It is time now to move on from the analysis of the failings of the now infamous Anglo-liberal model of capitalism to begin to outline a new model that will work better in advanced capitalist societies. In this paper we set out the basic outlines of such a new model, which we call ‘Civic Capitalism’. Here we deploy the word civic in its simplest and most straightforward sense – ‘pertaining to’ and ‘working for’ all of us in society, not just as consumers, or rational egotists, or even voters, but rather as citizens of a democratic polity.
We assemble the outline of the civic capitalist model by engaging in a kind of thought experiment – taking the well-known features of the Anglo-liberal model (which is after all the wreckage on which we have to build) and then adjusting, and of course in some cases redressing completely, each of these features to build cumulatively a new working model of capitalism. Nine core elements of a new model are identified and explored. They address issues of ideology, the role of the state, the regulation of markets, the promotion of sustainable development, the idea of social quality, the redress of inequality and the reform of global governance.
In calling for the development of a civic capitalist alternative we need to remind ourselves that capitalism can and must be made to work for us. We can no longer be driven by its perceived imperatives and by those who have claimed for far too long – and, as it turns out, falsely – to be able to discern for us what capitalism needs. We argue here that it is now time to ask what capitalism can do for us and not what we can do for capitalism. If civic capitalism has a single mantra, then that is it.