The Idea Vacuum of Liberalism and the Quest for Meaning and Community

Sammanfattning

Liberalism is losing ground, while populist or even authoritarian nationalist regimes are on the rise. This article argues that the causes of the decline are, at least partly, endogenous, that a narrow focus on economic efficiency and the successful critique of socialism and the welfare state have created an idea vacuum that has opened up for these illiberal tendencies. The conclusion is that a central challenge for liberalism is to offer a comprehensive idea and narrative about meaning and community that is not socialist, conservative or nationalist, but distinctly liberal, to counter these developments.

Ratio Working Paper No 343: Populism, Liberalism and the Quest for Meaning and Community

Working paperPublikation

Karlson, N.

Ladda ner

Publiceringsår

2020

Publicerat i

Ratio Working Paper

Sammanfattning

Liberalism is losing ground, while populist or even authoritarian nationalist regimes are on the rise. This paper argues that the causes of the decline are, at least partly, endogenous, that a narrow focus on economic efficiency and the successful critique of socialism and the welfare state have created an idea vacuum that has opened up for these illiberal tendencies. The conclusion is that a central challenge for liberalism is to offer a comprehensive idea and narrative about meaning and community that is not socialistic, conservative or nationalistic, but distinctly liberal, to counter these developments.

Samhällsfarliga konflikter i en ny tid – utmaningar och reformbehov

RapporterPublikation

Karlson, N.

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Publiceringsår

2020

Publicerat i

Arbetsmarknadsprogrammet

Sammanfattning

Sammanfattning:
I rapporten undersöks om de svenska regelverken för hantering av samhällsfarliga arbetsmarknadskonflikter behöver uppdateras eller reformeras. Är de ändamålsenliga i en värld där viktiga samhällsfunktioner upprätthålls av ett stort antal ömsesidigt beroende aktörer i komplexa system där varje enskild nod blir kritisk för systemets funktionalitet, och där samhällsviktig verksamhet lika gärna är privat som offentlig? En jämförelse görs med motsvarande regleringsmetoderna och deras förändring i Storbritannien, Tyskland och Danmark.

Bureaucrats or Markets in Innovation Policy? – a critique of the entrepreneurial state

Artikel (med peer review)Publikation

Karlson, N., Sandström, C., & Wennberg, K.

Publiceringsår

2020

Publicerat i

Review of Austrian Economics 34, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11138-020-00508-7

Sammanfattning

This paper takes stock of recent suggestions that the state apparatus is a central and underappreciated actor in the generation, diffusion and exploitation of innovations enhancing growth and social welfare. We contrast such a view of “the entrepreneurial state” with theories and empirical evidence of the microeconomic processes of innovation in the modern economy which focus on well-functioning markets, free entry and competition among firms, and independent entrepreneurship as central mechanisms in the creation and dissemination of innovations. In doing so, we identify several deficiencies in the notion of an entrepreneurial state by showing that (i) there is weak empirical support in the many hundreds empirical studies and related meta analyses evaluating the effectiveness of active industrial and innovative policies, that (ii) these policies do not take account of the presence of information and incentive problems which together explain why attempts to address purported market failures often result in policy failures, and that (iii) the exclusive focus on knowledge creation through R&D and different forms of firm subsidies ignores the equally important mechanisms of knowledge dissemination and creation through commercial exploitation in markets. We discuss how a more theoretically well-founded focus on the state as investing in knowledge generation and securing the conditions of free and competitive markets will lead to a more innovative economy.

Sammanfattning

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