The Guardian view on Corbynomics: more creativity please | Editorial
The Labour party has long attempted to remodel society under the banner of equality. In that sense, the party's current leadership is no different from earlier incarnations. Jeremy Corbyn and his shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, offered a bold manifesto at last year's election, one which made it clear that they are agreed, in ambition if nothing else, with their nemesis Margaret Thatcher that "economics are the method; the object is to change the soul". Since then Mr Corbyn and Mr McDonnell have sketched out, admittedly in dry policy documents, a number of instruments of their revolution. But they have shied away from making a coherent public case for notions of progressive values, radical democracy and collective action. That is a mistake, not least because a programme that seeks to transform Britain must conquer minds as well as spirits.
It has been left to others to make the argument. Last week in Renewal, an academic journal, two leftwing thinkers - Martin O'Neill and Joe Guinan - outlined the size and scope of Corbynomics. They credit Karl Polanyi, an Austrian economic sociologist, for inspiring Mr Corbyn's policies. Polanyi warned that capitalist systems quickly become dominated by markets, where values are framed by cash. The result is the "annihilation (of) the natural substance of society". He argued, perceptively, instead that cooperation was more important to humans than competition. If reciprocity was considered, then the notion of what was valuable could be broadened to better represent society's health.
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