CAN THE OLD LIBERAL STALWART play a role in today’s world? Short answer - No. Here’s why:

Since the late nineteenth century most intellectuals have identified progress with the advance of the bureaucratic, redistributionist and administrative state. The government, guided by credentialed intellectuals with scientific training and values, would lead society through the economic and political perils of the day. An ever more powerful state would play an ever larger role in achieving ever greater degrees of affluence and stability for the population at large, redistributing wealth to provide basic sustenance and justice to the poor. The social mission of intellectuals was to build political support for the development of the new order, to provide enlightened guidance based on rational and scientific thought to policymakers, to administer the state through a merit based civil service, and to train new generations of managers and administrators.

For America to prosper:

Power is going to have to shift from bureaucrats to entrepreneurs, from the state to society and from qualified experts and licensed professionals to the population at large.

And from the comments: “Old-school progressivism appeals to the narcissist in people in high places. They want to believe that they can and are uniquely qualified to dole out justice and mercy and goodness to the poor oppressed masses. If the new paradigm involves devolution of power to the masses, there’s no more need for narcissistic demigods.”

More: Walter Russell Mead’s “The Crisis of the American Intellectual” is here.