Episode Six of #CargoOfBricks, and I speak to Eric Lonergan who along with Mark Blyth has critiqued in #Angrynomics how populism has filled the vacuum between democratic politics and unregulated markets, and between markets and real economies:
- At the crux of the book, anger is one of the most powerful agencies within politics just now. It takes two forms: moral anger as in the witness of injustice and an improving agent within society and the second which acts as a tribal identity regulator.
- As mainstream politicians have ‘biased upwards’, listening to the voices of the elite, rather than the poor, angry, frustrated, or distressed. Populism has moved into that gap to give such folks a public voice. And meaningful policy choice gets lost.
- However, Governments can redistribute wealth to those without it and use targeted low-interest rate loans to enable the private sector to drive an ambitious Green New Deal and releasing governments to regenerate our starved public services.
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Much food for thought for the new Irish government. Get yourself a copy: preferably from your local bookshop (like No Alibis Books in Belfast) or, if you really have to, Hive, Amazon or some other online space.
If you are (still) really passionate about democratic politics, you’ll enjoy this very important book. Meantime, see you next week. You can subscribe to Cargo of Bricks, Slugger TV, and our other podcasts on Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts or Spotify.
The YouTube version that will appear below has subtitles on it if you click the CC button…
Mick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty
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