About Liberty & Power
Liberty & Power focuses on the simple idea that all people have a right to intellectual, spiritual, and material liberty. But the extreme concentration of power and wealth we see in the economy and in our politics today robs them of that right. It also drives the growing and increasingly terrifying crisis of democracy, here in America and around the world.
To save liberal democracy, we need to relearn what it means to hold the powerful to account, and to craft markets and regulate corporate behavior to foster true democracy, shared prosperity, and personal liberty.
Forces on the right and left are working overtime to keep that from happening. Tech oligarchs and the authoritarian right have made common cause, and their rapid consolidation of power over our information systems is pushing us to the brink. Believers in liberal democracy, meanwhile, wander the wilderness arguing over how best to recapture power. Some push a new rebranding of neoliberalism, under the promise it will unlock innovations that fix our cost-of-living crisis and, as a result, our politics. Others contend that alleviating the symptoms of oligarchy, like wealth inequality, will suffice. Most seem willing to abandon the support for diversity and inclusion that underpins real democracy. Ultimately, none of their ideas seem remotely big enough for the moment.
Liberty & Power will make the case that liberal democrats need a policy program and story that gets to the heart of the anger and frustration we all feel at the economic status quo, and our fears for our democracy, in two ways. First, experts at the Open Markets Institute and key allies will put today’s news in context, by explaining how corporate power warps our news and information systems, stunts innovation in crucial industries, and chokes our access to the most basic necessities of life. Second, we will feature original analysis on the political economy debate and reporting on key elections and policy innovations in America and around the world.
We hope you join us as we work to build a politics and an economy that works for everyone.
