Power‑sharing liberalism

Updated: 2026.03.02 2D ago 2 sources
A governance frame that treats the central problem of contemporary liberal democracies as not merely policy choice but distribution of governing authority: rebuild legitimacy by embedding institutional mechanisms that deliberately share power between experts, elected officials, and ordinary citizens (deliberative assemblies, civic education, local co‑governance), while guarding against capture by the professional managerial class. — Shifts the reform debate from technocratic optimization to institutional design: how to restructure who governs, which affects constitutions, public administration, and civic education.

Sources

Blessed Are the Rich
James E. Hartley 2026.03.02 92% relevant
The article adapts a Madisonian logic — ambition counteracts ambition — and Michael Novak’s tripartite division of societal power to argue that wealthy individuals (economic power) play a structural role alongside political and cultural elites in checking government; this is a near-direct instantiation of the 'power‑sharing liberalism' idea.
Danielle Allen on Why Technocratic Liberalism Failed
Yascha Mounk 2026.02.28 100% relevant
Danielle Allen (Harvard) articulates this corrective in her Persuasion interview, naming the end of neoliberal technocracy and proposing 'power‑sharing' as a way to win self‑government in turbulent times.
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