Market Socialism: The Impossible Socialism

2022 ◽  
Vol 86 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-94
Author(s):  
Maxi Nieto

The idea of combining some form of social equality with markets goes back to the very origins of socialist tradition and also underlies most of the proposals currently being presented as “alternatives” to the capitalist social order. However, taking as its axis the organic relationship between commodity circulation and capital, as revealed by Marx, it is possible to offer a critique of market socialism (choosing David Schweickart's version of Economic Democracy as a generic textual reference) to demonstrate its inconsistency as a project for social emancipation alternative to the capitalist mode of production. And this for reasons of: i) economy: due to market inefficiency in allocation, and its tendency toward social polarization; ii) politics: because markets prevent citizen self-government and block the free development of human capacities; and iii) ecology: the market is incompatible with a social metabolism that is sustainable with nature. The conclusion is that a market-based production structure is incompatible with the conscious, rational, and democratic regulation of the economy.

2016 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 194-204 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brenda Spotton Visano

This paper recounts a large class teaching process designed to encourage student critique, debate, and engagement. It focuses on an example of one in-class, small group exercise of negotiating ownership claims on a capital good and its output. The communal outcomes that students themselves negotiate contradict their prior taken-for-granted belief in the “rightness” of the capitalist mode of production and offer the class an opportunity to reflect on principles of fairness in resource distribution. JEL Classification: A13, A22, B51


1993 ◽  
Vol 23 (92) ◽  
pp. 427-449
Author(s):  
Samir Amin

In the framework of a world-system type of analysis, the perspectives of the European left after the decline of Soviel type socialism are described as a response to the polarization between the Third and the First World: In contrast to the capitalist mode of production in the centre, which operates as a market-based integration of the circulation of capital, of commodities and of labour power, labour in the periphery is blocked. In view of the contradiction between capital accumulation on a world-level and political and social governance on national levels, a socialist strategy should be based on a new internationalism, emphasizing regional alliances whose expansion is coupled to the increase in the unfettered mobility of labour.


2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 7-14
Author(s):  
Almas Musa Kizi Ismailova

The article analyses the main provisions of the peasant reform in Georgia, which had a further impact on the socio-economic development of the landowner peasants of Tiflis and Kutaisi provinces in the last quarter of the 19th – the early 20th centuries. On the basis of archival sources and literature, the author considers the reasons for the difficult economic situation of the Georgian landowners in the period under study. An analysis makes it possible to conclude that the socio-economic relations that had been formed in Georgia determined the contradictions inherent in the capitalist mode of management. On the one hand, the peasant reform contributed to the more rapid development of the capitalist mode of production in the countryside, laying the foundation for economic development in agriculture, the introduction of commercial agriculture, the growth of agricultural productivity, and the maturation of commodity-capitalist relations. On the other hand, the main means of production were in the hands of the landlords, which led to an even greater extensive impoverishment of the landlord peasants. Thus, in Georgia, the remnants of serfdom survived even longer than in the European provinces of the Russian Empire. It is concluded that the reason for these remnants included the backwardness and relatively weak development of capitalist relations in the South Caucasus, in particular, in Georgia.


2013 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 89
Author(s):  
Flávio Chedid Henriques ◽  
Michel Jean-Marie Thiollent

Este artigo é resultado de uma tese de doutorado que teve como objetivo identificar inovações no campo da organização do trabalho produzidas pelas experiências de empresas recuperadas por trabalhadores no Brasil e na Argentina. A tese central defendida é a de que as limitações impostas pela hegemonia do modo de produção capitalista não encerram a possibilidade de construção de novas relações sociais de produção. Os cinco estudos de caso realizados e a experiência de levantamentos da totalidade das experiências de empresas recuperadas nos dois países forneceram elementos que permitiram problematizar em vários aspectos a organização capitalista do trabalho e, por meio de uma crítica prática, como sugere Rebón (2007), propiciaram a reflexão sobre a possibilidade de superação do modelo hegemônico, que não passa apenas pela inovação no interior das organizações, mas também da relação dessas empresas com seus territórios.Palavras-chave: empresas recuperadas por trabalhadores; organização do trabalho; autogestão; estudos organizacionais críticos. Abstract: This article is the result of a doctoral thesis which aims to identify innovations in the field of labour organization produced by the experiences of companies recovered by workers in Brazil and Argentina. The central thesis defended is that the limitations imposed by the hegemony of the capitalist mode of production do not dismiss the possibility of building new social relations of production. The five case studies and the experience with surveys of all experiences recuperated enterprises in the two countries provided information that allowed questioning in several respects the capitalist organization of work and, through a critical practice, as suggested Rebón (2007), propitiated reflection on the possibility of overcoming the hegemonic model, it is not only about innovation within organizations, but also the relationship of these companies with their territories. Keywords: companies recovered by workers; work organization; workers self-management; critical management studies.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-33
Author(s):  
Anna Piekarska ◽  
Jakub Krzeski

Abstract Many current Marxist debates point to a crisis of imagination as a challenge to emancipatory thoughts and actions. The naturalisation of the capitalist mode of production within the production of subjectivity is among the chief reasons behind this state of affairs. This article contributes to the debate by focusing on the notion of imagination, marked by a deep ambivalence capable of both naturalising and denaturalising social relations constitutive of the established order. Such an understanding of imagination is constructed from within the framework of historical materialism, and it draws on Spinoza and Marx, taking advantage of the similarities between the two with respect to the constitution of the subject. From this stems an investigation into the imagination as a material force that partakes both in subjection and liberation. This is further demonstrated in regard to juridical forms of subjectivation and the possibility of subverting these forms through imagination.


2009 ◽  
pp. 112-120
Author(s):  
John Milios ◽  
Dimitris P. Sotiropoulos

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