Searching for Liberty in an Ever-Shrinking World

In some ways, this book has argued for a radical reorientation of the way we “do” economics. In other ways, however, we are simply returning to the classical rootsClassical roots of the discipline where the universal principle of economizing human action provided the foundation for a theory of society and its institutional order. In a world in which the previous President is making claims of democratic corruption, it’s worth being very clear about our argument. We are not making the argument that our democratic system is problematic because it is corrupt, or even because it is corruptible. We do, of course, recognize that there are incentive problems because politicians don’t shed their self-interest when they move into public office. Yet our concern throughout this book is different. We aim to uncover what structures allow people to best pursue their varied ends, provided they don’t trample upon the rights of others. If democracy were this structure, we would be all for it; but there are deep structural problems that often render it ill-suited to the task of promoting mass flourishing. The reality of democracy doesn’t match the rhetoric. It is unwise, however, to end on a pessimistic note because that would be contrary to our intent in this book. Yes, we do take a realistic as against a romantic look at the American system of government; but in this chapter, we explore some reasons for optimism. This optimism takes two forms. One, we highlight some spheres of substantial liberty that still exist, even within our sea of politically directed planning. Two, we explore some ways in which thinking differently about our system of governance might open a wider space for liberty to creep back in.