{"id":10865,"date":"2011-07-04T15:53:13","date_gmt":"2011-07-04T14:53:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=10865"},"modified":"2011-07-04T16:06:56","modified_gmt":"2011-07-04T15:06:56","slug":"my-new-book-the-courageous-state-rethinking-economics-and-the-role-of-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2011\/07\/04\/my-new-book-the-courageous-state-rethinking-economics-and-the-role-of-government\/","title":{"rendered":"My new book – ‘The Courageous State: Rethinking economics and the role of government’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Having just put up a blog saying I'm the forthcoming author of a book with the above title<\/a> I really think it time to mention this project.<\/p>\n

I was recently\u00a0approached\u00a0by a publisher called Searching Finance<\/a> who wanted me to write a book for them.<\/p>\n

Now this has happened before - but the usual \u00a0 publishing lead times have been more than enough \u00a0to put me off. \u00a0If more than a few months elapsed between the time that I wrote something and the time that it came out then candidly I'm not sure why anybody would want to read it. \u00a0I would have moved on, politics would have moved on, and a new book would be needed.<\/p>\n

Searching Finance \u00a0are a new publishing company that recognises the new paradigm in publishing. \u00a0We signed a contract two weeks ago, \u00a0the plan is to have the book out in September this year. \u00a0And that's what appeals to me \u00a0about this challenge.<\/p>\n

Ashwin Ratten \u00a0who heads Searching Finance, \u00a0and who was formerly the economics editor at Cambridge University Press, \u00a0gave me great freedom to decide what to write about, \u00a0and I've chosen to call the \u00a0planned \u00a0book\u00a0'The Courageous State: Rethinking economics and the role of government'.<\/p>\n

Of course there will be some aspects of tax in this, \u00a0but it's about something much bigger than that. \u00a0My basic hypothesis \u00a0is that the financial crisis has revealed another crisis, and that is the failure \u00a0of our society to create politicians who have the courage to deliver the services that we demand from the state.<\/p>\n

I explain this by looking at the rise of neoliberalism. \u00a0We now have a generation of \u00a0professional politicians \u00a0with little experience beyond \u00a0their university careers and Whitehall \u00a0and \u00a0almost all of them have been schooled in neoliberalism as if it is the one and only political philosophy to which they can subscribe. \u00a0And yet that philosophy has a pernicious consequence. It tells them that everything they do in the high office that they hold is basically harmful to the well-being of the people who elected them. \u00a0At best this leaves them conflicted, \u00a0lacking in self-confidence, \u00a0and paralysed with fear about action they should take. \u00a0At worst \u00a0it creates the paradoxical position where our leading politicians hold the very offices that they hold in contempt \u00a0and view the staff that work for them with disdain, presuming all of them have chosen to work for the state in some act of grossly misguided folly.<\/p>\n

The evidence is all around us: Labour is \u00a0paralysed not knowing which way to turn. The \u00a0Conservatives \u00a0and Liberal Democrats \u00a0appear to have just one aim, which is to dismantle the services \u00a0of the state.<\/p>\n

At the same time we see an enormous backlash against \u00a0this timidity, expressed through a lack of willingness to vote \u00a0when all who present themselves for public office fail to evidence any conviction \u00a0in the merits of the state.<\/p>\n

And yet we also see that \u00a0whatever neoliberalism, and the politicians \u00a0influenced by it say there is real demand for the services supplied by the state \u00a0and a wistful desire \u00a0amongst many people in this country for politicians of the stature to supply them \u00a0whilst leading this country and its government, \u00a0those who work for it in public office \u00a0or service \u00a0and \u00a0those who engage with it from the private sector \u00a0in a strong, confident fashion.<\/p>\n

The simple fact is that we need a Courageous State \u00a0and we have not got one: \u00a0what we've been given is a cowardly state.<\/p>\n

This is the consequence of neoliberalism, and if that's the case then neoliberalism cannot be the basis for tackling the crisis that is threatening to engulf the whole of our democratic process. As a result what I intend the book should deliver is an alternative way of thinking about the state, what it should do, why that alternative can be theoretically justified, and how we can build a new range of economic policies that will meet the needs of this country, and other countries based upon the foundations of a\u00a0Courageous State.<\/p>\n

I am the first to admit that this is an ambitious project: \u00a0only 12,000 words are written at present \u00a0and if I appear a bit distracted \u00a0from this blog over the next few weeks, you \u00a0will now know why.<\/p>\n

I'm equally sure that this project will attract the usual criticism from the neoliberal commentators who appear all too often on this site to defend their bankrupt philosophy, which they will no doubt seek to do again. \u00a0But make no mistake, that philosophy is bankrupt: \u00a0it is driving economies, societies, companies, \u00a0families and individuals \u00a0into fear and despair \u00a0as too many of them can see the calamity that is awaiting them as its destructive policies cast them aside.<\/p>\n

New thinking is needed to beat that \u00a0despair. \u00a0I have had enough \u00a0of waiting for others to deliver it \u00a0and a few years of putting my head above the parapet on this blog has amply prepared me for the flak that will inevitably follow from suggesting there is an alternative to the existing, bankrupt, paradigm.<\/p>\n

It's not chance, I think, \u00a0that Aneirian Bevan called his manifesto for the NHS 'In place of fear'. \u00a0He could only do that because he believed in the Courageous State, as did so many of the political giants of his generation. \u00a0It is only the state that can now relieve the fear that pervades this country, and so many other countries at this time.<\/p>\n

That's why I believe \u00a0in the Courageous State. \u00a0That's why I'm writing this book. \u00a0That's why I hope it will be out in September.<\/p>\n

But I had better go and write some more of it now if that's to be the case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Having just put up a blog saying I’m the forthcoming author of a book with the above title I really think it time to mention
 Read the full article…<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[141,35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-courageous-state","category-economics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10865\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}