Increasing income inequality and wealth concentration in the prosperous societies of the west

Since about 1980, personal income and wealth inequality in many western societies has increased. This is a reversal of the trend of diminishing socioeconomic inequality during the larger part of the twentieth century. Both trends are explained by relating them to the long-term growth of networks of interdependence. When and insofar as the development predominantly took place within national states, it led to the diminution of power differences between socioeconomic classes. In recent years, however, transnational relations of interdependence have intensified to such a degree that they bring about a weakening of interdependence within national states and increase inequality.