America's Big Society

My hypothesis is that Americans who hate big government do so not because big government is inherently evil, but simply because it genuinely doesn't work in America - perhaps in part (but only in part) as a result of certain elements doing their damnedest to break it.

[I should clarify. I definitely don't mean to suggest that it doesn't work in other countries, because it very much does. I don't even want to say that it's wholly useless in America, because it isn't. What I mean to say is that there's clearly some level on which big government does fail in America, at which it appears incapable of taking even the most basic actions or of making the simplest choices, which does not happen in other countries.]

As the country continues its long recovery from recession, there are signs that a much deeper shift is happening at a local level, the seeds of which were sown years ago. Indicators far more subtle than job numbers suggest a flourishing of entrepreneurship, collaboration and problem-solving, away from the gaze of national media.

After five years spent visiting dozens of towns, The Atlantic writer James Fallows and his wife Deborah have written a book Our Towns which paints a portrait of renewal, a story at odds with the well-documented gridlock of higher levels of government. Fallows says that in several areas - civic engagement, returning talent, growth of tech start-ups, downtown revitalisation, an openness to immigrants and thriving libraries - local America seems to be flourishing.

He's not alone. Another book called The New Localism says a growing number of US cities are addressing the problems of post-industrial America in increasingly imaginative and flexible ways - succeeding where bigger government fails. There is also optimism from the world of tech. After visiting communities in the heart of the country, in a huge drive to help entrepreneurs, internet pioneer Steve Case, co-founder of AOL, says the future looks bright. "I believe that we are entering the Third Wave of the internet, a period in which entrepreneurs will leverage technology to revolutionise major sectors of the economy - healthcare, financial services, agriculture and others," he says.

How cities are rolling up their sleeves and getting things done is the subject of New Localism, a book co-authored by Bruce Katz of the Brookings Institution. "For the past 40 years, we have seen an evolution of urban problem-solving that's becoming more sophisticated and more impactful with every passing year," he says. This "localism" first emerged in the 1980s, he says, when cities began to realise that the "cavalry wasn't coming" from federal and state government, and they were going to have to tackle their problems on their own. City leaders are discovering that problem-solving from the bottom up - in partnerships with others from the worlds of business, technology and education - is more democratic and effective, says Katz.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44349211