Since its founding in 2013, the leaders of the Institute for Cultural Evolution have been thinking long and hard about the evolution of American politics. After extensive research, writing, and convening political events, in 2016 we began work on a book that would describe our unique political perspective. This book, authored by ICE president Steve McIntosh and due to be published March 1, 2020, represents our current thinking and serves as a culmination of our work as a think tank over the past seven years. McIntosh’s forthcoming book is titled: Developmental Politics—How America Can Grow Into a Better Version of Itself
Growing hyper-partisan polarization threatens the foundations of American democracy. In response to this “wicked problem,” McIntosh shows how America can grow into a better version of itself. He outlines an innovative method of “values integration” through which citizens from across the political spectrum can reach new levels of consensus and cooperation. This groundbreaking book presents a fresh approach to our national dilemma—a new “politics of culture”—that can effectively reconcile the conflicting worldviews that are fiercely competing to define America’s bedrock values.
In addition to offering a pragmatic prescription for overcoming hyperpolarization, Developmental Politics also describes a new “political philosophy of purpose and progress.” This philosophy reveals how what we call “value” or “the good” has energy-like properties that can be harnessed to build political will and reclaim a secular-friendly notion of “cultural transcendence.” McIntosh argues that “improving our definition of improvement itself” can lead to a more inclusive version of the American Dream, which can quell the culture war and strengthen our collective civic virtue. By advancing an expanded vision of social progress, Developmental Politics can restore our hope for the future.
Developmental Politics is more than a book, it is the name of an emerging movement in American politics. This movement is working with a new perspective that is positioned “outside and above” America’s fractious left-right divide. This developmental or “integral” political perspective has been worked out over the last 7 years by ICE’s principals, and by others working in the integral philosophy movement. Each of the Article Covers and other images shown below link to a substantial piece of content created by the ICE think tank between 2013 and 2017. This content traces the evolution of our thinking, which is now culminating in the publication of our book: Developmental Politics
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