I see two broad conceptually distinct aspects of reform that would ameliorate what is most dysfunctional about our present ways of governing, would capitalize on the greatest opportunities for structural improvement in society, and therefore from a progressive and optimistic viewpoint, can be anticipated to arise, eventually, given enough time. On the one hand are a class of reforms that involve disentangling the economic, governmental and cultural spheres of society (its material, relational and spiritual aspects), so as to shield and free the initiatives in each sphere from the cross purposes of those in another sphere. Examples would be reforms to remove the influence of money in government, or of government in education or the arts. On the other hand are all those reforms involving government’s effect on distrubitive justice, intentional and otherwise, i.e. its procedures and systems for consciously addressing distributive justice, across its many manifestations, and it’s unintended indirect effects as well. Environmental issues, for example, involve distributive justice between mankind and the natural environment, between present and future generations.
