The Leverage Ethic and the Spirit of Tripartisanship

I made the immodest proposal ago in my edited interdisciplinary volume Leveraging: A Political, Economic, and Societal Framework that the contemporary analogue to what Max Weber called the "Protestant Work Ethic" in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism was what I called "the Leverage Ethic."

Moreover, I suggested that the Leverage Ethic has more or less replaced what the late Harvard sociologist Daniel Bell called the "Consumer Ethic" in his classic book The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism, which he argued more or less replaced the Protestant Work Ethic.

Weber argued that one of the chief causes of the rise of industrial capitalism was the belief system associated with the Protestant Reformation. Hard work, asceticism, self-reliance, and a penchant for saving rather than spending -- these qualities were central to the growth of industrial capitalism in England, Western Europe and the United States.

Bell explained that the Protestant Work Ethic was anchored in the foundation of American capitalism from the 1920s to the late 20th century even though it was essentially overtaken by the Consumer Ethic. This new model of work and success was based on the acquisition of consumer goods, especially via credit cards -- washing machines, refrigerators, televisions, cars, and more.

One of the chief contradictions of capitalism, on Bell's view, was indeed the tension between the saving and investment mentality of the Protestant Work Ethic and the spending and hedonistic mentality of the Consumer Ethic. The foundation of industrial capitalism was radically at odds with the fast-moving animating force of the American economy.

Today, we live in the Age of Leverage --bargaining leverage, resource leverage, and financial leverage. Our age is animated by targeted efforts to get the most from the least via conceptual rather than manual tools, whether it concerns information technology, political negotiations, or financial investment strategies.

Success is not judged by whether you can save money or buy or produce products and services; instead, success is judged by whether you can use creative leveraging strategies to advance all aspects of personal life, the business world and political affairs.

Get a million customers from a set of emails and tweets. Get three million votes from a YouTube video. Get five million dollars from a modest investment. Use AI, which is leverage on steroids, to solve organizational problems in one one hundredth the time.

The Protestant Work Ethic and the Consumer Ethic have not completely disappeared, but our society is characterized more by the Leverage Ethic than either of these two ethics. These Ethics, moreover, are less about an ethical philosophy of living than a set of strategies to get things done and be successful.

Leverage is used every day in the White House and on Capitol Hill. But there is an emerging structural change in our politics that will be powered by leveraging at a new level. Or at least it can be if we harness the forces before us.

This emerging structural change concerns the process of solving the problem experienced by over 60 million American voters who identify as independents rather than Democrats or Republicans. Gallup reports that 45% of American voters identified as independents in 2025.

The problem is that the independents, like the colonists in the 18th century, lack representation. There are three independents in the U.S. Senate and U.S. House. If there were six independents from diverse perspectives in the U.S. Senate, they would constitute an Independent Caucus which would possess enormous leverage.

Neither party can get 60 votes in the Senate today except for rare occasions. If there was an Independent Caucus with six senators, neither party could get 60 votes on major policy bills outside of the budget process (where "reconciliation" can be used requiring only 51 votes) without all or most members of the Independent Caucus.

Together, the Democrats, Republicans and independents could reach tripartisan agreements on major bills concerning energy, immigration, entitlement reform, and childcare and parental leave. Indeed, together they would seek to achieve not bipartisanship but tripartisanship. Tripartisanship is the political manifestation of the Leverage Ethic.

We must give representation to independents, which will help to overcome the hostility, polarization, and dysfunction of our politics today. Consciousness must be raised about the Leverage Ethic itself to mobilize the forces needed to reach the tripartisan ideal. If we take the Tripartisan Turn, then American society will in time be animated by the Leverage Ethic and the Spirit of Tripartisanship.

Dave Anderson edited "Leveraging: A Political, Economic and Societal Framework," has taught at five universities and ran for the Democratic nomination for a Maryland congressional seat in 2016.