Did the Decline of Community Create a Demand for Socialism?

What happens when families, churches, neighborhoods, and civic institutions begin to disappear?

Economist Paul Mueller and political philosopher Luke Sheahan explore the ideas of Robert Nisbet, the overlooked thinker who warned that people deprived of meaningful community would drift toward loneliness, despair, or political fanaticism. From ancient Rome to the modern welfare state, this episode of The Economist Next Door examines why strong individuals require strong communities—and what we lose when the state replaces them.