From technological trends changing the way we interact and the way our markets work to why the state needs to find a new role to hold together the societies of the twenty-first century, this first paper has a relatively simple goal: to explain why any of this matters when it comes to making democracy work.
Polly argues that a well-designed democracy has a unique ability to help bind citizens together in common endeavour; democracy builds the legitimacy of the state and helps hold citizens together in a state of trust. It’s that trust – the bonds between people – that supports the altruism and mutuality a strong society needs alongside open markets and individual freedom. This is a pragmatic argument about how to design a democracy that actually works; a society capable of resolving its problems.
Read the paper here.