In the book he exams freedom, power and economic growth. He challenges the idea that freedom means lack of constraint, arguing instead for freedom as independence from domination. Drawing on political philosophy and growth theory, the talk explores how security, innovation and risk-taking are linked, and what this means for economic policy, labour markets, inequality and the capacity of democracies to renew themselves in a post-neoliberal context and institutional reform debates today across Europe and beyond.

The book was named as a Financial Times Best Summer Books of 2026: Economics, and described by Martin Wolf as 'an original and provocative work on how to combine freedom with prosperity'.

Meet our speakers and chair

Andrea Lorenzo Capussela is a Visiting Fellow in the Department of Government at LSE. From 2008 to 2011, he served as the head of the economics unit of the International Civilian Office in Kosovo, and then, until 2014, as adviser to Moldova’s minister of economy, on behalf of the EU. His writing has appeared in serval media publications.

David Soskice is Emeritus Professor in the Department of Government, and was School Professor of Political Science and Economics from 2012-2022. He taught macroeconomics at Oxford from 1967 to 1990, was then research director/professor at the Wissenschaftzentrum Berlin (1990-2005), and subsequently Research Professor of Comparative Political Economy at Oxford and senior research fellow at Nuffield College, and Research Professor of Political Science at Duke.

Leila Simona Talani has been Professor of International Political Economy in the Department of European and International Studies since 2014. She became editor of the Palgrave series on the Politics of Migration and Citizenship in 2020. In 2022 she founded the Centre for Italian Politics @ EIS of which she is the director. Since November 2024 she is the Director of Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence for the relations between the EU and the UK at King's college London.

Valentino Larcinese is professor of public policy. He holds a laurea in Economic and Social Disciplines from Bocconi University and a PhD in Economics from LSE. He has been an associate professor at Bocconi, an economist at the Bank of Italy and has held visiting appointments at several universities, including MIT (Cambridge MA), Bocconi (Milan), Sciences Po (Paris), Universitat Autonoma (Barcelona), Universita’ Tor Vergata (Rome).

For further details about the event and how to attend please visit the LSE Events page: The republic of freedom | Dr Andrea Lorenzo Capussela - LSE