The State after Statism: Economic and Social Policy in the Global Age

Its central purpose is to explore the changing place of the state in the economic and social arena. The debate on this issue has been dominated by two equally unsatisfactory positions. A first camp argues that changes in the economy, technology, and society are driving a rollback of state intervention. A second camp counters that the pressures for change are weaker and the sources of inertia stronger than suggested by the first camp. Both approaches share the presumption that contemporary changes push in a single direction, toward the reduction in state intervention. This group hopes to advance an alternative understanding that sees state intervention as more than an eroding historical legacy. Project participants will investigate the following hypotheses:

1. Economic, technological, and social change is a dual-edge sword. While some changes challenge existing forms of state intervention, others may fuel new demands for state intervention.
2. State intervention is a moving target. If old forms of intervention are discredited and cleared away, new forms of regulation are also emerging.
3. Politics is creative, not simply reactive. Politics does more than defend an ever-smaller and less-relevant set of interventions; it also forges new policies to meet new challenges and needs.

This group will hold a first workshop in Spring, 2002. Participants will submit short, five-page outlines before the workshop that will be discussed and debated by all participants. Two additional workshops will be held in December 2002 and May, 2003. Drafts of the essays will be presented and critiqued at each session. While the early workshops will be closed working sessions, the May 2003 workshop will be an open, public conference. Papers will be published first in the Institute's Working Paper series and then collected in one or two edited volumes published by a major university press in the year 2004.