User:C0ZM0/Neocombs

infobox here

our dirty neolibs (they're kinda chiller doe)

Neocombinationalism, also known as XXX, or XXX, is a term historically used to refer to the resurgence and reinterpretation of Combinationalist political ideas that gained increased prominence within the Serial World, and particularly the advanced Global North during the latter half of the War of Position into the 21st century. Neocombinationalism was developed by Calesian Liberal thinkers reflecting on the apparent failures of the pre-war liberal economic model that largely lost prominence during the Postbellum as it got displaced by various Solidarist, Communist and !Fordist economic models during this period.

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History

Alt Mont Pelerin and sheet

Philosophy and ideas

Neocombinationalists have historically sought to recontextualise the role the state is meant to play in upholding the dual mandate principle and public stewardship model. Learning from the apparent failures of the liberal pre-war period which inevitably led to the Great Depression and the collapse of the !Fordist model which dictated economic policy within the Global North after the war, Neocombinationalists advocated for the use of public resources to optimize market outcomes toward the benefit of all parties in society. [...]

Political and Economic freedom

The core guiding principles of Neocombinationalist philosophy is self-ownership, asserting that individuals as rationale sovereign actors in their own right should be free to dictate the course of their own lives. However, historical liberal thinkers recognise that in practice this is not the case due to to myriad of reasons, such as the presence of external institutions such as the state or slavery coercing individuals through force or differences of circumstance such as poverty which limit the real capacity for individuals to carry out independent action. Later combinationalist thinkers, drawing from earlier liberal theorists such as XXX and XXX, advocated for a greater role of the role than envisioned by the Arvidsenist movement, seeing the state as social mediator between conflicting interests, primarily between that of the individual (indirectly expressed through market relations and forces) and that of the social collective.

As such, later combinationalist thinkers sought to redefine the dual mandate, conceptualising the state's primary duty is to ensure equality of autonomy between all actors in society where, regardless of personal circumstances, people have greater choice and control over the course of their lives. This differs from related concepts like equality of outcome and equality of opportunity, which tend to focus more on egalitarian wealth redistribution and reducing institutional barriers to occupational equality respectively, in that public intervention is focused on nurturing self-actualization and choice than narrowly living standards.

Propertarian Democracy

Social Theorist XXX coined the term Propertarian Democracy as an alternative and direct opposite to proletarianism by enshrining right to property and an intrinsic part of liberal democratic systems, asserting that ownership of society's productive assets should dispersed as much as possible so that everyone can be property owners in their own right subsisting on their capital. XXX believed that states should play an active role in promoting such a state of affairs by ensuring equal access to capital and amicable market conditions required to "jump start" entrepreneurial activity[...]

Cosmopolitianism

TBA

• Self-ownership principle
• Distributism
• Property-owning democracy
• Yeoman socialism

Economics

• Key Note: Fundamentally Neocombs are not "anti-state" like neoliberals are, but rather seek to use state organs to "optimize" market outcomes for the benefit of society as a whole"

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Welfare reform

Neocombinationalists are extremely critical of universal basic services, arguing against universal access to public services on the grounds that it could lead to greater economic inefficiency due to crucial resources being provided to members of society who could bare the cost of provision themselves, and broader costs to the state that could make such programmes unsustainable in the long run, as well as creating a culture of welfare dependency. Policy analysts and economists who identify with Neocombinationalism have historically argued in favour of means testing reforms being made to welfare programmes so that crucial resources are directed solely to those who cannot bare the cost of self-provision, thereby reducing the burden on the state and economic waste. Income support schemes, conditional transfers, and tax credits have historically been the preferred policy tools used by Neocombinationalist policymakers.

Social Provision of Capital

While Neocombinationalists are usually against universal provision of social services, equality of autonomy and access to property are held as fundamental requirements for indvidual sovereignty to be materially realized, and there is a recognition that various social circumstance such poverty could limit the ability of individuals to participate in the market. [INSERT THEORIST] has held that one of the core roles of the state is to ensure universal access to capital as a means to guarantee all members of society the ability enjoy a baseline level of economic security and engage in entrepreneurial activities of their own. In practice, the details and means of which this has been achieved have varied from country to and countries with their effectiveness and preference of certain models over others being heavily debated.

[MILTON FRIEDMAN ANALOGUE] is the earliest and most prominent theorist associated with universal capital provision, advocating for a negative income tax in which people who earn below a certain income threshold are awarded an unconditional cash transfer, ideally set around the market equilibrium "social wage". More recently there has been a broader shift towards either universal basic income or even larger lump-sum grants awarded to individuals upon reaching adulthood which could serve as the basis for establishing wealth.

