"The truth is that socialism as originally conceived has never been tried, but not because it is impossible. Council communists, syndicalists, anarchists, and guild socialists fell short of spelling out a coherent, theoretical model explaining how such a system could work. Our predecessors frequently provided stirring comparisons of the advantages of a libertarian, nonmarket, socialist alternative compared to capitalism and authoritarian planning. But all too often they failed to respond to difficult questions about how necessary decisions would be made, why their procedures would yield a coherent plan, or why the outcome would be efficient. In two recent books we set out to rectify this intellectual deficiency by demonstrating that a non-hierarchical, egalitarian economy in which workers' and consumers' councils coordinate their joint endeavors themselves—consciously, democratically, equitably, and efficiently—was, indeed, possible. In The Political Economy of Participatory Economics (Princeton University Press, 1991) ... we [Michael Albert and Robin Hahnel] presented a theoretical model of participatory planning and carried out a rigorous welfare-theoretic analysis of its properties. In Looking Forward: Participatory Economics for the Twenty First Century (South End Press, 1991), we examined the intricacies of participatory decision-making in a variety of realistic settings, described day-to-day behavior, and treated a number of practical issues conveniently ignored by theoretical models."
"In a participatory economy (1) consumption is according to effort, (2) jobs are balanced for empowerment and desirability, and (3) democratic councils of workers and consumers propose and revise what work and consumption they will do until other workers and consumers agree that the proposals are equitable and make efficient use of society's resources -- through a procedure called "participatory planning." "and more Questions and Answers About Participatory Economics AKA ParEcon
" ...is ParEcon is the only place, even on the left, that alternatives economic systems are being forwarded?
Well, no, that is not so. Historically there have generally been four tracks of visionary economic thinking....
(1) based on centrally planned models, ala the Soviet experience
(2) based on market models, ala the Yugoslav experience
(3) based on a very decentralized approach almost forgoing allocation in the name of face to face interaction and green localism
(4) based on council democracy and participation, but often not talking about allocation much or clearly.
Parecon is an extension of the 4th heritage, I would say.
The first is rather dormant right now. The third probably has its proponents but has never really gotten into any compelling detail, I think.
So the 2nd orientation and variants on the 4th are the ones where most of the action is now--which is not all that much, to be sure. "
1. A natural capital depiction tax aimed at reducing or eliminating the destruction of natural capital....
2. The precautionary polluter pays principle (4P) would be applied to potentially damaging products to incorporate the cost of the uncertainty about ecological damages as well as the cost of known damages. ...
3. A system of ecological tariffs aimed at allowing individual countries or trading blocks to apply 1 and 2 above without forcing producers to move overseas in order to remain competitive. ...
" Capitalism is an economic system where the means of production are for the most part privately owned and controlled; socialism is an economic system where the means of production are for the most part publicly owned and controlled. Most Green Party programs do not advocate either system. Greens in the US characterize their economic orientation in a phrase: community-based economics."
" I believe men will look back on our age as an age of superstition chiefly connected with the names of Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud. I believe people will discover that the most widely held ideas which dominated the twentieth century, those of a planned economy with a just distribution, a freeing ourselves from repressions and conventional morals, or permissive education as a way to freedom, and the replacement of the market by a rational arrangement of a body with coercive powers, were all based on superstitions in the strict sense of the word."
Friedrich von Hayek,
Law, Legislation and Liberty, Vol. III,
p. 176
"For an effective social safety net, most people think government has to guarantee jobs, wages, incomes, or all three. Each offers a good slogan, at least, but is more complex than it appears."