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Americans dislike economic inequality and prefer to see it reduced. However, Americans also fail to understand the severity of the economic divide in US society between those with and without financial wealth. The refusal to recognize this economic divide between ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ carries profound implications for American public policy. Those who fail to recognize the economic divide are less likely to support redistributive efforts to reduce the divide in an era of record inequality. In this study, I document the effects of class consciousness on opinions of progressive and conservative political-economic policy-related issues. I identify the ways in which Americans subconsciously allow their personal backgrounds and their opinions about the economic divide to color their opinions of political-economic policy issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the notion that China's proposed development of ports and supporting hinterland infrastructure on the East coast of Africa serves greater geostrategic interests within Africa and the Indian Ocean. It cautions against a trend which accuses Chinese commercial infrastructural and resource development of being symmetrical with an almost colonial-like political influence. Through a comparison with nineteenth-century German and British colonialism in the region, the paper argues that, while there are certain affinities, the Chinese presence today is significantly different. Central to the argument is that Chinese port and hinterland developments are supplemented by a host of other actors, including host states, multinational corporations and regional development funds. The broader market economic system in which China and Africa engage today entails that Chinese unfettered access to projects is complicated by the interests of multiple stakeholders. The Chinese presence has been exaggerated at the expense of other actors and thus, in any future conflict, it cannot be assumed that China will be able to mobilise this infrastructure in its interests. This has implications for the broader analysis of China's growing presence in the Indian Ocean. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]