The Good Society (Lippmann)

Written at the height of the New Deal and the European dictatorships, Lippmann’s book argues that the planned economy and the liberal society are incompatible in principle, not merely in practice: directing an economy requires a single authority to decide what people shall want, and no such authority can remain accountable. His alternative is not laissez-faire but a reconstructed liberalism whose instrument is law — impartial, general rules that adjust conflicting claims — rather than administrative command. The book was influential well beyond its author’s usual readership; the 1938 Paris colloquium convened to discuss it is generally treated as the origin of the neoliberal movement and a forerunner of the Mont Pèlerin Society.

Why it’s on the list: McCord places it in Liberalism, Democracy, and Pluralism between Charles Murray and Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, the section that works through what a free society owes its members and where the demands of liberty and equality actually collide.

Where I saw it: Brendan McCord’s Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List, in the Political Philosophy and the History of Ideas part, section Liberalism, Democracy, and Pluralism — a structured curriculum shared on X on March 9, 2026 and saved to Kyle’s Apple Note “Books To Read”. The full 211-entry transcription is on The Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List.

Connections

• Walter Lippmann — the author.
• Liberalism — the tradition the book sets out to reconstruct.
• Collectivism — the planning impulse Lippmann argues cannot coexist with a free society.
• The Road to Serfdom — Hayek’s later and better-known version of the same argument, also on McCord’s list.
• The Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List — the curriculum this came from.