Capitalist democracy needs rethinking and renewal. Our current political economic framework—fixated on GDP, individual achievement, and short-term profit—has failed to ensure the flourishing of all. It has irreversibly changed Earth’s ecology and caused existential climate crises; it has reinforced systemic racism; and it has alienated us from our institutions and each other. We know it doesn’t need to be this way, but what are the alternatives? How can we reconfigure our systems to secure economic well-being for all, as well as a sense of community, meaningful work, and joy? And what steps must we take to ensure our new approaches are (and will remain) sustainable?
The Winter 2023 issue of Dædalus on “Creating a New Moral Political Economy,” guest edited by Margaret Levi and Henry Farrell, offers a range of ideas to combat unequal footing across the polity, marketplace, and workplace. By asking us to rethink the collective goals of a society and its means of gauging success, the contributors spark a new discourse that places the health and well-being of the people on par with the wealth of nations. Across eleven main essays and twenty-two responses, the authors commit to social movements that prioritize collective, equitable, and respectful responsibility for care of the earth and its people.
Contents: Essays and Responses
Mobilizing in the Interest of Others
Margaret Levi & Zachary Ugolnik
Foundations of an Expanded Community of Fate
Samuel Bowles & Wendy Carlin
Reimagining Political Economy Without “Yanking on a Thread before It’s Ready”
Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar
Governance for Human Social Flourishing
Jenna Bednar
All (Cautiously) Hail–and Scale–Community!
Prerna Singh
Power to Pursue Happiness
Joseph Kennedy III
Caregiving in Philosophy, Biology & Political Economy
Alison Gopnik
Care Is a Relationship
Anne-Marie Slaughter
Egalitarian Pluralism
Steven M. Teles
Biophilic Institutions: Building New Solidarities between the Economy & Nature
Natasha Iskander & Nichola Lowe
Biophilic Markets
Eric D. Beinhocker
Biophilia & Military Degrowth
Julie Livingston
Making Decent Jobs
John S. Ahlquist
Eudaimonic Jobs
Suresh Naidu
Mutual Aid as Spiritual Sustenance
Michelle Miller
Supply Chains & Working Conditions During the Long Pandemic: Lessons for a New Moral Political Economy?
Richard M. Locke, Ben Armstrong, Samantha Schaab-Rozbicki & Geordie Young
Doing Well by Doing Right
Joshua Cohen
Unchaining Workers
R. Alta Charo
Identity Group Stratification, Political Economy & Inclusive Economic Rights
Grieve Chelwa, Darrick Hamilton & Avi Green
Reducing the Transactional Value of Identity & Race
Henry Farrell & Margaret Levi
Neoliberal Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for (Some) Economists to Talk about Racism
Manuel Pastor
Democracy & “Noxious” Markets
Debra Satz
Is There a Proper Scope for Markets?
Marc Fleurbaey
How Should We Govern Housing Markets in a Moral Political Economy?
Chloe Thurston
Moral Firms?
Rebecca Henderson
Are Moral Firms Committed Firms?
Colin Mayer
Can Firms Act Morally?
Margaret O’Mara
The Moral Economy of High-Tech Modernism
Henry Farrell & Marion Fourcade
The Structuring Work of Algorithms
danah boyd
High-Tech Modernism: Limits & Extensions
William H. Janeway
Governance Archaeology: Research as Ancestry
Federica Carugati & Nathan Schneider
Taking Responsibility for Tomorrow: Remaking Collective Governance as Political Ancestors
Lily L. Tsai
In Search of Ontologies of Entanglement
Ann Pendleton-Jullian & John Seely Brown