Project Syndicate: From the start of your recent book, Mission Economy: A Moonshot Guide to Changing Capitalism - you argue that changing capitalism will require us to overhaul “how government is structured,” “how business is run,” and “how public and private organizations interrelate.” You also acknowledge that the “longstanding political rift” between democracy and autocracy has widened. Does your fundamentally technocratic guide apply to both democratic, market-based systems and authoritarian, state-capitalist systems like China’s? Are there lessons – or warnings – that both sides should heed, especially concerning the state’s relationship with business?

Mariana Mazzucato: There is a deep sense of injustice, powerlessness, and distrust of elites permeating many societies today. This has eroded faith in democratic institutions and created fertile ground for populism and authoritarianism to thrive. But, regardless of the system in question, the fundamental imperatives remain the same. First, we must promote transparency and accountability for the public and private sectors. Establishing new metrics and rigorous standards for dynamic policy evaluation is a crucial step in this direction.

Second, bold missions should not be pursued through a top-down, centralized framework. Instead, they should facilitate bottom-up, decentralized innovation and experimentation. Organizational flexibility and horizontal collaboration allow for active contestation and adaptability. Social movements can and must play a critical role in shaping such bottom-up processes everywhere.

Q: “Although global climate commitments are important,” you wrote after last year’s United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, “they will not amount to much without the institutional foundation that the transition to a zero-carbon economy needs.” More broadly, as you put it in your book, governments have failed to address the climate crisis effectively, because they are “tinkering, not leading.” What would you like to see come out of COP27? At the same time, what should local-level "community-led missions" for tackling climate change look like?

Mazzucato: When it comes to the demands of the climate transition, both the public and private sectors are falling short. One major problem is that most recent discussions fail to pay appropriate attention to the role of direct public finance. COP27 represents an important opportunity to change that. Public finance plays a critical role in creating new markets that accelerate the net-zero transition by generating new ideas to limit catastrophic global warming, and in supporting the development of the needed institutions. More fiscal space is also vital to mitigate the adverse consequences of the climate crisis in the Global South and on small climate-vulnerable islands.

A good example of “community-led missions” are the Camden Mission in London. It brought together businesses, community groups, and other local organizations to collaborate and tackle societal challenges in the borough. A set of missions guided this work: for example, “by 2030, everyone eats well every day with nutritious, affordable, sustainable food.” Rather than focusing on separate interventions in particular sectors, the Commission considered how to combine the borough’s resources to tackle issues that require collective action.

Q: In Mission Economy, you describe your efforts in 2017-18 to “help the European Commission apply a mission-oriented approach to its innovation policy.” That work helped to produce reports explaining how to “map” a mission-oriented approach. How does a “mission map” work, and to what extent does the European Union’s response to the current energy crisis – reflect the method?

Mazzucato: The goal of a mission map is to guide us from identifying a problem to creating a mission to promoting sectoral investments in specific projects. You start with a simple question: What problem do I want to solve? You then frame the answer to that question as a goal capable of both inspiring cooperation across sectors and among different actors, and catalyzing investment and innovation. Policy interventions like outcomes-oriented procurement and loans with conditionalities help to crowd in private investment toward this goal.