ECONOMICS FOR THE GRASS ROOTS

...H world economic development using trade and aid instead of military might and interventionism...

...Richard Viguerie, publisher of Conservative Digest, and Paul Weyrich, a prominent New Right organizer...

...Ralph Nader's Tax Reform Research Group has promoted its Tax Justice Act, but the power of business lobbies has blocked passage of such reform measures...

...It uses American, not European, terms, and lays claim to this country's democratic heritage...

...And to the "little guy," government is, among other things, the provider of aid, watchdog of health and safety, protector of consumers, and supplier of public education...

...These policies would be based on a new social contract in which all persons, regardless of race or sex, share in the material output of society as equitably as possible...

...But a vision of a more democratic and humane society can be shared by all except the rich...

...But there is little sign that the concept has widespread appeal—or that it can solve the larger problems that threaten individual firms or entire industries...

...Can a liberal economic program fare better than the Right's...

...On another front, liberals have tried to turn the tax revolt in a progressive direction...

...It is not a vision that can or will inspire popular support in this country...

...Progressive populism will continue to falter if it just offers patchwork cures to this or that economic ill...

...Dorgan, an astute politician, could make a national issue out of the Fed—its pro-corporate positions, its composition—but this is an economic plank, not a platform on which to build a movement...

...What is needed is an economic and political agenda that widens the focus of populism and escapes the statist connotations of socialism...

...The basic principles of democratic economics include: 11 broader participation in economic decision-making...

...He is coauthor, most recently, of "A New Social Contract: The Economy and Government After Reagan...

...giving the President line-item veto authority...

...The Right's economic agenda has been outlined by Hoover Institution senior fellow Martin Anderson...

...Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat who garnered headlines when he battled corporations as state tax commissioner, sharply criticizes the Federal Reserve's tight-money policies...

...On the Right, conservatives critical of Ronald Reagan's record on social issues have organized the Conservative Populist Party, headed by Howard Phillips, chairman of the Conservative Caucus...

...Consider the two major rebellions that occurred in California during the 1970s: the tax limitation movement, organized Derek Shearer, vice-chair of the Santa Monica, California, Planning Commission, is director of urban studies at Occidental College in Los Angeles...

...If you favor populism, you have to have a relatively populist economics," says Kevin Phillips, Republican commentator and author of Post-Conservative America...

...That can include the tax revolt, but it also has to include worrying about the 'little guy' and support for his program...

...It helps build what Jesse Jackson calls the Rainbow Coalition—an alliance of workers, women, gays, environmentalists, minorities, state citizen action groups, liberal professionals, neighborhood organizations, peace activists, small business people, and family farmers...

...But the European socialist experience cannot be transplanted to the United States, and, in any case, most Americans equate socialism with centralized, bureaucratic control over the economy and our private lives...

...Though most people are worried about the Federal deficit, they approve of spending to create jobs or regulate business activity...

...When the political center collapses, usually in economic downturns, forward- as well as backward-looking popular movements take root...

...11 fairness in access to credit and in the tax system...

...Narrow, pocketbook grievances, it seems, cannot sustain a mass political movement...

...Historically, that vision of a better society has been called socialism...

...In Congress, Representative Byron Dorgan has made credit an issue for the Populist Caucus...

...around Proposition 13, and the tenant rights movement...

...The first was led by conservative activist Howard Jarvis, who mobilized middle-class homeowners behind a freeze on property taxes...

...Jarvis cloaked his campaign in antigovernment rhetoric, fueling resentment against social spending for minorities and the poor...

...11 equality of opportunity for women and minorities, including equal pay, educational opportunities, and adequate day care...

...Right-wing populists have the issue backwards: We do not need to get government off the people's backs, we need to put government in the people's hands—to make it participatory, starting in one's own neighborhood...

...But neither initiative has grown into a national crusade (though Michigan and Massachusetts recently experienced anti-tax drives...

...Senator Bill Bradley of New Jersey and Representative Richard Gephardt of Missouri proposed a modified flat tax in response to growing criticism of loopholes for the rich...

...The Right is out of touch with the majority of working-class and middle-class Americans...

...Polls show that most Americans support such government spending...

...It advocated enactment of rent control, just-cause eviction legislation, and prohibitions on conversion—all measures requiring government intervention in the market...

...This was true in the Nineteenth Century, when Populist farmers espoused progressive visions alongside atavistic and racist notions, and it is equally true today...

...H human-scale institutions, where feasible, through the promotion of small businesses, cooperatives, and community-owned enterprises...

...Government at all levels has a crucial role to play in drafting the new social contract...

...passing a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget...

...Sort of George Wallace politics without the racial overtones...

...In recent months, a few major corporations, particularly such troubled airlines as Eastern and Pan Am, have adopted employee-ownership plans, and some firms crippled by the recession have experimented with variations on the ownership theme to avert collapse...

...The tenants' movement was sparked by skyrocketing rents and the increasing pace of condominium conversion...

...Even on the question of taxes, it turns out that while 72 per cent of those surveyed in a nationwide poll last February opposed increasing the personal income tax, 63 per cent were willing to raise taxes on corporations...

...But the Right faces a fundamental contradiction in its efforts to stir populist ferment...

...Senator Russell Long, son of Huey, advocates Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs) as a mild way of sharing the wealth...

...Democratic economics serves as a politics that is populist in style...

...If the prospects for a conservative populist revival are dim, what are the chances of a successful left-wing populism...

...He proposes limiting Federal spending...

...Viguerie told the Los Angeles Times that his party would address "religious conservatives, gun owners, anti-crime groups, ethnic anticommunists, the anti-abortion movement, advocates of the gold standard, people with children in private schools, and the 'Sagebrush Rebels,' people who are angered at Federal land ownership in the Western states...

...Uniting such disparate groups would, of course, be a formidable task...

...The task is to build a popular movement that speaks to the specific interests of these groups and, simultaneously, addresses the common interest in a more democratic America...

...No single grievance is felt by all segments of American society...

...For this reason, efforts to foster a nationwide populist revolt in the 1980s may be doomed...

...forever banning wage and price controls, and returning the United States to the gold standard...

...The concept of democratic economics fits the bill...

...Each issue tapped the public's desire for affordable housing and, despite conflicting positions toward government, each attempted to provide immediate relief for its constituency—a hallmark of populist politics...