How does order emerge from anarchy? How do human beings create institutions? Can big problems — like climate change, income inequality, or AI alignment — find solutions “from below,” through collective action, rather than “from above,” i.e., imposed by regulatory bodies?

Today’s guest is a fascinating economist. Professor Paul Dragoș Aligică is a senior research fellow at the Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, and a Professor of Governance at the University of Bucharest.

Paul believes that we are living through the third great moment in human history, after the transition to agriculture and the industrial revolution. What will this third moment be about?

Far too broad to pigeonhole, he’s a visionary public choice theorist and a student of renowned economists Vincent and Elinor Ostrom (the latter won the Nobel Prize for Economics in 2009). Paul has thought long and hard about the strange inflection point our world seems to be hurtling towards. It’s a slow burn of an episode, one where interesting and complex ideas are laid out carefully, before Damir and Santiago engage Paul in sussing out their implications.

Does Paul think that public choice theory means the world has hope? How do we fix the seemingly intractable problems posed by capitalism and globalization? Tune in to find out.

Required Reading and Viewing:

* Paul Dragoș Aligică’s personal website.

* Elinor Ostrom, Governing the Commons (Amazon).

* What is the Tragedy of the Commons? (Harvard Business School).

* Elinor Ostrom on Ending the Tragedy of the Commons (Big Think on YouTube).

* Santiago Ramos, “What Does McDonald’s Mean?” (WoC).

This post is part of our collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Governance and Markets.

Wisdom of Crowds is a platform challenging premises and understanding first principles on politics and culture. Join us!

The Harris-Walz campaign is having a moment. It is polling well. Harris made a good speech at the Democratic National Convention. The Democratic Convention as a whole got better TV ratings than the Republican one. Harris’s campaign is all about joy. Even Shadi’s parents are feeling the vibes (and using the word, “vibes,” probably for the first time).

But Shadi and Damir aren’t feeling it. No joy. No vibes. No excitement about the current moment in American politics. What’s going on is at best groupthink, at worst, the manufacturing of consent. Our podcast hosts are skeptical about the fact that the media made an abrupt 180-degree turn on Harris: someone who was once considered a political dud is now seen as “the second coming of Barack Obama.”

But soon Shadi and Damir start interrogating their assumptions. Is it necessarily a bad thing that large numbers of people are feeling positive emotions? Could large trends and coalitions develop organically, through common affinity, rather than through the machinations of politicians and propagandists? Could a campaign based on good vibes actually be more efficient at creating a Democratic Party platform that appeals to the median American voter? Maybe the Harris-Walz campaign is forcing us, as Damir puts it, to “update our priors on what democratic politics is.”

In the bonus concluding section for our paid subscribers, our hosts make a 180-degree turn of their own. They explore learning to like Harris and embracing the vibes. “No one is talking about threats of civil war anymore,” Shadi observes. This is a good thing. “People want to feel good about their country.” Maybe Harris is making that possible for millions of voters.

Required Reading:

* “Harris has upended years of Democratic dogma. That’s good,” by Shadi Hamid and Aden Barton (Washington Post).

* “The Peculiar Moderation of Donald Trump,” by Shadi Hamid (Washington Post).

* Full text of Kamala Harris’ speech at the Democratic National Convention (PBS).

* Our CrowdSource about “vibes” (WoC).

* Noam Chomsky on “manufacturing consent” (YouTube).

* Matt Yglesias on “popularism” (Slow Boring).

* Matt Yglesias on the “unhinged moderation” of the Republicans (Slow Boring).

Wisdom of Crowds is a platform challenging premises and understanding first principles on politics and culture. Join us!