Every society needs to justify its inequalities. Without reasons that present them as something acceptable, the political and social building would collapse. From an original perspective —in which the optics of the economist and the one who wants to improve society converge, the desire to intermingle multiple social sciences and to encourage public debate—, Thomas Piketty traces in these pages the history and destiny of the Inequalitarian regimes, from pre-revolutionary France and the slave systems in America to the hypercapitalism of our days and the post-communist states with their frivolous tycoons, through nineteenth-century property owners and ruthless European colonialism. In this long and detailed journey, the author of Capital in the 21st century identifies the unfulfilled promises of the Social Democracy, the reluctance of the groups in power to undertake far-reaching tax reforms and the achievements that countries such as Sweden, India or Brazil can offer as an example to invent the participatory socialism that our times demand. Erudite and rigorous, with accurate literary winks, this work aims to lay the foundations for a new tax system - with progressive taxes on income, wealth and carbon - an ambitious form of social property and a sincere commitment to education. Capital and ideology will not only serve to interpret the contemporary world, but will contribute to transforming it.

"Thomas Piketty's books are always monumental. Just as Capital in the 21st Century transformed the way economists view inequality, Capital and Ideology will transform the way political scientists understand their own field."
Branko Milanovic, author of Those who have and those who do not have

"A book of remarkable clarity and dynamism. After learning the lesson from different historical experiences, it teaches us that nothing is inevitable, that there is a wide range of possibilities between hypercapitalism and the disasters of the communist experience."
Esther Duflo, winner of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Economics