Michael Sandel is a well-known Harvard professor. He discusses the growing concentration of economic power in the United States and the financial drift of the economy (with the subprime crisis and all that followed), confirming his criticism of the individualistic liberalism prevailing in that country and in most Western democracies.
Against this version of liberalism, Sandel proposes the republican tradition of democracy. The author explains that the core of this tradition consists in the self-government of citizens, and not in the capacity of each individual to carry out his or her personal life project. In his opinion, it is this version of democracy, reinforced by Rawls' thought, which disarticulates the debates on the common good, making it easier for politicians not to discuss economic issues in terms of justice and for the economic powers to impose their interests on society.
Sandel gives much political importance to the economic structure and the book is mostly an exposition of the political-economic history of the United States from its founding to the present. In this history we witness the debate on the changes in economic structures and laws. A debate in which the distrust of many politicians towards the concentration of economic power, perceived as a threat to the political empowerment of the average citizen, surfaces again and again. In these politicians and thinkers a connection is established between self-government, moral education of the citizenry and the economic system.
The book is extensive and lavish in historical references. His criticism of the liberal individualist model of democracy is very appropriate and well-reasoned. He proposes a way of understanding democracy -contrary to Rawls' vision- that gives a clear idea of the participation of citizens based on their convictions, within the plural political debate.