Three decades ago, conservative ideologues at The Heritage Foundation produced a primer on the Reagan Revolution entitled Mandate for Leadership, which offered an overarching philosophy against the role of government and in favor of markets.

Today, IPS has taken on the same task for the Obama administration. Mandate for Change is aimed at strengthening the new administration at a time when the need for progressive policies — and appointing progressive people to lead such efforts—is most urgent.

Chester Hartman, an IPS associate fellow, is the founding Executive Director of the Poverty & Race Research Action Council, has commissioned and edited a set of essays for Mandate for Change. The volume offers a set of specific policy proposals for the incoming national administration on every major domestic and international topic, written specifically for the book by leading thinkers and activists in the field.

This is a path-breaking book that will appear as the post-election debate about issues takes off. Just as bold change was advanced in the United States in the 1930s, the country faces a period where fundamental change is possible. But just as FDR’s New Deal was made possible by creative organizing from unions and grassroots organizations, it will be strong coalitions of citizen groups pursuing a bold agenda that can press more fundamental change on a new administration.

List of Contributors
Catherine Albisa, Robert Alvarez, Sarah Anderson, Nan Aron, Dean Baker, Phyllis Bennis, Angela Glover Blackwell, Congressman Earl Blumenauer, Robert L. Borosage, Kate Bronfenbrenner, John Cavanagh, Oscar Chacón, Chuck Collins, Stuart Comstock-Gay, Charlie Cray, Sheila Crowley, Martha F. Davis, Karen Dolan, Peter Edelman, Carroll L. Estes, John Feffer, Bill Fletcher, Jr., Maria Foscarinis, Kim Gandy, Jaime Grant, Mark Greenberg, Jim Harkness, Chester Hartman, Farrah Hassen, Simon Heller, Alan W. Houseman, Tomás R. Jiménez, Former Congresswoman Barbara B. Kennelly, Gloria Ladson-Billings, Saul Landau, Erik Leaver, Nicole Lee, Gerald LeMelle, Ben Lilliston, Bart Lubow, Eric Mann, Ben Manski, Marc Mauer, Patrice McDermott, Dedrick Muhammad, Douglas W. Nelson, Miriam Pemberton, Manuel Pérez-Rocha, Frances Fox Piven, Sam Pizzigati, Ron Pollack, William Quigley, Miles Rapoport, Marcus Raskin, Janet Redman, Michael A. Replogle, Jon Rynn, Rebecca Sawyer, Daniel Scheer, Ben Scott, Rinku Sen, Amy Shannon, Cynthia Soohoo, Nancy Starnes, Betsy Taylor, Sanho Tree, Katrina vanden Heuvel, Dorian Warren, Emira Woods, and Daphne Wysham.