A very nice reply to DRB's question about what the alternative to capitalism
and socialism ("capilism" - nice, Chris!) would look like.
Sent from my iPhone
On Aug 14, 2011, at 13:35, [email protected] wrote:
>
>
> Breaking Jewish News Updated Throughout The Day
>
> What Now?
>
> In Its Search for Social Justice, Israel Must
>
> Take the Third Way
>
>
> August 14, 2011
> By Benjamin Kerstein
>
> The protest movement that has dominated Israeli politics and culture for the
> past month would seem to have run its course. It has succeeded in changing
> the public discourse, rearranging priorities across the social and economic
> spectrum, bringing hundreds of thousands into the streets, and garnering the
> support of an overwhelming number of Israelis, according to some reports, as
> much as 90 percent.
>
> In terms of concrete accomplishments, however, not much has happened. The
> Netanyahu government has put together a blue-ribbon panel to examine the
> situation and recommend reforms. According to Haaretz, there are some good
> signs that the panel, unlike most similar bodies, may actually intend to do
> something:
>
> Netanyahu told Professor Manuel Trajtenberg, the head of the panel of experts
> who will talk with protest leaders, that he understood it was necessary to
> change economic policy.
>
> But Trajtenberg went further, telling Netanyahu he had to change his
> fundamental positions. Netanyahu agreed and said he had read a new book about
> how Herzl adapted himself to changing circumstances.
>
> "I understand my views need to change," Netanyahu reportedly replied.
>
> There is a strong possibility, however, that this is simply a stalling
> tactic. Netanyahu may well be hoping that, come the U.N. vote on Palestinian
> statehood in September, the protests will be quickly forgotten and things
> will return to normal. By the time the panel issues its report, no one will
> care or even pay much attention.
>
> If true, this is likely wishful thinking on Netanyahu's part. The objective
> economic factors that have driven the protests - income inequality, high
> prices, shortage of housing, under funded public services, etc. - will not go
> away by themselves. Even if public sentiment is moderated by concern over
> security issues, after a short period of time it will likely return, angrier
> than ever, to the issue of social justice. No god, the saying goes, can stop
> a starving man.
>
> There is no need, however, for Israel to wait on the PM's panel. The process
> of reform can be undertaken immediately, and on a non-partisan basis. At this
> very moment, a viable right-left social justice bloc already exists in the
> Knesset. It would be composed of the major opposition parties Kadima and
> Labor, along with large sections of the Likud and the religious parties.
>
> Given the widespread sentiment across all sectors of society in favor of
> reform, major legislation would also likely be supported by Meretz, the
> religious nationalist parties, and the Arab parties. Such an informal
> coalition would compose well over half the Knesset. More than enough to enact
> the reforms the public is demanding so fervently.
>
> This is the case because, in spite of its success over the last few decades
> in remaking Israeli society, the free market system favored by Netanyahu
> actually has very little political support in Israel. At most, it is
> fervently believed in by Netanyahu and a few of his close advisors. Everyone
> else has gone along because it seemed to be necessary and seemed to be
> working. Now, it seems to be doing neither.
>
> For most of Israel's neoliberal era, support or acquiescence in free market
> policies was also driven by two other factors: an acknowledgement of the
> historical failure of socialism, and a fear of returning to the bad old days
> of Israeli austerity and the domination of the Labor Party. Neoliberalism
> appeared to be, under these circumstances, the only viable policy.
>
> There is already another option, however, and it may be uniquely well-suited
> to Israeli society: the "third way."
>
> Third way economic policies have been described by economist Joseph E.
> Stiglitz as a system that
>
> recognized the important, but limited, role of government, that unfettered
> markets often did not work well, but that government was not always able to
> correct the limitations of markets.
>
> A successful third way policy would be a synthesis of the virtues of
> socialism and the free market system, while using both systems to ameliorate
> each other's flaws. It would involve, for example, a country in which
> businesses are encouraged to flourish and grow, but the tax revenues garnered
> by this growth are then channeled into the public sector in order to provide
> for a more equitable distribution of wealth and a strong foundation of basic
> services like education and health care.
>
> In a small, tightly-knit, socially conscious, but also dynamic and innovate
> nation like Israel, a third way policy would likely be both successful and
> garner widespread political support.
>
> The third way is often linked to two other political-economic concepts: the
> "radical center" and communitarianism. A radical center stresses the
> importance of a pragmatic middle way between more extreme ideological poles,
> while communitarianism emphasizes the importance of recognizing the
> non-political binds that unite various communities within a larger nation, as
> well as a recognition of the responsibility of these communities to their
> members and the state's responsibility, in turn, to these communities.
>
> In many ways, Israel is already a communitarian society, with a highly
> fractured society composed of many different ethnic and cultural groups, most
> of which are nonetheless united on certain basic principles. The state,
> moreover, grants substantial rights and autonomy to many of these groups and
> recognizes the importance of their communal bonds.
>
> The radical center has had a rough time of it in Israel as late, but there
> are strong indications that it also exists, albeit in latent form. The
> 90-something percent of Israelis who support the protests come, must come,
> from many different groups and sectors in Israeli society. It is highly
> unlikely that this massive majority supports the more extreme demands of the
> protest leaders. They come, must come, from Israel's beleaguered middle
> class. They want radical change, but they want that change to be neither
> socialist nor neoliberal in nature. They must be, in other words, radical
> centrists.
>
> Squeezed between the radical socialists and anarchists who are attempting -
> quite unsuccessfully - to hijack the current discontent to their own ends,
> and a small but powerful neoliberal establishment, this radical center needs
> and deserves a third way, and the Knesset should act immediately to satisfy
> its demands.
>
> It should do so by informally establishing the social justice bloc I
> mentioned above. This bloc should then propose legislation that deals solely
> with social and economic reform, avoiding the fraught and irrelevant issues
> that have driven Israeli politics to its current impasse.
>
> Israel has reached another historic moment. The failure of neoliberalism has
> been far less severe than that of socialism, and the human cost has been
> hardly comparable, but it has failed nonetheless. If Israel wants to avoid
> the terrible consequences of that failure that have now engulfed most of the
> rest of the world, it must act and act soon.
>
> Israel is lucky in that all the tool to do so are readily available. There is
> a third way and there is the political means to enact it. The radical center
> in the streets has found the will to act. It is time for the radical center
> in the Knesset to do the same.
>
> --
> Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community
> <[email protected]>
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--
Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community
<[email protected]>
Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism
Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org
