Public Philosophy by Michael Sandel

Louis D. Brandeis

Herbert Croly was the leading philosopher of Roosevelts new nationalism, "The Promise of American Life", 1909.

Reagan's Civic Conservatism
"For Reagan, the curse of bigness [that concerned our Forefathers] attached to government alone.  Even as he evoked the ideal of community, he had little to say about the corrosive effects of capital flight or the disempowering consequences of economic power organized [and concentrated] on a vast scale."

"Reagan drew, in different moods and moments, on both the libertarian and the civic strands of American conservatism...his skillful evocation of communal values such as family and neighborhood, religion, and patriotism. [But] He governed more as a market conservative than a civic conservative. The unfettered capitalism he [Reagan] favored did nothing to repair the moral fabric of families, neighborhoods, and communities and much to undermine them."

‎"The coercive face of soulcraft": "Benjamin Rush, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, wanted to 'convert men into republican machines', and to teach each citizen 'that he does not belong to himself, but that he is public property'".25

"The philosophical difficulty lies in the liberal conception of citizens as freely choosing, independent selves, unencumbered by moral or civic ties antecedent to choice...By insisting that we are bound only by ends and roles we choose for ourselves, it denies that we can ever be claimed by ends we have not chosen--ends given by nature or God, for example, or by our identities as members of families, peoples, cultures, or traditions." 27


Reagan's proposed solution to the erosion of self-government was to shift power from the federal government to states and localities--to cut federal spending, to decentralize and deregulate.  A revitalized federal system would restore peoples control over their lives by locating power closer to home.  Meanwhile, a less activist federal judiciary would strengthen traditional values by allowing communities to legislate morality in the areas of abortion, pornography, homosexuality, and school prayer.

But this approach was bound to fail, because it ignored the conditions that led to the growth of federal power in the first place, including the growth of corporate power on a national, and now international, scale.


In its origins, federalism was designed to promote self-government by dispersing political power.  But this arrangement presupposed the decentralized economy prevailing at the time.  As national markets and large-scale enterprises grew, the political forms of the early republic became inadequate to self-government.  Since the turn of the century, the concentration of political power has been a response to the concentration of economic power, an attempt to preserve democratic control.


Decentralizing government without decentralizing the economy, as Reagan proposed, is only half a federalism.  And from the standpoint of self-government, half a federalism is worse than none.  Leaving local communities to the mercy of corporate decisions made in distant places does not empower them; if anything is diminishes their ability to shape their destiny....In the end, Reagan's presidency was an evocative success and a practical failure. M. Sandel.