A Commercial Republic: America's Enduring Debate Over Democratic Capitalism
American Political Thought series
Sign in to keep track of books you’ve read and want to read.
As recently as 2008, when Presidents Bush and Obama acted to bail out the nation's crashing banks and failing auto companies, the perennial objection erupted anew: government has no business in . . . business. Mike O'Connor argues in this book that those who cite history to decry government economic intervention are invoking a tradition that simply does not exist. In a cogent and timely take on this ongoing and increasingly contentious debate, O'Connor uses deftly drawn historical analyses of major political and economic developments to puncture the abiding myth that business once operated apart from government. From its founding to the present day, our commercial republic has always mixed—and battled over the proper balance of—politics and economics.
Read more
Contesting the claim that the modern-day libertarian conception of U.S. political economy represents the "natural" American economic philosophy, O'Connor demonstrates that this perspective has served historically as only one among many. Beginning with the early national debate over the economic plans proposed by Alexander Hamilton, continuing through the legal construction of the corporation in the Gilded Age and the New Deal commitment to full employment, and concluding with contemporary concerns over lowering taxes, this book demonstrates how the debate over government intervention in the economy has illuminated the possibilities and limits of American democratic capitalism.
Liked A Commercial Republic: America's Enduring Debate Over Democratic Capitalism? Here’s where I’d start.
These suit anyone who liked A Commercial Republic: America's Enduring Debate Over Democratic Capitalism. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.
-
United States of Socialism Shares 21st century, politics, economic policy -
Reflections on the Crash of 2008 and What It Means Shares financial crises, economic policy, economics -
The politics of advanced capitalism Shares capitalism, economic policy, economics
-
Conservatives Against Capitalism Shares politics, capitalism, economic policy
“If you want more of the same (politics about economics), start with these.”
“If it was the financial crises that hooked you, try one of these.”
“These start from a similar idea, even if they go somewhere else with it.”
-
Toward a Truly Free Market: A Distributist Perspective on the Role of Government, Taxes, Health Care, Deficits, and More
-
Libertarianism: What Everyone Needs to Know
-
Economics in One Lesson: The Shortest & Surest Way to Understand Basic Economics
-
American Amnesia: Business, Government, and the Forgotten Roots of Our Prosperity