Robert Kuttner, The End of Laissez-Faire: National Purpose and the Global Economy After the Cold War (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1991). 304 pp., $22.95.
Robert B. Reich, The Work of Nations: Preparing Ourselves for 21st Century Capitalism (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1991). 331 pp., $24.00.
It was always a mistake to think that in the wake of the collapse of the Marxist model, the Left would fold up its interventionist tent and steal away into the night. It is probably no accident, for example, that global warming and "sustainable development" have suddenly become serious concerns in liberal salons. Environmentalism, at least in its more extreme forms, provides excellent cover for those who distrust markets and would prefer to see a larger role for government. Though protectionism, "industrial policy," and other forms of essentially autarkic behavior have fallen on hard times recently, they constitute a hardy species in American history.
Now come Robert Kuttner and Robert Reich, two reliable guides to left-liberal thinking, to argue anew for the "mixed economy." The mixed economy is needed now, not to save capitalism from Marxism, but to prevent America from losing its competitive position in the world. Though they approach their subject from sharply different angles, they arrive at similar conclusions: the 1980s were an economic disaster, America is poorly prepared to maintain its place in the world, and government is needed to redress the balance.Along the way, both Kuttner and Reich make a number of interesting arguments and, though neither author is fully persuasive, their efforts to revive the case for economic nationalism should be taken seriously.
