Occasional Papers
The Social Roots of Prosperity
A society’s prosperity depends on its families. That is the central message of Brigitte Berger’s analysis of economic an and political success. She explains how the ethos and organisation of the bourgeois family were crucial to the rise of Western democratic capitalist societies. These characteristics are not uniquely European, though, and are today critical to the ‘awesome entrepreneurial familism’ of the overseas Chinese. In the West, though, recent history has not been kind to the family. Demographic changes, ideological attack and government policies have undermined the family, contributing to an array of social ills. Professor Berger advocates introducing a sense of reality into the public debate by asserting the importance of the bourgeois family, and by so doing persuade policy-makers to put their trust in the family.
