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Liverpool football fans have shown why we need a moral economy Liverpool football fans have shown why we need a moral economy
(7 months later)
Even in modern Britain, moral force can still occasionally win out over greed. And when it does, we all cheer. It happened this week when Liverpool football club, already awash with television money like all the other Premier League clubs, had to junk plans to increase the price of top tickets to £77. Liverpool even apologised for the distress the plan had caused. But it took a well-publicised protest to change the owners’ minds.Even in modern Britain, moral force can still occasionally win out over greed. And when it does, we all cheer. It happened this week when Liverpool football club, already awash with television money like all the other Premier League clubs, had to junk plans to increase the price of top tickets to £77. Liverpool even apologised for the distress the plan had caused. But it took a well-publicised protest to change the owners’ minds.
Related: Liverpool owner backs down on ticket prices and apologises to fans
Remarkably, moral force had also claimed another high-profile victim only a couple of days earlier, when Age UK and the energy giant E.ON climbed down after claims that the charity was being paid by the energy supplier to encourage older customers to buy their fuel at higher prices. There was no management apology, just a weasel promise to “pause and reflect”. Once again, though, it had taken a well-publicised media campaign to halt the rip-off.Remarkably, moral force had also claimed another high-profile victim only a couple of days earlier, when Age UK and the energy giant E.ON climbed down after claims that the charity was being paid by the energy supplier to encourage older customers to buy their fuel at higher prices. There was no management apology, just a weasel promise to “pause and reflect”. Once again, though, it had taken a well-publicised media campaign to halt the rip-off.
In both these cases, the power of money bowed to moral force amid general satisfaction that absolutely the right thing had happened. But events like these are very much the exception: most grievances don’t have such satisfying solutions. So how can modern liberal democracies better discipline ordinary modern capitalist behaviour in a more effective way? There are few convincing answers.In both these cases, the power of money bowed to moral force amid general satisfaction that absolutely the right thing had happened. But events like these are very much the exception: most grievances don’t have such satisfying solutions. So how can modern liberal democracies better discipline ordinary modern capitalist behaviour in a more effective way? There are few convincing answers.
The British pride themselves on a sense of fairness. Yet most of the chronic unfairnesses perpetrated by commercial institutions against their customers or the general public go unredeemed. Banks continue to pay absurd bonuses, corporations to avoid tax, managements to lavish money on consultants, football clubs to pay silly salaries, and universities to over-reward vice-chancellors. There are a hundred other examples. All are ridiculous distortions, deeply resented by the rest. Most people don’t live in that world.The British pride themselves on a sense of fairness. Yet most of the chronic unfairnesses perpetrated by commercial institutions against their customers or the general public go unredeemed. Banks continue to pay absurd bonuses, corporations to avoid tax, managements to lavish money on consultants, football clubs to pay silly salaries, and universities to over-reward vice-chancellors. There are a hundred other examples. All are ridiculous distortions, deeply resented by the rest. Most people don’t live in that world.
You do not have to support Jeremy Corbyn or Bernie Sanders to see that the failure of democratic politics to adequately regulate these unfairnesses is the central unanswered political question of our era. There is very little sign that people have confidence in socialism, but they want a morally aware capitalism to deliver a fairer world.You do not have to support Jeremy Corbyn or Bernie Sanders to see that the failure of democratic politics to adequately regulate these unfairnesses is the central unanswered political question of our era. There is very little sign that people have confidence in socialism, but they want a morally aware capitalism to deliver a fairer world.
Clinton is streets ahead of Corbyn’s rivals for the Labour leadership last summer. And yet she faces the same fateClinton is streets ahead of Corbyn’s rivals for the Labour leadership last summer. And yet she faces the same fate
The historian EP Thompson, writing about the 18th century, long ago talked about the moral economy of the crowd. Even in the unrecognisably different society of the 21st century, the moral economy of the modern crowd remains a reality. Today’s moral economy is about a fair chance for all, not the price of corn, but no one can understand Corbyn, Sanders or a host of other populist movements without grasping that reformist politics has failed to address this moral sense meaningfully.The historian EP Thompson, writing about the 18th century, long ago talked about the moral economy of the crowd. Even in the unrecognisably different society of the 21st century, the moral economy of the modern crowd remains a reality. Today’s moral economy is about a fair chance for all, not the price of corn, but no one can understand Corbyn, Sanders or a host of other populist movements without grasping that reformist politics has failed to address this moral sense meaningfully.
