 수준 모두에서 양당을 중심으로 진행 중인 것으로 파악된다. 정당 경쟁이 치열해지면서 양당은 거의 모든 이슈 영역에서 이념적 대립을 벌이게 되었고, 이러한 정당간 양극화가 유권자들을 ‘정돈’시키면서 대중의 이념적 양극화를초래하고 있는 것이다. 기존 연구들은 경제적 양극화와 정치적 양극화 간의 상관관계를 확인했으나, 인과관계에 대해서는 확고하게 입증하지 못하고 있다. 다만정치적 양극화가 초래한 ‘교착’과 ‘표류’가 경제적 양극화를 완화할 수 있는 정책대응을 가로막음으로써 불평등이 심화되고 있다는 진단이 유력하다. 경제적 양극화의 근저에 세계화, 금융화, 첨단 산업 중심의 산업구조 개편과 같은 경제적, 기술적 요인들이 작동하고 있고 이러한 추세가 쉽게 바뀔 수 없는 것이므로, 정치적양극화로 인한 효과적 정책 대응의 부재는 중대한 정치적 결과를 초래할 수 있다.

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This paper tries to clarify the nature of ongoing economic polarization and political polarization in the U.S. It has been well documented that income inequality has reached to the highest level since 1920’s. In addition, the U.S. is also experiencing wealth inequality and industrial inequality, which lead to ‘dual economy.’ That makes the problem of economic polarization worse. At the same time, polarization has kept increasing among party elites and at the mass level.
Existing studies establish that there have been some relationship between the simultaneous polarizations, but not present firm evidences on the causal relationship between the two. However we may reasonably conclude that the political polarization between Democrats and Republicans has produced ‘gridlock’ and ‘drift’ that have prevented the effective policies of ‘market coordination’, which, in turn, has exacerbated economic polarization caused by economic and technological factors such as globalization, financialization, and industrial restructuring.

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