Public sector

Under Neocombinationalist theory, the state is conceived as optimising agent, ensuring that the market produces equitable social outcomes for society as a collective and intervening whenever pareto efficiency is not achieved. As such the public sector, often through state-owned enterprises, plays a particular important role as the means in which the state interacts with the market. Excluding instances of natural monopolies, Neocombinationalist economists do not see public ownership as an ideal to be promoted and extended as do Solidarists and Social Democrats. Instead, they seek to use public companies as a means of inducing regulatory pressure, competing with private companies on a largely equal and non-advantageous footing while providing the public with an often cheaper public alternative.

State capture is a key concern among Neocombinationalists fearing that unilateral public ownership could give rise to endemic corruption and looting from politicians and political elites. While not necessarily arguing for shrinking the state, Neocombinationalists belief that state organs must be insulated from political interests and function as technocratic entities administratively independent from public legislators, with the current operations of central banks being seen as a model to emulate. The emphasis on the public sector competing with the private sector on equal grounds is emphasized, believing that market discipline could help force public enterprises into reducing waste and corruption.

Regardless, the public sector can and often also seen as a source of public waste which may not be able to successfully reform itself, and thus many Neocombinationalist parties have instituted partial or complete privatisations and deregulation. Public-private partnerships are often seen as ideal by partially offloading the responsibilities of the state to the private sector and the market.

Public Financial Institutions

National Wealth Funds (NWFs) are a cornerstone institution within Neocombinationalist economics. They differ from traditional sovereign wealth funds in that they are not used to manage budgetary or export surpluses but serve as policy banks to carry out industrial policy, meet social objectives and provide credit for capital-intensive public projects. Many countries can have several NWFs for multiple purposes, such as a separate funds for climate policy, infrastructural investment or small business lending. Many NWFs often serve as asset managers for national government, helping them to acquire key economic resources such as land, real estate and commodities, or likewise allow for strategic public ownership in key leading firms, not uncommonly through non-voting shares so as to not interfere with their commercial activities. NWFs were historically promoted as a means to finance a citizen's dividend from which the state redistributes large unconditional cash transfers to the general populace as a means of promoting wealth democratization and asset-building, however this was originally envisioned to be financed by natural resource taxation, such as mostly famously on land, rather than public ownership of financial assets and capital stock.

Natural resources

[INSERT THEORIST] popularized the notion that natural resources, by virtue of their scare nature and fundamental importance to nourishing life, should not be privately owned, but rather collectively "unowned", with the state serving as a legal steward presiding of the management of nature. Many Neocombinationalists have supported the implementation of resource and pigovian taxes, rationalising them as the social rental change set by the state on private firms who seek to exploit and use it, and therefore detering excessive hoarding or usage by raising the cost of exploitation and speculation. More recently most policymakers have warmed up to the use of monopolistic public trusts, such as land banks and energy companies, to manage natural resources more effectively and recuperate revenue in full to be reinvested back into the society.

Education Policy

Education is a heavily contested area of debate within Neocombinationalism. Many theorists and policy analysts have argued in favour of universal access to tertiary education to provide low-income families a means of social mobility and expanding the pool of educated technical workers for firms to boost productivity in line with supply-side economics. But other theorists have argued against it on grounds that removing barriers in education could lead to the oversupply of unproductive and unessential holders which could cost the national economy. There is a general consensus among Neocombinationalist political parties that broadening access to education should be pursued, oftentimes through public provision, but often argue against completely free tuition.

Many policy analysts tend to favour student loans and income-tested tuition waivers to broaden access to education, recently in some countries pegging the repayable amount to post-graduation income. Some countries also introduce differentiated tuition rates dependent on the degree classification and specialism. This has led to some criticism from civil society groups as qualifications in STEM and management-linked specialisms generally receive greater priority due to their higher market value whereas humanities and cultural courses are de-emphasized through stricter and less generous support schemes, or sometimes outright discouraged through high tuition fees.

More recently in secondary education there has been a growth in support for school vouchers as a means of giving families greater autonomy in enrolling their children in schools outside of the traditional education system.

Labour policy

Neocombinationalist policy analysts are generally sceptical of sectoral bargaining on ground that they impart costs onto businesses that limit productivity and weaken labour flexibility, and have preferred enterprise-level negotiation. Despite this, Neocombinationalist theorists are not necessarily anti-union. Unions are generally seen as an integral part of improving social conditions in the economy, particularly through the outsourcing of welfare institutions such as pensions, health insurance and jobseeker allowances.

Leading social scientist [INSERT DUDE NAME], who has been influential in the labour reform policy of [THATCHER AND REAGAN-ANALOGUES], have argued that the interest of unions should be synthesized with that of shareholders, arguing that not only does it improve social conditions by ensuring labour demands are met but also improve firm performance through efficiency wage effects, boosted morale and reduce strikes. In practice this is led to support force policies such as co-determination through union-linked but often independent Employee Interest Committees which in turn elect representatives onto the board of directors. Many countries may also promote dual ownership firms or mandate minimum share ownership laws for large companies through employee funds and managed by trusts. In countries with fixed employee shares it is not uncommon for shares to be non-voting, with labour representation secured through committee delegates on boards.

Traditions

Individual nation variants go here