Redesigning the Rules: Power, Purpose and the Future of Our Economy

This article is based on prepared remarks by of our Director of Engagement, Jean McLean for “From Despair to Action: Building Progressive Futures” hosted by Sussex School for Progressive Futures.

1. What is your diagnosis of why we are in this mess?

We are living through what many describe as a polycrisis. We are experiencing the interlinked collapse of biodiversity, a climate catastrophe, increasingly grotesque inequality and a cratering of trust in politics and political institutions.

From the perspective of the Green Economy Coalition these multiple crises are the natural conclusion of the rules of our economic system. When inequality is the design feature of our economies, a logic of extractivism, exploitation and is supported by a belief in winners, requiring losers and that punching down not lifting people up is the way to survive.

This mindset shapes what is common sense and what many believe is possible and the common narratives that dominate the media landscape are on individualism, othering and fatalism; tools of fear and despair.

That narrative that supports our politics and our economies to work for an elite few. The amount of wealth gained by the world’s billionaires over the last year is enough to give every person in the world US$250 and leave the billionaires more than US$500bn richer. So the interests of a few are privileged over the interests of all and this is creating a rupture in the ties that bind us.

Eco-social contracts or the balance of rights, responsibilities, relationships and resources between the individuals, collectives, the state and nature are in desperate need of renegotiation.

The scale of these multiple political economy crises, requires not just an incremental shifting or transition but a just transformation to reset the design rules of our economies: the new values, narratives, culture, politics and economies that we need to drive progressive change.

2. What is your theory of change? What levers, spaces of change or strategies offer the most promise and why?

At the Green Economy Coalition we believe in the importance of lived experience informing policy influence and so we have been investing in social contract mechanisms to direct change that is popular, mandated, transformative and sticky.

We see the concept of eco-social contracts across cultures, countries expressed in different ways such as ubuntu, buen vivir and ecoswaraj.

Investing in participative decision making or social contract mechanisms has been our response to address the challenges and disrepair that we face. Be they citizens assemblies, Green New Deals, participatory budgeting, constitutions, compacts, strategic litigation, small and micro enterprise forums or future generations tribunals, they can all play a role in redistributing resources, especially power.

Economic reform at scale is unlikely to attract broad public support unless it is shaped by the needs and concerns of ordinary people rather than the needs of a few.

In Kenyan counties participatory budgeting has led to greater investment into community level assets such as wells, better decisions, more buy in and accountability, quicker approval and better community level.

In more restrictive political contexts we find that supporting green local entrepreneurs is a great way to nurture community and political leadership. Medium, Small and Micro Enterprises are the back bone of emerging economies and support political agency. As an example Cynthia started a waste removal services, coordinating across her neighbourhood, this then started recycling plastic to create flakes that they sold to other businesses. Waste Watch employs vulnerable people as part of her workforce with single mothers and school levers making up the workforce. An example of a circular and an inclusive economy.

3. What would a re-set of the economy and politics look like?

Across our wonderfully diverse network which includes think tanks and community conservation organisations we see key themes emerging. Whether it’s a green economy, a care economy, a wellbeing economy, across the world there is a strong demand for a progressive inclusive economies.

Our Green Economy Attitudes survey shows : 84% of people globally would choose stronger environmental protection even at the cost of slowed economic growth.

People want governments to lead a systemic economic transformation, not rely on voluntary action or individual sacrifice.

• 88% of people globally say governments should be doing more to combat climate change.
• 82% support prioritising public investment in clean energy, even when this requires significant government spending.

These reflect a growing understanding that public investment, regulation, and economic planning are essential to building resilient, fair economies: ones that deliver decent jobs, affordable energy, and healthy environments.

