CAPITAL and Ideology is Thomas Piketty’s follow-up to Capital in the Twenty-First Century, in which he expressed his concerns about income and wealth inequality.

The French economist’s intent here is “to present a reasoned history of inequality regimes” and, while he recognises that this search is not exempt from hypocrisy on the part of dominant groups, “every ideology contains plausible and sincere elements from which we can derive useful lessons.”

This last encapsulates the book — fine analysis but with somewhat timorous conclusions and solutions derived from it.

Piketty's work is similar to much recent literature on inequality. But where he shines is in the presentation of detail and data that matter, such as the fact that globally the largest fortunes have grown at a rate of 6-7 per cent annually from 1987 to 2017 — three times more than average wealth and five times more than average income.

Piketty’s solutions to inequality are basically worker participation, with half the board seats in all private firms given to workers, and progressive taxes on income and wealth that forestall the accretion of excessive money and power by the ruling class.

However, fundamental capitalist relations and motivations remain. Will the presence of workers on the boards of Big Pharma, oil companies or the international banks really change their profit-driven ethos and its implications?

Piketty aims to regulate, inter alia, with high progressive taxes and he clearly describes how such taxes during the “golden age” of capitalism from 1945-1980 contributed to the high economic growth and reduction in inequality during that period.

But — and this is the core of the problem with any capitalist meliorism — it all collapsed because its basic ethos remained. The state and much of the media still acted on behalf of the capitalist class, while the Bank of England actually worked with the City to restore the latter’s pre-eminence through encouraging the Eurodollar market, thereby undermining the international financial system.

All this culminated in the triumph of neoliberalism, with its excesses and inequalities rationalised and justified by bourgeois hegemony in the media. The same fate will befall Piketty’s “participative socialism,” as it maintains capitalist ownership, incentives and priorities.

Piketty concludes that his book’s sole aim is to “enable citizens to reclaim possession of economic and historical knowledge ... my purpose is to begin debate, not to end it.” Despite the many reservations above, he has done this magnificently.

Published by Belknap Press, £26.60