The Third Pillar
Raghuram Rajan has an unparalleled vantage point on the social and economic consequences of globalization and its ultimate effect on our politics. In The Third Pillar, he offers up a magnificent big-picture framework for understanding how the state, markets, and our communities interact, why things begin to break down, and how we can find our way back to a more secure and stable plane. This book will be a classic of its kind for its offering of a wise, authoritative, and humane explanation of the forces that have wrought such a sea change in our lives.
Praise for The Third Pillar
“The Third Pillar is a must-read for everyone seeking a way to preserve democracy as we’ve known it. In Rajan’s brilliant new perspective, successful democracies require balance between competitive markets, honest governments, and healthy, local communities. But our communities have been ravaged by globalization and ICT. Restoration of that third pillar is, therefore, the most essential task facing policymakers today.”
— Janet Yellen, Distinguished Fellow in Residence, Brookings Institution
“Rather suddenly, capitalism is visibly sick. Fortunately, Raghuram G. Rajan, a former governor of the Reserve Bank of India who teaches at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, brings his unparalleled knowledge and experience to bear on the problem.”
— Angus Deaton, 2015 Nobel Prize winner in Economic Sciences
“My parents lived through the Great Depression, the rise of Fascism, and World War II. I thought I was brought up in a world organized in a fundamentally different way. I was wrong. We all need to start thinking about this issue right now and this book is a place to begin.”
— James Robinson, Professor, University of Chicago
“Few economists span the worlds of policy and scholarship with such distinction as Raghu Rajan, and fewer still have been so consistently right about the wrong turns the world economy has taken. In his latest book, Rajan reminds us of the importance of local communities—the social ties that bind those who live in close geographical proximity. We need to strike a balance not just between state and market, he argues, but also between these two and community. Rajan presents a bold, original vision that significantly advances our contemporary debatecon the ills of democracies and moves it onto new terrain.”
— Dani Rodrik, Professor, Harvard University
“A remarkably original and insightful take on the evolution, foundations and future of capitalism. Sweeping in historical perspective, Rajan argues convincingly that the conventional dichotomy between the state and markets misses the critical role of communities—the third pillar—in e onomic and social development. As a result, both progressives who favor a bigger and more centralized state, and conservatives, who prize market freedom, both miss a critical part of the recipe for a more prosperous and balanced society. A landmark treatise of profound depth.”
— Kenneth Rogoff, Professor, Harvard University
“A strikingly insightful analysis of the penalties of neglecting the critically important role of community, by concentrating too much on the perceived efficacy of the markets and the state. Rajan brings out loudly and clearly why this imbalance needs urgent correction.”
— Amartya Sen, Professor, Harvard University