Wealth of Freedom

What is an economy for? The republican tradition in political thought offers a compelling way of exploring this question. The economy is for the common good, and the people, as the sovereign, properly have democratic authority to design it to satisfy their common good. Recent republican philosophers emphasize the centrality of freedom to the common good, where freedom is 'non-domination': the status of not being subject to another's uncontrolled power of interference. But insight into the common good can also be found in other sources, including liberal egalitarian theories of social justice. The common good provides a standard to evaluate existing institutions and to propose alternatives that, starting in our present context, look likely to make society more just. In this way, it helps to guide the collective political action of republican struggle. The Wealth of Freedom argues for universal basic income and universal capital grants, the fair taxation of inheritances and wealth, participatory democracy in the workplace, in investment, and in the design of public services, and for strong trade unions as key elements in a radical republican economy of the common good. Internationally, a radical republican economy of the common good calls for us to restructure existing systems of transnational governance and to support a major investment programme to address the climate emergency in a fair, reparative way. Focusing on demands for a Green New Deal, Stuart White shows how the book's institutional proposals may help to develop this agenda. The struggle for such a programme is the terrain on which we must now assert creative popular sovereignty over the economy to ensure that it does work for the common good.

Stuart White is Nicholas Drake Fellow in Politics at Jesus College and Associate Professor at the Department of International Relations, University of Oxford. His research draws on philosophy, intellectual and political history, and engages public policy to explore proposed alternatives to capitalism and democratic renewal. His many books include Radical Republicanism: Recovering the Tradition's Popular Heritage (co-edited with Bruno Leipold and Karma Nabulsi; OUP, 2020).