Participatory economics
From Wikinfo
Participatory economics, or parecon, a participatory economics system proposed as an alternative to other systems such as capitalism and coordinatorism, emerged from the work of the radical theorist Michael Albert and of the radical economist Robin Hahnel, beginning in the 1980s and 1990s. It has four key ingredients:
- all producers and consumers democratically participate in producers' and consumers' associations, called councils;
- to guarantee that each worker is prepared comparably to all others to participate in self managed decision making there are balanced job complexes;
- rewards (e.g. wages) should be distributed according to effort and sacrifice, not power, property, or output.
- allocation is accomplished by way of iterations between the producers' and consumers' councils estimates' of true social costs and benefits. Several iterations, which are facilitated by independent iteration boards, are likely to be necessary in order to obtain convergence.
These four ingredients are intended to be implemented with a minimum of hierarchy and a maximum of openness in discussions and decision-making. This model is designed to eliminate secrecy in economic decision-making, replaced by friendly cooperation and mutual support.
Although a participatory economy probably falls under the left-wing political tradition (and also under the anarchist political tradition), it is specifically designed to avoid the creation of powerful intellectual elites ("coordinatorism"), the trap into which the economies of the communist countries of the 20th century fell. It is not intended to provide a general political system, though clearly its practical implementation (experimentation) would depend on the accompanying political system.
While many types of production and consumption might become more localised under participatory economics, the model does not exclude economies of scale.
A few workplaces have been established based on parecon-ish principles:
- South End Press, a book publisher in Boston, Massachusetts.
- ZMag, a progressive/radical magazine.
- Mondragon Cafe, a bookstore and restaurant in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Contrast: guild, co-operative, syndicalism, collective bargaining, participatory democracy, transformative economics
External links
External Resources
- Looking Forward: Participatory Economics for the Twenty First Century, Albert and Hahnel, South End Press, 1991
- The Political Economy of Participatory Economics, Albert and Hahnel, Princeton University Press, 1991
- Moving Forward: Program for a Participatory Economy, Albert, AK Press, 1997
- Parecon: Life After Capitalism, Albert, Verso Books, 2003
References
- Adapted from the Wikipedia article, "Participatory_economics" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Participatory_economics, used under the GNU Free Documentation License
