ECONOMY AND SOCIETY INITIATIVE - GRANTMAKING STRATEGY - December 2020

The power and importance of an intellectual paradigm, rather, comes from how it structures the rules of the game and shapes how the various political and lay actors understand their interests, beliefs, and material needs—putting a thumb on the scale in favor of some arguments and against others, while concealing or obscuring options that fall too far outside its central premises. [...] When a paradigm ceases to be helpful in understanding the world and solving practical problems—typically because of changes in both the world and the ideas that comprise the paradigm—there is a period of political and ideological turbulence until a successor emerges that likewise structures our political imagination, but differently. [...] Second, we are in the midst of a period of rapid change akin to the rise of capitalism in the early 17th century or the second industrial revolution in the late 19th century. [...] Signs of this were already unmistakable in the 2016 election and the rejection of “establishment” candidates in both parties, but the disruption of the neoliberal consensus has advanced much further in the subsequent three years. [...] Either way, the idea is to use the foundation’s resources, including those beyond the grant dollars, to grow communities of thinkers focused on generating new ideas about political economy—a kind of modern-day version of the Mont Pèlerin Society in the form of mini-Mont Pèlerins.