Welfare

The eminent American political philosopher Michael Sandel is Radio 4's "Public Philosopher." Now, as America prepares for its Presidential elections, he is going on the road in America with a unique mission to challenge ordinary voters and lay bare the deeper moral questions bound up in the noisy Romney and Obama campaigns.

In this week's programme, Professor Sandel is at Harvard, his home university in the intellectual heartland of New England. Much of the debate between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama has been about welfare policy, social security and healthcare. Underlying this, Professor Sandel believes, is a moral and philosophical disagreement about the nature of the American dream itself.

Earlier this year, Obama was attacked for his remarks about the role of government. "Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive," the President said. "If you've got a business, you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen." Republicans saw this as an attack on business and accused Obama of stifling the idea of individual success at the core of the American dream. The right's policies are more focussed on individual choice -- lowering taxes and opposing, for example, the type of universal health care policy which Obama has enacted.

Against this backdrop, our public audience will be asked: "Who Built It? Is the American vision of individual responsibility for one's own success a myth?" Michael Sandel weaves through these issues with the help of philosophers past and present.

Producer: Mukul Devichand.