Sociology

Common knowledge and ideological critique: The significance of knowing that the "haves" come out ahead

Document Type

Article

Abstract

In 1974, Marc Galanter published a paper entitled “Why the ‘Haves’ Come Out Ahead: Speculations on the Limits of Legal Change” in which he analyzed the limits of a legal system, such as that of the United States, to achieve redistributive outcomes. He traced the limits to features of the U.S. legal system's “basic architecture.” The specific features to which he referred were a series of structural dualisms or institutional contradictions that permitted symbolic claims to universalism, public authority, and equality to coexist with particularism, private power, and inequality.

Publication Title

Law and Society Review

Publication Date

1999

Volume

33

Issue

4

First Page

1025

Last Page

1041

ISSN

0023-9216

DOI

10.2307/3115157

Keywords

United States legal system

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