Jeune Street

Michael Sandel just delivered the last of his Reith Lectures, which have been on the theme of "A New Citizenship". The final lecture raised the question of what a 'politics of the common good' would look like:

The renunciation of moral and religious argument in politics, in the decades following World War II, prepared the way for the market triumphalism of the past three decades.

But times have changed. The financial crisis has discredited market triumphalism in both its laissez-faire and Neoliberal versions. And the election of Barack Obama has given powerful expression to the hunger for a public life of larger meaning that engages more directly with moral and spiritual questions. All of which suggests that the time may be right for a new kind of politics - a politics of the common good.

Sandel proposes that market regulation means more than just designing new laws and creating new incentives. It requires the reinvigoration of moral debate in the public sphere, and a broader discussion of spiritual matters is our social discourse.

More here (including podcasts and transcripts).