A New Progressive Paradigm

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Title: Shared Prosperity in a Fractured World: A New Economics for the Middle Class, the Global Poor, and Our Climate
Author: Dani Rodrik
Review by: CHRISTOPH B. ROSENBERG
Publication: F&D Magazine
Review date: December 2025
Book details listed in the review: 280 pp., $27.95
Reading time indicator on page: Less than a minute(0 words) Read

Rodrik outlines a new approach to the "triple challenge": restoring the middle class, addressing climate change, and reducing global poverty.
Emphasis on experimentation over grand design and on local over national or global solutions.
Argues that fixation on manufacturing jobs is misguided; future well-paying employment lies in services.
Advocates micro-level state interventions with examples spanning contexts from western Michigan to Bogotá.

The reviewer notes Rodrik's criticism of the hyperglobalization period after the Cold War, including concerns about unfettered financial flows and insufficient attention to developing economies’ needs.
The reviewer observes that some global institutions, including the IMF, have adapted policies (for example: support programs with social safety nets; modified guidance on monetary and exchange rate policy, including capital controls).
The reviewer cautions that certain economic truths—such as the problems created by persistent fiscal deficits or overvalued currencies—hold irrespective of national conditions, and that the book could have emphasized this more.
On global cooperation, Rodrik focuses on U.S.–China relations and contends that self-interested policies may be less harmful than previously thought; the reviewer notes this may not generalize to other countries that pursue regional preservation of the old order (for example through plurilateral trade agreements).

The book is largely silent on migration flows, rising debt, and the rapid advance of artificial intelligence.
Framing the approach as an agenda for the Left’s return to power (notably in the United States) risks politicizing otherwise sensible policy insights.
The reviewer questions whether detailed, long-term micro policies can address widespread political and social malaise or constitute a compelling "new progressive agenda."

Support for policies that:
- Prioritize experimental, locally tailored interventions over one-size-fits-all grand designs.
- Facilitate transition of workers into well-paying services jobs rather than privileging manufacturing employment.
- Implement proven micro-level public-private partnerships and targeted state interventions.
Continued attention to macroeconomic fundamentals (the reviewer stresses): addressing persistent fiscal deficits and avoiding overvalued exchange rates as universal risks.

The reviewer regards the book as a thought-provoking and valuable contribution to a needed debate on developing a new economic consensus, while noting shortcomings in scope and potential politicization of the recommendations.

Christoph B. Rosenberg, F&D Magazine, December 2025.

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