Over time, ideologies can evolve in unexpected ways. Next he considers four public policy developments.
1. The Biden administration is canceling many student loans for college education.
2. Some cities in California impose rent controls.
3. Florida recently banned lab-grown meat.
4. North Carolina is trying to: Prohibit wearing masks In public.
Although the first two examples are considered progressive legislation and the other two as populist initiatives, they all have something in common. In each case, the law can be seen as a perversion of an earlier form of the ideology in question.
Let’s start with progressivism. Initially, this ideology was largely motivated by the (real or imagined) flaws of laissez-faire economics. Progressives feared that unchecked capitalism would lead to abusive monopolies and highly unequal income distribution. This led to policy initiatives such as utility rate regulation and redistributive programs such as the Earned Income Tax Credit.
But over time, progressivism increasingly means, and is not the purpose of the law. Being a progressive therefore meant supporting “regulation” and “redistribution,” regardless of whether it achieved the movement’s original goals.
Clearly, the case for rent regulation in a market with thousands of private landlords is much weaker than the case for price regulation when there is a single monopoly provider of water or electricity. And it is equally clear that the case for redistributing money from ordinary taxpayers to college-educated Americans is much weaker than the argument for redistributing money to low-wage workers. But the progressive movement is dominated by young Americans. This group is disproportionately made up of recent college graduates living in expensive coastal city apartments.
The recent wave of populism is due, at least in part, to elites forcing citizens to make undesirable lifestyle changes (such as wearing masks during a pandemic) or unpopular climate change initiatives (such as eating less meat). motivated by resentment at the perception that But over time, lifestyle issues gradually came to replace the “freedom” aspect of populism. Opposition to mask mandates has turned into just opposition to masks. Resentment that elites were trying to impose a certain lifestyle was replaced by attempts to ban undesirable lifestyles.
This is a natural evolution of populism. It begins as an attempt to liberate the population from oppression, but when populists come to power, they end up imposing other forms of oppression.
There are many other examples like this. The college free speech movement of the 1960s initially focused on allowing students to express far-left political views. By the 2000s, the freedom aspect was forgotten and university activists began trying to make it a reality. delegation Students expressing left-wing views.
Similarly, right-wing protests against woke excesses began as attempts to allow more free speech on campuses, but have evolved, at least in some places, into attempts to ban certain left-wing ideologies.
The civil rights movement began as a movement for a colorblind society. Initially the focus was on outlawing discrimination against minorities, but over time the emphasis shifted to mandating discrimination in favor of minorities. (These “reverse discrimination” policies may have had unintended side effects, such as making employers reluctant to hire workers they might not be able to fire at some point in the future.)
Feminism began as an attempt to stop society from treating people differently because of their gender, but it has evolved into an ideology that demands that people be treated differently because of their gender.
Why do ideologies keep losing their bearings? I wonder if this problem reflects the fact that so few people are committed to broad principles such as freedom and maximization of utility. Masu. Instead, they have “special interests” and use these various ideologies as convenient bludgeons to attack their opponents and achieve their actual policy goals.
P.S. matt iglesias There is a very good post that discusses some of the same issues.
