Yascha Mounk - The Age of Responsibility: Luck, Choice, and the Welfare State

A Slate columnist, Harvard lecturer on government, and fellow in the New America political reform program, Mounk has questioned a number of revered assumptions about democracy. In his second book, the author of Stranger in My Own Country looks closely at what we mean by “responsibility.” Tracing today’s emphasis on personal responsibility as self-sufficiency to mid-twentieth century conservative values, Mounk shows that this masks the larger socio-economic forces at work, and he reminds us that “responsibility” once implied the moral duty to help and support others. He argues that a return to this approach will empower individuals to support others regardless of their decisions and will help to create a society of equals.

Mounk will be in conversation with Mark Schmitt, the Director of the Political Reform Program at the New America Foundation.