Poverty and Power: The Problem of Structural Inequality

Most Americans persist in believing that poverty results primarily from individual deficiencies: people are poor because they lack intelligence, determination, and skills. In opposition to this dominant, individualistic view, Poverty and Power proposes that American poverty is a structural problem, resulting from the failings of the political economy, not the failings of the poor. In Poverty and Power Edward Royce argues that the current poverty problem originates from changes in the larger economic, political and cultural landscape and from a corresponding shift in the balance of power that has worked to the advantage of business over labor.

Edward Royce is associate professor of sociology at Rollins College.