This feeling of unfairness and resentment – sometimes justified, sometimes not – rumbles ceaselessly around the everyday habits of private and public life. It has become much more widespread since it began to have an impact not just on the poor but on the middle class, variously defined, in multiple countries in the wake of the financial crisis of 2008. And it poses the reformist political tradition that most of us have grown up in, and most of us support, with a challenge that it is simply not meeting.This feeling of unfairness and resentment – sometimes justified, sometimes not – rumbles ceaselessly around the everyday habits of private and public life. It has become much more widespread since it began to have an impact not just on the poor but on the middle class, variously defined, in multiple countries in the wake of the financial crisis of 2008. And it poses the reformist political tradition that most of us have grown up in, and most of us support, with a challenge that it is simply not meeting.
The US election provides the latest example. On one level it would be hard to think of a more battle-hardened, thought-through and responsive centre-left candidate for the US presidency – or for any elected political office worth the name – than Hillary Clinton. She ticks all the boxes many times. Only her most implacably prejudiced opponents could deny that she is qualified for the job.The US election provides the latest example. On one level it would be hard to think of a more battle-hardened, thought-through and responsive centre-left candidate for the US presidency – or for any elected political office worth the name – than Hillary Clinton. She ticks all the boxes many times. Only her most implacably prejudiced opponents could deny that she is qualified for the job.
Clinton is manifestly streets ahead of Corbyn’s rivals for the Labour leadership last summer. And yet she currently faces the same fate as they did. Faced with a Republican field dominated by a rich demagogue and a clutch of conservative ideologues, Clinton is at risk of being America’s Yvette Cooper, failing to see off a rival spouting the kind of collectivist politics that hasn’t had serious house room among US voters for more than half a century.Clinton is manifestly streets ahead of Corbyn’s rivals for the Labour leadership last summer. And yet she currently faces the same fate as they did. Faced with a Republican field dominated by a rich demagogue and a clutch of conservative ideologues, Clinton is at risk of being America’s Yvette Cooper, failing to see off a rival spouting the kind of collectivist politics that hasn’t had serious house room among US voters for more than half a century.
Related: Bernie Sanders secures decisive win over Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire
Sanders won in New Hampshire this week because he spoke for the moral economy of the modern crowd in ways that Clinton and her equivalent politicians fail to do. That does not mean his solutions are right. His egalitarianism connects young voters on low incomes with rich liberal older voters, though they aren’t a majority and they don’t have much to say to those in between, to people who don’t live in cities, or to western societies that are becoming more conservative in the face of migration and insecurity.Sanders won in New Hampshire this week because he spoke for the moral economy of the modern crowd in ways that Clinton and her equivalent politicians fail to do. That does not mean his solutions are right. His egalitarianism connects young voters on low incomes with rich liberal older voters, though they aren’t a majority and they don’t have much to say to those in between, to people who don’t live in cities, or to western societies that are becoming more conservative in the face of migration and insecurity.
But it does mean that Clinton and those who come from her tradition are getting it wrong, just as Labour and other social democrats have done in Europe. That’s partly because they carry difficult baggage from the past; partly because they have become too slick and risk–averse; and partly because they just don’t seem to get it. The answers aren’t easy either. The only good news for the centre-left is that the right, too, isn’t very good at getting it.But it does mean that Clinton and those who come from her tradition are getting it wrong, just as Labour and other social democrats have done in Europe. That’s partly because they carry difficult baggage from the past; partly because they have become too slick and risk–averse; and partly because they just don’t seem to get it. The answers aren’t easy either. The only good news for the centre-left is that the right, too, isn’t very good at getting it.
Smart politicians need to understand what makes people indignant and why, and not just be indignant themselves. They need to understand the moral economy better. At the moment that’s not happening, either in America or Europe, and both places are becoming more politically volatile as a result.Smart politicians need to understand what makes people indignant and why, and not just be indignant themselves. They need to understand the moral economy better. At the moment that’s not happening, either in America or Europe, and both places are becoming more politically volatile as a result.