Economy and Society
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Neoliberalism—the free-market, anti-government, growth-at-all-costs approach to economic and social policy—has dominated policy debates in the United States and much of the world for the last half century. But it has outlived whatever usefulness it might once have had, and today its free-market fundamentalism causes more problems than it solves. From skyrocketing wealth inequality to the climate crisis to systemic racism, neoliberalism offers no credible solutions for society’s biggest challenges. We need more than just new policy ideas to confront these seismic issues, we need a major shift in the underlying terms of debate about the economy and society. We need a new intellectual paradigm that reimagines what’s possible and offers economic justice and prosperity for people around the world.
The Hewlett Foundation is working to foster the development of a new common sense about how the economy works and the aims it should serve. By funding efforts across the ideological spectrum, we seek to support the development, translation, and transmission of ideas that could form a new intellectual paradigm for years to come.
