Notes on the Front

From the American political blogosphere – an interesting concept (actually the religious-political-progressive blogosphere).  Yes, American religious-progressive.  With all the European media focused on Governor Sarah Palin and her supporters (Rush Limbaugh calling on all those who believe in 'babies, guns and Jesus' to support her), it's important to keep in mind that religion in America has played a profoundly progressive role – from the Abolitionists in the 19th century to trade union, immigrant and women activists today.  Though you wouldn't know it from media coverage on this side of the Atlantic, not all religious-political activists in the US are opposed to evolution, gravity and photosynthesis 

Street Preachers is from the better side of the street.  And trying to come up with a clear and simple distinction between Democrats and Republicans on the economy, they have produced an interesting concept: foundational economics. 

Since Street Preachers is not an economics blog, it probably wouldn't be aware that 'foundational economics' is (albeit little-used) a concept espoused by neo-liberal leaning economists antithetical to pubic and cooperative interventions (as in 'get the market foundations right and everything will be rosy').  That doesn't take away from Street Preachers' inventive co-opting of the phrase to progressive use. 

'Perhaps the greatest success of the Reagan administration, was that it clearly defined the Republican economic strategy. Trickle Down Economics . . . That if we stimulate the economic growth of the corporations, then this will in turn stimulate the economy. In contrast, the biggest failure of the Democratic party is that we have failed to articulate our own economic strategy. In so doing, we have allowed the Republicans to define it for us, to our detriment. Hence, the popular phrase, Tax and Spend Democrats.'

Sound familiar?  The Irish right are bullish on the economy: they cut taxes, cut regulations, cut public sector waste.  With machete in hand they engineered the almighty Celtic Tiger economy.  The Irish Left, on the other hand, support taxes and wasteful spending, they like state bureaucracies, they whinge about successful people making money, blah, blah, blah.  We share a similar experience.  So we can learn something from one suggested solution.

'This is why I have coined the phrase, Foundational Economics, because I think it accurately describes the economic strategy that we have employed. Simply put, our intention is to stimulate economic growth through the production of a solid economic foundation. This is to say, that it is our intent to build the economy from the ground up.'

Their specific prescriptions for the American economy would, of course, be different from what could be applied here.  In the US, aggregate demand is a priority and a progressive programme would start with well-paying jobs being created in the private and public sector on infrastructural and procurement contracts.  Here, developing an indigenous export base competing in high value-added sectors is a priority (increasing demand in the wrong way in the wrong circumstances could just fuel import-inflation and unsustainable short-term growth, as happened in the late 1970s).

But the principle is absolutely spot on – build from the ground up, build through democratic structures, but on a foundation of high wages and strong social protection.  In broad brush strokes how might this start to look?

1. Never mind social partnership, we need a deep-rooted, democratic partnership of all stakeholders working from the national through the sectoral down to the local.  Sector-wide strategies would be developed through these new structures with the participation of employers, trade unions, the state and other stakeholders.

2. Enterprises – either as stand alone or as part of networks – would be identified through an enhanced 'self-selection' process used by Enterprise Ireland when assessing which companies receive grants.  This enhancement, however, would focus on labour relations, recognition of trade unions, employment of women and disabled, treatment of the environment, and the development of bottom-up participatory structures.  This approach could also be applied to public sector procurement contracts.

3. New investment vehicles would be established, along the lines of the SSIA and backed up by the National Pension Reserve Fund, to provide capital to these 'progressive' companies.  This would be supported by a new premiership-league set of indirect supports (e.g. training, marketing intelligence, pooling resources to overcome export entry costs, etc.).

This is not a programme for multi-nationals.  This is a programme for building up what we don't have and never had - a strong, pervasive indigenous enterprise base.  This is building from the ground up.  This is foundational in every sense of the word.  And none of this is rocket science (except, maybe, for Ireland):  successful economies employ similar strategies, most notably the Nordic and social market economies.

This would put clear red water between ourselves and the Right.  They go on about 'trickle down' (or leaky urinal) economics.  They scan the skies in search of a little blue – the 'get-the-climate-right' economics.  They claim a rising tide lifts all yachts.

But now we would have our own story to tell.  About getting down to real work – making and creating goods and services that people want to buy, producing them in an inclusive way, within a new democratic framework, sustainable and socially responsible.  For shorthand, we can title that story 'foundational economics'.

In these recessionary times people might be willing to listen to that story.