His books have addressed legal questions in counterinsurgency policy, the relationship between constitutional law and economic inequality, and the future of progressive politics in America.
[2] As an undergraduate at Harvard, he was friends with classmate Pete Buttigieg, a future 2020 Democratic presidential candidate and Secretary of Transportation.
[2] While at Harvard Law School, Sitaraman was mentored by future Senator and 2020 presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren.
[2] From 2008 to 2009, Sitaraman was an advisor to Elizabeth Warren in her role on the Congressional Oversight Panel for the Troubled Asset Relief Program.
For example, he has advocated a shift in the foreign policy of the United States away from strict concern with national security towards a broader focus on the political economy of international wealth distribution.
[15] Sitaraman argues that when significant economic inequality threatens the efficacy of the constitution, structural change is required in order to recover political stability; a successful historical example of this process is the Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution which embedded reform in a fundamental legal modification, whereas the New Deal reformers were unsuccessful in the long run because the policy changes they pursued could eventually be reversed.
[15] The thesis of The Crisis of the Middle-class Constitution, which connects economic inequality with the quality and stability of American governance, was covered in several media outlets including The Atlantic,[16] The Washington Post,[17] and The New York Times, where it was discussed by Angus Deaton.
[18] The Crisis of the Middle-Class Constitution was named as one of the 100 Notable Books of 2017 by The New York Times,[19] and was a recipient of a 2018 PROSE Award for Outstanding Work by a Trade Publisher.