Robert B. Reich makes a powerful case for the expansion of America’s moral imagination. Rooting his argument in common sense and everyday reality, he demonstrates that a common good constitutes the very essence of any society or nation. Societies, he says, undergo virtuous cycles that reinforce the common good as well as vicious cycles that undermine it, one of which America has been experiencing for the past five decades. This process can and must be reversed. But first we need to weigh the moral obligations of citizenship and carefully consider how we relate to honor, shame, patriotism, truth, and the meaning of leadership. Powerful, urgent, and utterly vital, this is a heartfelt missive from one of our foremost political thinkers.

"When Jean Tirole won the 2014 Nobel Prize in Economics, he suddenly found himself being stopped in the street by complete strangers and asked to comment on issues of the day, no matter how distant from his own areas of research. His transformation from academic economist to public intellectual prompted him to reflect further on the role economists and their discipline play in society. The result is Economics for the Common Good, a passionate manifesto for a world in which economics, far from being a 'dismal science,' is a positive force for the common good. Economists are rewarded for writing technical papers in scholarly journals, not joining in public debates. But Tirole says we urgently need economists to engage with the many challenges facing society, helping to identify our key objectives and the tools needed to meet them. To show how economics can help us realize the common good, Tirole shares his insights on a broad array of questions affecting our everyday lives and the future of our society, including global warming, unemployment, the post-2008 global financial order, the euro crisis, the digital revolution, innovation, and the proper balance between the free market and regulation. Providing a rich account of how economics can benefit everyone, Economics for the Common Good sets a new agenda for the role of economics in society"--Provided by publisher.

Offers a systematic analysis of institutional solutions for providing common goods, showing how hierarchies, established over centuries of nation-state rule, are obsolete, while negotiation and self- regulation have grown in importance. Contributors include international scholars in the fields of sociology, economics, political science, and other fields. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Recent economic development and the financial and economic crisis require a change in our approach to business and finance. This book combines theology, economy and philosophy in order to examine in detail the idea that the functioning of a free market economy depends upon sound cultural and ethical foundations. The free market is a cultural achievement, not only an economic phenomenon subject to technical rules of trade and exchange. It is an achievement which lives by and depends upon the values and virtues shared by the majority of those who engage in economic activity. It is these values and virtues that we refer to as culture. Trust, credibility, loyalty, diligence, and entrepreneurship are the values inherent in commercial rules and law. But beyond law, there is also the need for ethical convictions and for global solidarity with developing countries. This book offers new ideas for future sustainable development and responds to an increasing need for a new sense of responsibility for the common good in societal institutions and good leadership.

These inspiring stories of prominent reformers fighting for the Common Good help concerned readers and voters recognize which actions and proposals will substantially elevate the happiness and well-being of citizens. Philip Kotler describes how today's society is in a state of "durable disorder," with authoritarianism on the rise and democracy on the decline around the world. He highlights the role of the Common Good and offers readers a guide to fortifying democratic values and creating organizations that pursue a better vision of the world. This text is essential for: Public citizens who want to help solve their community's problems Businesses that want to contribute to the public good Government agencies aiming to improve services and innovations Nonprofit organizations dedicated to meeting public needs Kotler details tools for public action used by luminaries such as Martin Luther King Jr., Susan B. Anthony, Rachel Carson, and Nelson Mandela, describing the advances these reformers achieved and mapping out strategies for delivering "the greatest good for the greatest number."

In the face of globalized ecological and economic crises, how do religion, the postsecular, and political theology reconfigure political theory and practice? As the planet warms and the chasm widens between the 1 percent and the global 99, what thinking may yet energize new alliances between religious and irreligious constituencies? This book brings together political theorists, philosophers, theologians, and scholars of religion to open discursive and material spaces in which to shape a vibrant planetary commons. Attentive to the universalizing tendencies of “the common,” the contributors seek to reappropriate the term in response to the corporate logic that asserts itself as a universal solvent. In the resulting conversation, the common returns as an interlinked manifold, under the ethos of its multitudes and the ecology of its multiplicity. Beginning from what William Connolly calls the palpable “fragility of things,” Common Goods assembles a transdisciplinary political theology of the Earth. With a nuance missing from both atheist and orthodox religious approaches, the contributors engage in a multivocal conversation about sovereignty, capital, ecology, and civil society. The result is an unprecedented thematic assemblage of cosmopolitics and religious diversity; of utopian space and the time of insurrection; of Christian socialism, radical democracy, and disability theory; of quantum entanglement and planetarity; of theology fleshly and political.

As European countries become more interdependent, the provision of common goods increasingly must be organized across national boundaries, levels of government, and sectors. In addition, former adversaries in the public and private sectors must learn to collaborate rather than compete. These changing paradigms call for new institutional and instrumental arrangements that move beyond existing modes of national governance. Offering a unique focus on the emerging role of private actors, this volume explores the evolving challenge of governing common goods in an increasingly transnational environment. The first systematic analysis of institutional solutions for providing common goods, this book shows how hierarchies established over centuries of nation-state rule have become obsolete, while negotiation and self-regulation have grown in importance. The contributors explore innovative solutions to the collective action problems countries encounter when clear lines of traditional authority dissolve.