University Press Scholarship Online You are looking at 1-10 of 27 items for: keywords : market socialism Market, State, and Community Item type: book DOI: 10.1093/0198278640.001.0001 Offers a theoretical defence of market socialism, a third way between traditional capitalism and traditional socialism, which combines a market economy with social control of capital and employee control of workplaces. The first part offers a critique of the libertarian philosophy used to defend free market capitalism, focussing on the issues of freedom, justice, the neutrality of markets, and private charity as an alternative to the welfare state. The second part defends markets against socialist criticism. Here it is shown that consumers are generally the best judges of their own welfare, that people can deserve their market receipts, that exploitation is not an inherent feature of market transactions, and that alienation can be overcome provided the market is subject to political control. The third part develops a model of the socialist state, defending the ideas of national community as a basis of citizenship, of politics as a form of dialogue between citizens, of the integration of cultural minorities into an encompassing community, and of constitutional limits on majority rule. The book concludes by defending the political relevance of the system outlined in previous chapters. The Philosophy and Economics of Market Socialism N. Scott Arnold Published in print: 1995 Published Online: October 2011 ISBN: 9780195088274 eisbn: 9780199853014 Item type: book DOI: 10.1093/ acprof:oso/9780195088274.001.0001 This book argues that the most defensible version of a market socialist economic system would be unable to realize widely held socialist ideals and values. In particular, it would be responsible for widespread and systematic exploitation. The charge of exploitation, which is really a charge of injustice, has typically been made against capitalist systems Page 1 of 6
by socialists. This book argues that it is market socialism the only remaining viable form of socialism that is systematically exploitative. Recent work on the economics of contracts and organizations is used to show that the characteristic organizations of a free enterprise system, the classical capitalist firm and the modern corporation, are structured in such a way that opportunities for exploitation among economic actors (e.g., managers, workers, providers of capital, customers) are minimized. By contrast, this book argues, in a market socialist regime of worker cooperatives, opportunities for exploitation would abound. The book locates its comparative analysis of market socialism and the free enterprise system in the larger context of the capitalism/socialism debate. In the account of this debate, the book offers a distinctive and compelling vision of the relationship between the social sciences and political philosophy. Introduction DOI: 10.1093/0198278640.003.0001 Market socialism is an alternative both to the free market thinking of the libertarian Right and to the statist thinking of many socialists. It aims to combine the freedom and efficiency advantages of markets with a more democratic organization of work and more equal distribution of resources. Co operatives can be an efficient way of organizing production, provided suitable investment agencies can be created to supply them with capital. Conclusion DOI: 10.1093/0198278640.003.0014 Explores the contemporary relevance of market socialism as a political ideal. It asks whether the benefits market socialism offers are benefits that people actually want, and whether it imposes requirements that are incompatible in practice. There is evidence that most citizens do attach Page 2 of 6
value to control of their workplaces, to achieving greater economic equality, and to more active political participation. There is no reason to think that employees who are more directly exposed to market forces are less likely to perform well as democratic citizens. Socialism, Liberty, and Choice Michael Freeden in Ideologies and Political Theory: A Conceptual Approach Published in print: 1998 Published Online: ISBN: 9780198294146 eisbn: 9780191599323 DOI: 10.1093/019829414X.003.0013 The ideas of liberation and emancipation were integral to the Continentalist socialist tradition, while within the British socialist tradition, as well as in non Marxist Continental socialism, both liberty and individuality were desirable values. The impact of British liberal ideas on socialism was also greatly amplified by J. S. Mill in remarks where he welcomed a cautious move to collective ownership, although he also cast doubt on the compatibility of socialism with the free and spontaneous development of individuals. This chapter looks at socialism in relation to liberty and choice in six sections: (a) The pursuit of liberalism by other means; (b) Equality and liberty: a partnership of equals?; (c) The fundamental nature of revisionism; (d) Continental comparisons; (e) The perimeter problem of market socialism; and (f) A note on other socialisms. Alienation and Communism DOI: 10.1093/0198278640.003.0009 Socialists have attacked market economies on the grounds that they create personal relationships that are alienating rather than communal. Taking Marx's theory of alienation as its main point of reference, the chapter explores various possible sources of alienation, isolating those that are specific to the market. However, Marx also praised capitalism for freeing individuals from the social engulfment they had experienced in pre capitalist societies. The challenge for those who follow him is to show how individuality can be preserved in a communist society. In Page 3 of 6
