But I have come to understand that I was leaving out the necessary bridge for getting from here (unsatisfactory) to there (utopia or at least better). And that's outlining some version of what policies need to be implemented by those brow-beaten politicians to get closer to our goal. That's hard work; a modern society with a lot of historical ills is complicated. So I'm grateful for attempts to do it.
Ganesh Sitaraman has made a very ambitious, very wide ranging stab at the problem in The Great Democracy: How to Fix our Politics, Unrig our Economy, and Unite America. Sitaraman comes out of the intellectual lineage of Senator Elizabeth Warren: she mentored him at Harvard Law School and he served as her policy director during her 2012 Senate campaign and later as a senior counsel to the Massachusetts lawmaker. If Warren had emerged successful from the 2020 Democratic primary scrum, this book would probably have been a good guide to how she'd approach the chief executive job. Given the extent to which Joe Biden has adopted many policies from his left flank, it's still probably a pretty good guide to a lot of thinking in the present administration.
Sitaraman's premise is that we are -- finally -- coming to the end of the line for the hegemonic power of neoliberalism. Social and economic policy which defers to and depends on giving free rein to private gain in markets does not meet the needs of people and/or planet. In the U.S., another way to say that is, it's time to notice that Ronald Reagan's con on behalf of the greedy has run its course.
The central failures of neoliberalism were twofold. Neoliberalism sapped society of community and solidarity, leaving people lonely and isolated and pushing us to retreat to tribal identities. And neoliberalism's preference for private action had few limits -- it created gaping inequality and, with it, unleashed the economically powerful to reshape politics, markets, and even society to serve their interests.
He proposes to replace late 20th century neoliberalism and also the liberalism of the post World War II empire with a new sort of democracy:
... the agenda for a great democracy stands in contrast to the last two eras of politics. ... Great democracy recognizes that people choose what kind of society to live in, and that includes choosing the rules for markets. ... Great democracy recognizes that politics and economics are intertwined and that the accumulation of power in one can distort and destroy freedom in the other. ... Great democracy recognizes the importance of community with shared ethics, a common tradition, and joint ambitions. ... Great democracy seeks ... to establish a public realm -- a set of shared institutions that everyone can partake in and from which everyone can benefit. ...Great democracy aims ... to pursue structural regulations and policy programs that will be simpler and easier to monitor. ... Great democracy seeks to make good on the struggle for equality by working to build social solidarity across the country. ... we need to understand it at the level of ideas and advance it through policy ...
It will surprise no one that Sitaraman has a plan for that. Name a contemporary arena of concern and it is here:
- policing, climate, immigration, media
- inequity -- corporate power, monopoly, trade patterns that bankrupt some regions
- structural failures of government -- the Senate, executive regulatory agencies, the judiciary
- democratic deficits -- labor union weakness, white nationalism, and unrepresentative institutions.
For all its comprehensive scope, this book is highly readable and always interesting. If won't satisfy everyone, but in a pluralistic society, nothing does that. But if you are ready to think policy, take a look.
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