Thoughts on the Works of Anti-Poverty Scholar Lane Kenworthy

Lane Kenworthy is a particularly thoughtful scholar with paramount concern for the elimination of national and world poverty.  

Two of Kenworthy's works include the following  >>>>>

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Lane Kenworthy, Social Democratic America (Oxford, England:  Oxford University Press, 2014);

 

Lane Kenworthy, Would Democratic Socialism Be Better? (Oxford, England:  Oxford University Press, 2022).

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I read a review of Social Democratic America nine years ago, just after that work was published, that intrigued me greatly.  Kenworthy’s prediction was that the United States was on course over the next few decades eventually to embrace, tacitly or explicitly, the Nordic model.  The book has been on my list for lo these many years, during which, though, I wondered if Kenwworthy’s speculation came to be ignored or disregarded, first because to some his prediction seemed fanciful, or because while originally worth contemplation his prognostication seemed highly fraught given the reactionary thrust of those living during the Trump Tribulation.

 

When I recently ordered and read Social Democratic America, I had several insights and observations:

 

Kenworthy is a marvelously clear writer who bases his views on a bevy of those sorts of facts that I love so well.  He makes a convincing case that with the advent of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Food Stamps/SNAP, Head Start, Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), and AFDC (Aid to Families with Dependent Children)/TANF (Temporary Assistance to Needy Families) the United States has been on course toward the Nordic Model, more slowly than has been the case for the Scandinavian and other European nations, but relentless and enduring nevertheless, never succumbing to any major reversal.  In Social Democratic America, Kenworthy’s essential assessment is that the United States will continue on this course to more government provision of services until---  in adding free childcare, single provider health care, post-secondary education, and generous family leave and vacation time---  the nation of our citizenship will have embraced social democracy.

 

When I bought and started to read Would Democratic Socialism Be Better?, I thought erroneously that this would be a timely update of Social Democratic America.  In part that is true, but this is where the distinction between social democracy and democratic socialism becomes important:

 

Kenworthy holds to definitions established by political scientists, sociologists, and other academics ands serious journalists whereby social democracies provide abundant social services but fully embrace and encourage capitalist economic processes---  by contrast with democratic socialist societies, which would in the advocacy of adherents maintain capitalist enterprises but place two-thirds (67%) of ownership (including transportation, heavy industry, and certain other manufacturing enterprises) into either government or worker ownership.

 

Kenworthy maintains that the Nordic nations are social democracies rather than democratic socialist societies and that Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are themselves, despite their use of the term “democratic socialist” to describe the Nordic systems and their own views, are either actually social democrats or have a long-term vision of placing greater ownership of the means of production into the hands of workers---  or a government representing foremost the interest of  working people---  about which they do not speak for politically pragmatic reasons.

 

For the foreseeable future I (Gary Marvin Davison [GMD[) intend to continue to identify as a democratic socialist.  My main concern, though, is the achievement of equitable circumstances of life across all ethnicities, and I will embrace any system of government and society that can attain that goal 

 

I am willing to assign to government ownership any industry or enterprise that government can oversee more equitably and with an acceptable level of efficiency.  If that should entail publicly owned transportation, heavy industry, and certain other manufacturing enterprises, that would be fine---  but my main concern are the equity and efficiency factors, not the matter of public versus private ownership.  I do, though, lean heavily toward government as single-payer and manager of health insurance over other universal schemes.  I also am of the conviction that post-secondary education should be free at public institutions and that the latter should benefit from policies that favor public versus private institutions.  As to free childcare, generous family leave, and ample vacation time, these would most likely best be provided, as in the Nordic countries, by private entities in compliance with central government law.

 

Kenworthy ultimately reveals favor for social democracy over democratic socialism, arguing (upon a mountainous stack of facts) that all that might be achieved under democratic socialism can be achieved---  perhaps better and definitely more politically smoothly---  by continued progress toward social democracy via additional government services.

 

I had thought that Kenworthy’s Social Democratic America might be a book that failed to get the attention deserved and that his message might have seemed unlikely given the current temper of politics in the United States.  But I have discovered that he has written many books over a thirty-year career, that his driving concern is the elimination of national but also world poverty, that as indicated by the Oxford publication status of his works he is highly regarded as a scholar, and that he holds fast to his vision despite what GMD dubs the Trump Tribulation:

I share Kenworthy's optimism and propensity to advocate for what should be, optimistic that what should be eventually will be.

My particular conviction is that by overhauling public education we will create that equitable life circumstance across ethnic categories that we should maintain as paramount goal, and that the enlightened citizens thus produced will opt for the policy initiatives sought by social democrats and move toward the goals for economic equity that are paramount for democratic socialists.