The early months of 2020 revealed a terrifying and humiliating truth. The wealthiest societies in history found themselves paralyzed, unable to procure the most basic of goods, paper masks, plastic face shields, and simple chemical reagents. The supply chain failure was a symptom of a deeper philosophical collapse. The "jungle" of hyper-efficient global markets, which promised dynamism, shattered at the first sign of shock. In its place stood the "machine" of clumsy state commands, a chaotic scramble that failed to deliver.
This predictable crisis was the price of our impoverished political imagination. For decades, we have been trapped in a false choice between the heavy hand of the central planner and the negligent fantasy of the absentee landlord. Both have failed us. In previous essays, I explored the two necessary functions that our current models neglect. In "Lighthouse Capitalism," I argued for the state's role in setting a clear direction for innovation. In "To Govern a Garden," I explored its duty to tend to the foundational health of the entire social ecosystem. But these were explorations. The time has come to synthesize them into a single, actionable framework. We need a third way, a philosophy I call Common Ground. This serves as a more sophisticated synthesis that reframes the purpose of a democratic government to be the fierce and accountable guardian of our shared foundations, instead of the traditional state vs market model.
The Myth of the Jungle
We must dispense with the comforting myth of the untamed, hyper-competitive market. The reality is that giants have tamed the jungle. In the last 40 years, market concentration has skyrocketed across the West. In sector after sector, from tech to agriculture, four or five leviathan firms now control over 80% of the market. The result is the quiet death of competition. We are living in an age of private monopolies.
As economists Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson argue in Why Nations Fail, societies thrive when they build "inclusive institutions", fair rules and open access, and decay when they allow "extractive institutions" to take hold. Today’s monopolies are a modern form of extractive institution, using their immense power to suffocate rivals, acquire innovators, and dictate terms. Even the legendary venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, in his essay "It's Time to Build," lamented the West's inability to create new things, a cry from the heart of Silicon Valley that recognizes a systemic sclerosis. The true entrepreneur thrives in a well-tended garden, a place protected from predators.
Tending and Building
The philosophy of Common Ground has two fundamental duties. The first is to Tend the Common Ground upon which all enterprise is built. This means the state acts as the guarantor of the essential nutrients of a good society, ensuring universal access to world-class education, modern infrastructure, and a fair, anti-monopoly legal system. This principle favors a competitive and diverse ecosystem of solutions in areas like schooling and construction. The state’s role is to set the standards and ensure the funding, creating a stable platform that allows the innovative power of the private and civic sectors to flourish.
The second duty is to Build upon the Common Ground by lifting our sights to a shared horizon. This is the work of setting ambitious national missions that catalyze private-sector genius. In the 1970s, Taiwan’s state-funded ITRI built the foundational technology for the semiconductor industry before spinning it off into a hyper-competitive private sector. Denmark set a clear mission for energy independence, guaranteeing early prices for wind power and creating the conditions for a world-leading private industry to emerge.
Let us be clear on the bright line that governs both duties. The philosophy of Common Ground entrusts the ownership of companies, the operation of factories, and the command of industry to the private sector. The state’s role is the architect of the harbor, a function wholly distinct from the admiral of the fleet. It ensures the roads are built and the rules are fair, while leaving the trucking companies in private hands to drive their own routes. Its purpose is always to act as a catalyst, creating the conditions for a vibrant, competitive private sector to solve public challenges.
The relationship between these two duties illustrates this principle. The state ensures the existence of a world-class road network and posts the traffic laws. That is the work of tending. Then, it places a Nobel-Prize-sized reward in a city 3,000 kilometers away for the first private team that can get there in a carbon-neutral vehicle. That is the work of building. By guaranteeing the common road and illuminating a common destination, it unleashes the genius of a thousand private teams to compete on the journey.
The Guardian's Rules
The skeptic will rightly challenge the source of this authority, who decides? The answer must be rooted in democratic accountability. The definition of a "weed", a predatory monopoly, a corrupt practice, a polluting activity, is decided by the people through law, fierce debate, and independent adjudication.
To prevent this model from decaying into cronyism, missions must be governed by iron-clad rules. First, they must be defined by outcomes over technologies. The goal becomes "achieve the cheapest clean electricity in our region by 2040," creating a race to the top among all potential innovators. Second, all support mechanisms, like procurement guarantees, must have automatic sunset clauses. They expire after a set period, forcing re-evaluation and shielding the system from capture by the politically connected.
This framework provides a clear path forward, a "Common Ground Investment Act" with two core titles. Title I would establish a handful of urgent missions for strategic independence, from onshoring our pharmaceutical supply chains to securing our leadership in artificial intelligence. Title II would authorize the foundational investments in the R&D, infrastructure, and education necessary to achieve them.
For a country like Portugal, this means building on its success in renewables by launching a new national mission for the "Blue Economy," aiming to become the world leader in sustainable aquaculture and ocean-based energy. This "building" work would be paired with the "tending" work of pulling the infamous weeds of bureaucracy and a slow justice system that choke so many small enterprises before they can grow.
The urgent task of our time is to restore the purpose of our government, transcending the obsolete debate over its size. The philosophy of Common Ground offers a vision of a state that is both purposeful and disciplined, one that defends the common good and sets a bold direction, while honoring the chaotic, creative, and distributed genius of a free people. It is time to leave the arguments of the last century behind and begin the difficult, necessary work of building our own.