— Raj Patel, Next System Essay Contest Judge

The starting point for Melissa Padilla’s second place undergraduate entry in our Next System Project Essay Competition is the recognition that “it’s all too easy to see war and poverty as inevitable characteristics of civilization and, if we think that “this is as good as it gets,” to excuse ourselves from any dialogue aimed at creating change.” Refusing to bow to this inevitability, Padilla’s essay instead offers a philosophical grounding and far-reaching institutional design for a next system capable of delivering social justice.