A Review of
The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion
(Author: Jonathan Haidt)

Understanding the deep psychology of liberal and conservative attitudes could help all of us to understand each other better and to cooperate constructively. That is why Jonathan Haidt’s work is so critically important.

The core of his approach, which he calls Moral Foundations Theory, has been to identify a small set of “foundations” or basic values that have social and political relevance:

A Review of
The People vs. Democracy: Why Our Freedom Is in Danger and How to Save It (Author: Yascha Mounk)

Yascha Mounk explains that elites have too much power, and the populists are trying to oppose it by all possible means, even if it might mean authoritarian government and sweeping away of minority rights.

He enumerates modern decision-making institutions that exclude voter input:

• bureaucratic agencies
• central banks
• the courts
• international organizations/treaties

A Review of
The Wealth of Humans: Work, Power, and Status in the Twenty-first Century
(Author: Ryan Avent)

Economist writer Ryan Avent’s thesis is that the world has a glut of labor that will only get worse forever—due to advancing technology and automation—and that the main solution is politically-difficult redistribution. Among other things, he discusses the potential remedies of trying to increase global demand (questionable feasibility) and of breaking down barriers to immigration.

It would be great if ordinary Americans could digest and debate his economic analysis; unfortunately, Avent’s discourse is rather too advanced. Yet the topic of course has politically urgency. We see many voters who have resonated to economically-futile proposals to tax imports and to “bring back manufacturing jobs.”