We've discussed on many occasions the importance of political philosophy and culture in American politics. Among other things, it constrains or limits the political agenda to a retively narrow range of alternative policy options. Some proposals that are widely discussed and even implemented in Europe, Asia, and elsewhere receive hardly any notice at all here because they do not jibe with the public philosophy I have been calling general-welfare liberalism.
One way to strengthen your understanding of General-welfare liberalism and state capitalism is to look for the various themes or strands in public documents, especially speeches and pronouncements given by political leaders. President Clinton's latest state of the Union address is one place to look. State of the Union addresses are more than a simple summary of what is going on in the nation. Instead, they contain a president's policy agenda and a defense of his past activities. More important, they are couched or defended in the "language" of general-welfare or state-capitalism liberalism.
To appreciate this point why not examine one or more of these addresses. Look for statements, arguments, claims, and assertions that express one or more parts of the two strands. You can print a copy and mark those phrases, terms, or sentences that represent classical liberalism with red ink or pencil and those that reflect state-capitalism or general-welfare with blue or black. You could just underline them with the different colors and then draw an overall conclusion.
Clinton's most recent (January 19, 1999) speech.
If you can't find it here, try using Lexis-Nexis to locate copies. Go to the University of Delaware Library then to Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe.
Try doing this: access a speech, print it, and then use the coding system above. Or view the speech on your web browser and use the Edit menu and Find in Page dialog box to search for phrases that are indicative of general-welfare liberalism.>
You can do the same thing with inaugural speeches that are at Columbia University's Bartleby Archive
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