market socialism, economic relations can take on a double character instrumental, competitive, and spontaneous at one level, human, cooperative, and planned at the second and thus overcome alienation. Market Socialism János Kornai in The Socialist System: The Political Economy of Communism Published in print: 1992 Published Online: ISBN: 9780198287766 eisbn: 9780191596551 DOI: 10.1093/0198287763.003.0021 This chapter discusses the phenomenon of market socialism in the state sector. The practical changes involved in this constitute one of the major tendencies in the move away from classical socialism. Aspects addressed are ideological antecedents; the application of market socialism in selected socialist countries (Yugoslavia, Hungary, China, Poland, Vietnam, and the Soviet Union); alternative strategies for deregulation; the firm's vertical dependence; the softness and hardness of budget constraint, and the firm's responsiveness to prices; the affinity between public ownership and bureaucratic coordination; horizontal relations of firms in public ownership; the relative proportions of bureaucratic and market coordination, and the interactions between them; and the relation between publicly owned firms and the private sector. Concluding Remarks Włodzimierz Brus and Kazimierz Laski in From Marx to the Market: Socialism in Search of an Economic System Published in print: 1991 Published Online: ISBN: 9780198283997 eisbn: 9780191596032 DOI: 10.1093/0198283997.003.0011 A cruel East European wisecrack defines socialism as the painful road to capitalism. It may be too much to see in MS simply a stage on this road (or slide, as some would say), but the analysis in this book left little doubt that the disticntions between capitalist and socialist economic systems, as hitherto perceived, become under MS thoroughly blurred. The recourse to MS means that the very idea of a grand design of a supremely rational economy has been acknoledged as utterly fallacious despite the fact that a number of socialist values have to be incorporated into any economic system pursuing objectives worthy of human society. Page 4 of 6
Exploitation DOI: 10.1093/0198278640.003.0008 How can exploitation in the sense of taking advantage of other people occur in market settings? Marx understood exploitation in terms of unilateral transfers of value. Steiner and Roemer understand it in terms of exchanges made against the background of an unjust distribution of resources. In opposition to these views, it is argued that exploitative transactions are exchanges made at non equilibrium prices, due to asymmetries of information or of bargaining power. This view of exploitation allows us to understand why capitalism is inherently exploitative, whereas under market socialism, exploitation would only occur in specific circumstances. Transition, Globalization, and Changing Industrial Relations in China Xiaobo Lu in The Politics of Labor in a Global Age: Continuity and Change in Late- Industrializing and Post-Socialist Economies Published in print: 2001 Published Online: ISBN: 9780199241149 eisbn: 9780191598920 DOI: 10.1093/0199241147.003.0007 For nearly three decades, industrial relations in the People's Republic of China were characterized by what were common in state socialist systems an economy dominated by state owned enterprises, employee dependence on the enterprise, state controlled union organizations, and relative labour peace. Despite sporadic working class protests in PRC history since 1949, there were no organized labour movements. Labour disputes were usually described as contradictions between different parts of the same organization by the communist authorities. With the economic reforms launched in 1979, Chinese industrial relations entered a period of change. This chapter proceeds on the premise that political choices as well as institutional legacies of the past, in state socialist countries such as China, affect the sequence and methods of transformation of industrial relations. It aims at laying out some basic features of industrial relations under state socialist regimes and in Page 5 of 6
transition economies with a focus on China. It argues that although the internationalization of the Chinese economy has had a major impact over the past decade, the character and direction of change in Chinese industrial relations is best understood within the framework of the general transition from state socialism to market socialism. Neither the changing international political economy nor the transition from state socialism has diminished the significant role of the state in redefining and managing industrial relations. The pace, scope, and sequence of changes in industrial relations are thus determined not only by choices by key factors responding to a global economy but also significantly by structural constraints derived from the entrenched danwei (work unit) system that stood at the core of the pre reform Chinese industry. Page 6 of 6