Ecomodernism by Jonathan Symons

Author:Jonathan Symons [Symons, Jonathan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 2019-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

Mariana Mazzucato, Fred Block and ‘Mission-Oriented’ Innovation

Ecomodernists draw on the language of ‘mission-oriented innovation’ and ‘directed technological change’, and many of their arguments concerning the state's role in innovation derive from a group of scholars among whom Mariana Mazzucato (2015) and Fred Block (2011, 2018) are most prominent (see also Acemoglu 2002; Mazzucato 2015; Weiss 2014; Mazzucato and Semieniuk 2017). As against those on the left who are primarily concerned with questions of distribution, both Mazzucato and Block believe progressive governments should also seek to accelerate growth. They think it is easier to achieve a fairer distribution of income and wealth in a fast-growing economy. Block argues that ‘when growth comes more slowly, efforts to redistribute are bound to be met with fiercer resistance’, and that this dynamic of ‘rich reactionaries successfully fighting for an ever-larger share of the slowly growing economic pie’ has characterized US politics over the past forty years (Block 2018, pp. 65–76). Block observes that his pro-growth progressive agenda is subtly different from that of the guaranteed-minimum income or job-centred left, and radically different from Green visions of de-growth or of a ‘stable-state’ economy.

Although Mazzucato and Block's work has shaped ecomodernism's climate response, neither of these scholars’ primary concern is environmental. Instead, they are responding to the growing inequality, sluggish economic growth and declining living standards that are corroding political life across much of the developed world. Mazzucato argues that arresting this ‘drift into secular stagnation requires policies that aim at smart, innovation-led growth and inclusive growth at the same time. It requires the State to think big’ (Mazzucato 2015, p. 14). However, she thinks it has become increasingly difficult for governments to openly take on this ambitious role. While the idea that the state should be a ‘mere facilitator, administrator and regulator’ gained economic ascendance in the 1970s, Mazzucato argues that this stripped-back vision of the state has become even more deeply entrenched since the global financial crisis of 2008. This argument perhaps overlooks the fact that investments in innovation and deployment of Green technologies – sometimes dubbed Green Keynsianism – actually formed part of the response to the financial crisis in the United States and China. In fact, Mazzucato recognizes that despite their adherence to small-state rhetoric, governments have continued to support innovation. However, they have usually done so through concessional loans and investments in basic research – policies that have allowed the private sector to appropriate profits. Mazzucato's political goal is to push back against this reigning ideology. The first step is to acknowledge the state's actual role in innovation. The second is to redouble these efforts and focus them on advancing shared public interests.

How to achieve inclusive, innovation-led growth? Mazzucato believes that an economy's performance can be optimized if we reconceptualize government as a risk-taking entrepreneur. In classical liberal economics there is a role for state interventions to correct ‘market failures’. One widely recognized failure arises when an innovation creates ‘positive externalities’, whose value will not be easily captured by the innovator.

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