Purpose – This critique of Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century summarizes and comments on the main tenets of the author’s principal theory. The author's aim is to point out the book’s contributions to a critical debate around social and economic issues, while giving special...

Purpose: This critique of Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century summarizes and comments on the main tenets of the author's principal theory. Our aim is to point out the book's contributions to critical debate around social and economic issues, while giving special emphasis to its...

The success of Piketty's book can be explained by several factors. A first factor is the contrast between his defense of a reasonably egalitarian and meritocratic vision of society, shared by European and American readers, and his convincing argument that that meritocracy system is under serious...