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This course is about the distribution of power in contemporary democratic societies, and especially in the US: who governs? Is there a ``power elite?'' Or, does public policy making accommodate a wide range of interests? What is the relationship between income and power? What are the political consequences of increasing income inequality? What are the implications of racial and ethnic inequities for the quality of democratic representation? Which policies increase political inequities? What are effective remedies for unequal influence? Finally, which institutions move democratic practice furthest towards full democratic equality? This course will address these questions, focusing first on the local distribution of power, and then in state and national levels of government, in a broadly comparative context. Students will have the opportunity to work with income and labor force surveys in a mid-term assignment, and in a final paper, to examine different dimensions of American inequality and their implications for the quality of American democracy.