How to build the abundance movement
Steve Teles and Rob Saldin kick off a new debate with "The rise of the abundance faction."
— In partnership with Modern Power —
Over the last two years, a group of thinkers coming from the center-right and center-left has coalesced around a set of important propositions regarding governance and economics that goes by various labels, including “abundance” and “state capacity.”
Advocates of this emerging consensus still have many differences to debate, but the latest Hypertext forum asks a different question: How will they build political power
Our forum kicks off with Steve Teles and Rob Saldin arguing that the likeliest path to success is for an “Abundance Faction” to rise within the Democratic Party, led by intellectuals and certain segments of business.
- counters that political coalitions emerge from the ground up, led by people who perceive concrete interests rather than high-flying intellectualism, and explores how that process is playing out on both sides of the aisle.
- says that if Democrats are undermining their collective fortunes with bad housing policy that drives people to red states, they’re not the first party to make such a mistake - the GOP faced a similar challenge with regard to public employee unions decades ago.
- explores what makes the emerging “abundance” ideology different from mere “moderation” in his essay “Abundant v. moderate,” cross-posted on Modern Power.
Colin Mortimer weighs whether abundance advocates are better off pursuing a highly visible strategy or going the “Secret Congress” route.
In her essay, “From stakeholder capitalism to state-capacity capitalism,” Didi Kuo dives into business' role in remedying the American government's dysfunctions in an era of populist turmoil. She argues businesspeople should learn from their 19th and early-20th century forebears, who recognized that a changing economy required an overhaul of state capacity.
A longer introduction summarizes some key points of abundance thought and provides links.
Images generated with Microsoft Image Creator and Image FX AIs.