1 At any given time, how we think about policy, law, and the proper role of government is shaped by a broadly shared, overarching framework of ideas that structures how people across the ideological spectrum think about the nature and aims of society, and the role of economics and government in it. [...] The power and importance of an intellectual paradigm lies in 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. [...] (Consider in this respect, the appeal of communism and fascism in the 1920s and 30s, or of New Left radicalism in the late 1960s and early 1970s.) Over the past three years, we encountered broad agreement that we are in the throes of one of these disruptive transition periods: neoliberalism has outlasted its usefulness and needs a replacement. [...] According to Anderson, to be equal and free, citizens must have the basic needs to survive, access to education and fair pay, and the ability to engage in civic and political life. [...] To prevent this, we need simultaneously to weave the emerging new ideas into an overarching story capable of shaping popular sensibilities about the appropriate roles of government, markets, and civil society; to show how this story better addresses the needs and issues of the day; and to generate a movement of people across all the sectors mentioned above to champion it as part of a common projec.
- Pages
- 6
- Published in
- United States of America
