CHARLES F. SABEL USA: Economic Revival and the Prospect of Democratic Renewal T he US begins the millennium looking for all the world like a New Rome, only grander and more authoritative than the original: Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, no»limes« marks limits of its power. Nations that once stood hostile across the fortified line now jostle for a place in the American protec­torate, mingling their armies with NATO ’s legions and subjecting their commerce to the lex mercan­torum of the World Trade Organization. Along with the boundless might of empire, it seems, goes an imperious adulation of material success, and a corresponding corruption of the Republican virtues that once placed respect for the common good and the fate of fellow citizens before selfish satisfactions. Historical magnitude aside, the current US triumphs are surprising for two reasons. The first, obvious to all, has to do with their sheer eco­nomic improbability; the second, just now being remarked among Americans, concerns the pos­sibility that these successes bear with them the seeds of a democratic renewal. We all know the story of the economic turnaround: A decade and a half ago the US economy, and political influence born of it, seemed fragile and spent. Giant firms that pioneered and perfected the methods of mass production during the last century were prisoners of earlier successes. The techniques that won mastery of steadily growing markets for standardi­zed goods obstructed adjustment to a volatile world economy rewarding speed in design and flexibility in production. For Japan, Western Europe and the developing economies, with less experience of mass production and more of serving niche markets, and condemned to flexi­bility by the need to rebuild again and again to catch the US , leadership was only a matter of time. The ancient story of the decline of empires from Rome to Great Britain, reveling in the enjoyment of dominions that sap their strength, was inexor­ably to be re-enacted. Today, of course, in many industries the former challengers fight to stay competitive, let alone dominant, and in such advanced sectors as micro­processor design, network architectures, software engineering, and biotechnology, US firms dispute questions of leadership largely among themselves. For the economy as a whole these successes and more like them have brought sustained growth, near full employment, the lowest welfare rolls in three decades, and nearly 20 million new jobs in the last TK years alone. The striking increases in disparities in wealth and income accompanying all this seem broadly tolerable so long as they con­tinue to promise something for everyone now and more eventually for all. The common explanation, given the patina of dogma by ceaseless repetition, attributes the resur­gence of the US economy to the revival of indivi­dualism under the aegis of President Reagan’s neo-liberal revolution. Freed of the ties of fellow­ship, and in particular the bonds of trade unions and the welfare state, entrepreneurial spirits remake the economy, scarcely aware they are over­turning entrenched institutions as they seize new opportunities. Such is the hold of this interpreta­tion that European Social Democrats often despair that US success issues from and advances a world­wide integration of markets and their insurgence against politics – globalization. Caught in the maelstrom of inevitability, the European Union will have to sacrifice its ideals of social solidarity to preserve its standard of living. As this analysis suggests that there are hard choices to be made, but nothing of principle to discuss, it is perhaps not surprising that exchanges among European Social Democrats and their interlocutors on this side of the Atlantic nowadays often stop at mutual consolation. The reality of the US revival is more complex. In adapting and innovating upon Japanese lean­production methods(originally conceived them­IPG 1/2000 Sabel, USA: Prospect of Democratic Renewal 95