Across our members this looks like work that:

• Centres youth, whether that’s in the form of increasing opportunities to support them and unleash potential at one end of the scale or future generations tribunals. These tribunals create a shard space to achieve a collective understanding of “what does tomorrow require of us today”.
• Invests in gender justice, promoting the invisible role of care in subsidising our current economies, raising questions about the metrics and definition of work that we use but also promoting access to resources for women. BCG reports that if you were to achieve parity of female to male entrepreneurs this would generate upto an additional $5-Trillion for the global economy.
• Prioritises inclusive social protection in the form of cash transfer, child money in Mongolia, insurance schemes, care centres in Latin America.
• Local green enterprises as a means to improve livelihoods, alleviate poverty and create jobs – all while protecting the environment and catalysing the transition to a fairer economy.

A more just economy is not just about having the right tools, or the right institutions about investing in the social infrastructure. Transformative progressive change requires connection, trust and solidarity. Fixing our economy is not just a matter of fixing the plumbing of climate finance from the top. It’s also about building communities and bottom up movements to solidify the progressive eco system. Without popular demand, public pressure and a mandate, progressive changes are vulnerable to backlash and being undone.

4. How can we best deal with the rising tide of populism, right wing ideology and toxic geo-politics?

We need to learn from the rise of the far right and nurture political, economic and cultural projects rooted in progressive values. Creating a progressive ecosystem to help connect and reinforce the innate humanity of people and create a compelling vision of what is possible.

In the short term we need to push hard on increased regulation for the media, e.g. monitoring clips not just live coverage for political balance, for social media treating them as entities with social responsibilities beyond profits, for our elections preventing crypto donations, and transparent and impartial algorithmic choices. Just as we need regulate to protect our natural environment we need to protect our information environment.

We need a cultural project - to invest in building a progressive ecosystem with better messages, messengers, and more channels to connect these ideas to a wider audience. The barriers to entry to become commentator, creator or journalist have never been smaller. The online environment can’t be left to conspiracy theorists as an echo chamber of divisive ideas. If you have a progressive voice get online and start sharing it.

In medium term we need to get serious about building connection and solidarity. I’m ambitious for change but part of me sighs when I hear people talking about scaling up change- people aren’t products. They are complex, compelling, contradictory and heroic, the path to real lasting impact is trusting in people, listening to them and working with them. People don’t need empowering they need resourcing. They are currently over consulted and under listened to. Initiatives like Die Linke ahead of the German elections saw 600,000 doors knocked and deep conversations that explored people hopes and fears for their futures and harnessed this energy for participation in housing and other community initiatives. Creating the space to feel big emotions, generate shared plans and weaving these together through relationships, resources and values is the slow but powerful work of transformation.

5.What gives you hope?

Policy creativity. In Australia the Solar Sharer Offer, gives participants three hours free solar based electricity this has idea has the potential to move people away from the scarcity of fossil fuels to the abundance of renewables. Mamdani within a week of being inaugurated has introduced a universal childcare initiative, other policies are possible, regardless of what politicians like to tell us.

Taxes for the ultra-wealthy. In a couple of years wealth taxes have become a credible, mainstream and popular issue both domestically in the UK but also through the Pact for the Future and the UN Tax Convention.

The weekend. Trade unions collectively the won the right for rest against powerful employers. Solidarity can address vested interests, indeed it’s one of the most powerful tools that can.

Big Tabacco. Campaigners creatively and with the facts on their side, limited the power of this industry, for the good of all. We’ve done it once, we can do it again.

While our politicains can and should do more, this year to much cynicism Keir Starmer and others took on Elon Mush and Grok over the creation of non-censual sexual deep fakes and Musk backed down. Countries are now talking about banning social media for under 16 and are hopefully building up their regulatory muscles.

Resistance. In Minnesota volunteer observers are participating in the quaker tradition of baring witness, tracking deportation flights and evidencing the conditions and how many people are being forced to leave the country, in -20 degrees temperatures. In leaderless or leaderful networks neighbours and citizens are self-organising to raise the alarm, support and protect their friends from ICE attacks.

In Iran in the face of an authoritarian government, citizens are still resisting publicly and at a great personal cost to themselves.

And lastly Bad Bunny. Let’s not forget the important tradition of black joy and the healing, restorative powers of humanity at its best.