Yeoman’s Return

Though Americans are deeply divided in their politics, they
still generally share one transcendent political value. It is
the distinctly American notion that the widespread ownership
of property—particularly homes, small businesses,
and financial savings—benefits individuals and the nation.
This core American belief descends from a political tradition
in American life that is older than the Republic itself. It
is the Yeoman ideal—which holds that small-scale property
ownership confers special dignity and autonomy to the individual,
while also improving civic participation and serving
as a check on monopoly capital.

From Jeffersonian farmer to unionized craft tradesman to
internet entrepreneur, the values of the yeoman have given
shape to American politics. Challenged by the issue of slavery
and later by the spread of mass production and consumerism,
it is a tradition that nearly flickered out among both
Republicans and Democrats in the 1950s, 60s and 70s, but
that has been gaining new relevancy and urgency ever since.

The reasons include the declining market power of wage
earners in a global economy and the unraveling of employersponsored
health and pension systems—trends that
increase the importance of asset ownership and economic
self-sufficiency. They also include new technologies and
shifts in consumer preferences that promise to favor small
producers and holders of capital in the future if enabled by
appropriate public policies.

Because of the long hold and widespread appeal of the yeoman
ideal on the American political imagination, a politics
that pays honor to this tradition has the potential to bridge
the country’s cultural divides while also advancing progressive
policy agendas, ranging from health care, “open
access” wireless communication and baby bonds, to antitrust
and farm policy.