Brave New World: The State and Technological Revolution

This description applies both to the first Industrial Revolution and to our current moment. One way or another, the wave of technological revolution underway today will require a new theory of state.

In the 19th Century, a confluence of social, scientific and economic factors created the conditions for the rise of the modern nation-state. And within a couple of generations, life had changed dramatically, with population growth skyrocketing, incomes rising, and life expectancies increasing substantially.

In the United Kingdom, the 1832 Great Reform Act and various innovations in media brought far more people into the political process. Newspapers like The Guardian and The Economist became increasingly influential in shaping public debate.

But the reforms of the period were mostly in response to crises, rather than the result of dispassionate analysis and careful deliberation. Having been born of revolution, democratisation always threatened revolution anew.

Initially, the Industrial Revolution was met with a policy of extreme laissez-faire, because that was the best way for the land-owning aristocracy to safeguard its privilege.

Not until the rise of the Liberal Party, under the guidance of thinkers such as Leonard Hobhouse, did collective action start to yield more positive freedom for average citizens.

A view of the network operations center of the headquarters of Hungary's leading telecommunications company, Hungarian Telekom, in Budapest. The 105,000-square-metre, 5G-compatible office building is the largest in the country. Photo: EPA-EFE/Zsolt Szigetvary

These progressive forces, including some of the founders of the Labour Party, ushered in an era of radical policymaking that would eventually yield a new social...