What Should the Left Propose?

What should the left propose is a manifesto that engages a vital question of our time: the program for which Leftists should stand, now that the major ideological proposals of the past two hundred years are exhausted. Confronting the major debates in the world today - about national alternatives and alternative globalizations - Unger shows that there is a set of national and global alternatives that we can begin to develop with the materials at hand: opportunities available to us only if we learn to recognize them. These alternatives would vastly enhance our practical capabilities. They would also give greater reality to the central teaching of democracy: faith in the constructive genius of ordinary men and women. For Unger, a programmatic argument is not a blueprint; it marks a direction and suggests next steps. He explores the form this direction could take in the European social democracies, in the United States, in the developing countries, and in the contest over the reform of globalization. He shows how the Left in power can do more than use compensatory redistribution to sugarcoat economic equality, and how it can make good on its ideals without reaffirming a discredited commitment to government control of the economy.