[GJM] [Hgs] David Schweickart presenting 'Ecomonic Democracy' theory in Venezuela

[robert searle]

Dear All,

          This may be of interest.

Robert Searle.

--- Carl Davidson <carld717 at aol.com> wrote:

> [Chicago's David Schweickart, Philosophy, Loyola, is
> in Venezuela, invited to present his theory of
> 'Economic Democracy' as a market socialist
> alternative for the 21st Century that is in tune
> with global justice, paticipatory democracy and Karl
> Marx's orginal ideas as well. What follows is just
> the introdction to his presentation, which is much
> longer, and can be found at solidarityeconomy.net
> --CarlD]
> 
> Economic Democracy:
> A Worthy Socialism that Would Really Work
> 
> by David Schweickart,
> SolidarityEconomy.net
> 
> 'Economic Democracy: A Worthy Socialism that Would
> Really Work' laid out a model that was to form the
> basis of my book Against Capitalism, published by
> Cambridge University Press in 1993. The article,
> like the book itself, was a theoretical response to
> the triumphalism of the TINA crowd (There Is No
> Alternative) that followed the collapse of Soviet
> Union and the rejection of socialism by its
> satellite states in Eastern Europe. 'A Worthy
> Socialism' was intended to demonstrate rigorously
> that there is an alternative, at least in theory: an
> economically viable form of socialism that would be
> more democratic than capitalism and at least as
> efficient. Against Capitalism made the same point,
> but extended the argument further. Economic
> Democracy would be not only as efficient as
> capitalism and more democratic, but also more
> rational in its growth, more stable, more
> egalitarian, less prone to high unemployment, more
> ecologically friendly. I was sick of hearing even
> progressives say that 'we are going to have to stop
> using the term ‘capitalist economy’ as if we knew
> what a functioning non-capitalist economy would look
> like.' (these words from the well-known philosopher
> and public intellectual Richard Rorty, writing in
> the widely read liberal magazine.)
> 
> In 1998 I was approached by a publisher to do a more
> popular version of Against Capitalism, less oriented
> to professional philosophers and economists, more
> accessible to students, labor organizers and other
> sympathetic non-academics. I agreed, and began what
> I thought would be quick and easy project.
> 
> The project was not so 'quick and easy.' The result,
> After Capitalism, did not appear until 2002. It was
> longer in coming than I had anticipated. I had to do
> more than update statistics and alter the style. For
> the world had changed significantly since the early
> 1990s, and, as a result (I came to realize) my own
> focus had changed. My thinking had become (and
> remains) more praxis-oriented than it had been
> earlier. Moreover, this change of focus suggested
> certain supplements to my original model, which I
> set out in the Postscript to my article, which is
> also included in this volume. What I will say to you
> today draws heavily on that supplement to the
> original article.
> 
> The World Has Changed
> 
> History has not moved along the path foretold a
> decade and a half ago by so many confident
> prognosticators. In particular:
> 
> -- The socialist experiments have not all collapsed,
> as was so widely expected.
> -- The neoliberal experiments have failed almost
> everywhere.
> -- A new resistance movement has come into being.
> 
> In the early 1990s it seemed to most people that
> socialism was over, at least for the foreseeable
> future. The socialist experiment in the Soviet Union
> had failed. The various attempts that had been
> undertaken in Eastern Europe to modify, humanize,
> and make more efficient the basic Soviet model had
> been brought to a halt. It seemed only a matter of
> time, the interval presumed to be short, before
> Cuba, China, Vietnam and North Korea would abandon
> their socialist pretenses and join the capitalist
> club. But they didn’t.
> 
> Cuba, despite a further tightening of the embargo,
> went through a very difficult 'special period,' but
> has seen its economy rebound significantly. Vietnam
> and especially China have done more than survive.
> Vietnam has seen its economy grow rapidly, despite
> the million or so citizens killed by the Americans
> and their (our) puppet-regimes and the millions of
> gallons of poison sprayed on their countryside.
> China has succeeded over the last quarter century in
> lifting more people out of poverty than any country
> has ever done in human history, and, at the same
> time, has established itself as one of the world’s
> major economic powers.
> 
> It should be noted that all three of these
> countries, which still identify themselves as
> socialist, have introduced market mechanisms into
> their economies, which, as we shall see shortly, the
> theory underlying Economic Democracy recommends. By
> way of contrast, the North Korean economy remains
> relentlessly non-market, and continues to
> deteriorate—as the theory underlying Economic
> Democracy predicts.
> 
> It is not the economies of the countries that
> continue to profess socialism that have collapsed
> but the economies that most fervently embraced the
> new capitalist orthodoxy. More precisely, the
> greatest economic disasters of recent years have
> been those on the extremes—on the one hand, North
> Korea, which refuses all concessions to the market,
> and on the other hand, those ex-socialist countries
> that embraced capitalism most avidly. Among the
> latter, the Soviet Union stands out, having
> experienced the worst economic decline in time of
> peace of any country in modern history. Clearly, the
> euphoria that once informed the neoliberal project
> has evaporated, as those countries that followed the
> U.S. Treasury/IMF/World Bank prescriptions have all
> experienced either sharp decline or, at best,
> minimal growth: not only the countries that once
> comprised the Soviet Union, but also Mexico, Haiti,
> most of Eastern Europe, most of Central and South
> America, most of Southeast Asia, almost all of
> sub-Sahara Africa—the list goes on and on....
>  
> Related
> 
> http://solidarityeconomy.net
>   
> 
> 
> 
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> HGS at lists.econ.utah.edu
> http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/hgs
> 



		
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