The Making of a Democratic Economy
The Making of a Democratic Economy

Author: Marjorie Kelly

Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers

Published: 2019-07-23

Total Pages: 220

ISBN-13: 1523099941

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Seven principles for a just and sustainable system, accompanied by true stories of “the people creating the institutions of the next economy” (Kat Taylor, cofounder, Beneficial State Bank). The extractive economy we live with now—designed by the 1 percent for the 1 percent—enables the financial elite to squeeze out maximum gain for themselves, heedless of damage to people or planet. But in this compelling book, Marjorie Kelly and Ted Howard show that there is a new economy emerging, focused on helping everyone thrive while respecting planetary boundaries. At a time when competing political visions are at stake the world over, this book urges a move beyond tinkering at the margins to address the systemic crisis of our economy. Kelly and Howard outline seven principles of what they call a Democratic Economy: community, inclusion, place (keeping wealth local), good work (putting labor before capital), democratized ownership, ethical finance, and sustainability. Each principle is paired with a place putting it into practice: Pine Ridge, Preston, Portland, Cleveland, and more. Included are stories not just of activists and grassroots leaders but of the unexpected accomplices of the Democratic Economy. Seeds of a future beyond corporate capitalism and state socialism are being planted in hospital procurement departments, pension fund offices, and even company boardrooms. The future remains uncertain—but Kelly and Howard help us understand how to nurture and grow those seeds into an equitable, ecologically sustainable economy that benefits all of us, not just the billionaires. “As champions of worker and community ownership, Kelly and Howard remind us that economic democracy is essential to political democracy and a viable human future.” —David Korten, author of When Corporations Rule the World

The Making of a Democratic Economy
The Making of a Democratic Economy

Author: Marjorie Kelly

Publisher: National Geographic Books

Published: 2019-07-23

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 1523099925

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Our economy is designed by the 1 percent, for the 1 percent. This book offers a compelling vision of an equitable, ecologically sustainable alternative that meets the essential needs of all people. We live in a world where twenty-six billionaires own as much wealth as half the planet's population. The extractive economy we live with now enables the financial elite to squeeze out maximum gain for themselves, heedless of damage to people or planet. But Marjorie Kelly and Ted Howard show that there is a new economy emerging focused on helping everyone thrive while respecting planetary boundaries. At a time when competing political visions are at stake the world over, this book urges a move beyond tinkering at the margins to address the systemic crisis of our economy. Kelly and Howard outline seven principles of what they call a Democratic Economy: community, inclusion, place (keeping wealth local), good work (putting labor before capital), democratized ownership, ethical finance, and sustainability. Each principle is paired with a place putting it into practice: Pine Ridge, Preston, Portland, Cleveland, and more. This book tells stories not just of activists and grassroots leaders but of the unexpected accomplices of the Democratic Economy. Seeds of a future beyond corporate capitalism and state socialism are being planted in hospital procurement departments, pension fund offices, and even company boardrooms. The road to a system grounded in community, democracy, and justice remains uncertain. Kelly and Howard help us understand we make this road as we walk it by taking a first step together beyond isolation and despair.

The 99 Percent Economy
The 99 Percent Economy

Author: Paul S. Adler

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2019-10

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 0190931884

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The social, economic, and political challenges we face have reached the point of crisis: economic irrationality contributes to workplace disempowerment, social disintegration, political alienation, and environmental degradation. Despair is not an option.The 99 Percent Economy provides a stirring alternative: Democratic Socialism. Paul S. Adler, a leading business and management expert, argues that to overcome these crises we need to assert control over economic affairs through social ownership and democratic management of companies as well as thenational economy. He draws on a surprising source of inspiration: the strategic management techniques of large corporations. He shows how leading companies have designed and implemented strategies that involve and empower workers, enhance engagement and motivation, increase innovation, and areenvironmentally and socially sustainable. The principles are scalable - because they work in large corporations with thousands of people, they can work at local, regional, and national scales.Standing in the way? Private ownership of society's productive resources, the foundation of capitalism's ruthless competition and focus on individual gain at the cost of society, the environment, and future generations. Adler shows how socialize public ownership will merge individual and socialgoals through the democratic involvement of all people in deciding what the future will be-both political and economic, both local and global. The needs of people and the planet will guide decisions about investment and production, rather than the pursuit of profit. Public planning forums at theenterprise, regional, and national levels will democratically decide goals, instead of being the prerogative of CEOs doing the bidding of investors.Democratic socialism is not a leap into the entirely unknown, Adler shows. Capitalist industry has built the foundations for democratic socialism.

Democracy at Work
Democracy at Work

Author: Richard Wolff

Publisher: Haymarket Books

Published: 2012-10-02

Total Pages: 221

ISBN-13: 1608462579

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What, and who, are we working for? A thoughtful assessment on our current society from “probably America’s most prominent Marxist economist” (The New York Times). Capitalism as a system has spawned deepening economic crisis alongside its bought-and-paid-for political establishment. Neither serves the needs of our society. Whether it is secure, well-paid, and meaningful jobs or a sustainable relationship with the natural environment that we depend on, our society is not delivering the results people need and deserve. One key cause for this intolerable state of affairs is the lack of genuine democracy in our economy as well as in our politics. The solution requires the institution of genuine economic democracy, starting with workers managing their own workplaces, as the basis for a genuine political democracy. Here Richard D. Wolff lays out a hopeful and concrete vision of how to make that possible, addressing the many people who have concluded economic inequality and politics as usual can no longer be tolerated and are looking for a concrete program of action. “Wolff’s constructive and innovative ideas suggest new and promising foundations for much more authentic democracy and sustainable and equitable development, ideas that can be implemented directly and carried forward. A very valuable contribution in troubled times.” —Noam Chomsky, leading public intellectual and author of Hope and Prospects

Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy
Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy

Author: Daron Acemoglu

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 444

ISBN-13: 9780521855266

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This book develops a framework for analyzing the creation and consolidation of democracy. Different social groups prefer different political institutions because of the way they allocate political power and resources. Thus democracy is preferred by the majority of citizens, but opposed by elites. Dictatorship nevertheless is not stable when citizens can threaten social disorder and revolution. In response, when the costs of repression are sufficiently high and promises of concessions are not credible, elites may be forced to create democracy. By democratizing, elites credibly transfer political power to the citizens, ensuring social stability. Democracy consolidates when elites do not have strong incentive to overthrow it. These processes depend on (1) the strength of civil society, (2) the structure of political institutions, (3) the nature of political and economic crises, (4) the level of economic inequality, (5) the structure of the economy, and (6) the form and extent of globalization.

The Case for Economic Democracy
The Case for Economic Democracy

Author: Andrew Cumbers

Publisher: Polity

Published: 2020-04-13

Total Pages: 140

ISBN-13: 9781509533855

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The idea that the people have a right to shape political decisions through democratic means is widely accepted. The same cannot be said of the decisions that impact on our everyday economic life in the workplace and beyond. Andrew Cumbers shows why this is wrong, and why, in the context of the rising tide of populism and the perceived crisis of liberal democracy, economic democracy's time has come. Four decades of market deregulation, financialisation, economic crisis and austerity has meant a loss of economic control and security for the majority of the world's population. The solution must involve allowing people to 'take back control' of their economic lives. Cumbers goes beyond older traditions of economic democracy to develop an ambitious new framework that includes a traditional concern with workplace rights and collective bargaining, but shifts the focus to include consideration of individual economic rights and processes of public engagement and deliberation beyond the workplace. This topical and original book will be essential reading for anyone interested in radical solutions for our economic and political crises.

Owning Our Future
Owning Our Future

Author: Marjorie Kelly

Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers

Published: 2012-07-04

Total Pages: 343

ISBN-13: 1609945220

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A collection of company profiles that “succeeds in demonstrating how more sustainable business ventures can function in practice” (Publishers Weekly). As long as businesses are set up to focus exclusively on maximizing financial income for the few, our economy will be locked into endless growth and widening inequality. But now people are experimenting with new forms of ownership, which Marjorie Kelly calls generative: aimed at creating the conditions for life for many generations to come. These designs may hold the key to the deep transformation our civilization needs. To understand these emerging alternatives, Kelly reports from all over the world, visiting a community-owned wind facility in Massachusetts, a lobster cooperative in Maine, a multibillion-dollar employee-owned department-store chain in London, a foundation-owned pharmaceutical company in Denmark, a farmer-owned dairy in Wisconsin, and other places where a hopeful new economy is being built. Along the way, she finds the five essential patterns of ownership design that make these models work. “This magnificent book is a kind of recipe for how civilization might cope with its too-big-to-fail problem. It’s a hardheaded, clear-eyed, and therefore completely moving account of what a different world might look like—what it already does look like in enough places that you will emerge from its pages inspired to get involved.” —Bill McKibben, author of Deep Economy

Democracy and the Economy in Finland and Sweden since 1960
Democracy and the Economy in Finland and Sweden since 1960

Author: Ilkka Kärrylä

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2021-10-01

Total Pages: 373

ISBN-13: 3030806316

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This book explores the relationship between democracy and the economy in contemporary political thought and policy-making. Using the concepts of economic, industrial and enterprise democracy, the author focuses on the history of Finland and Sweden during the latter part of the twentieth century. The three concepts are discussed in relation to various political groups, such as social democrats, conservatives and liberals, and the reforms that they were associated with, painting a picture of changing economic thought in the Nordic countries, and the West more generally. Arguing that the concept of democracy has evolved from representative parliamentary democracy towards ‘participation’ in civil society, this book demonstrates how the ideal of individual freedom and choice has surpassed collective decision-making. These shared characteristics between Finland, Sweden and other Western countries challenge the view that the Nordic countries have been exceptional in resisting neoliberalism. In fact, as this book shows, neoliberalism has been influential to the Nordics since the 1970s. Offering an innovative and conceptual perspective on European political history, this book will appeal to scholars interested in Nordic political history and modern European history more generally.

An Economic Theory of Democracy
An Economic Theory of Democracy

Author: Anthony Downs

Publisher: New York : Harper

Published: 1957

Total Pages: 330

ISBN-13:

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This book seeks to elucidate its subject-the governing of democratic state-by making intelligible the party politics of democracies. Downs treats this differently than do other students of politics. His explanations are systematically related to, and deducible from, precisely stated assumptions about the motivations that attend the decisions of voters and parties and the environment in which they act. He is consciously concerned with the economy in explanation, that is, with attempting to account for phenomena in terms of a very limited number of facts and postulates. He is concerned also with the central features of party politics in any democratic state, not with that in the United States or any other single country.

Behavioral Political Economy and Democratic Theory
Behavioral Political Economy and Democratic Theory

Author: Petr Špecián

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2022-06-08

Total Pages: 181

ISBN-13: 1000598543

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Drawing on current debates at the frontiers of economics, psychology, and political philosophy, this book explores the challenges that arise for liberal democracies from a confrontation between modern technologies and the bounds of human rationality. With the ongoing transition of democracy’s underlying information economy into the digital space, threats of disinformation and runaway political polarization have been gaining prominence. Employing the economic approach informed by behavioral sciences’ findings, the book’s chief concern is how these challenges can be addressed while preserving a commitment to democratic values and maximizing the epistemic benefits of democratic decision-making. The book has two key strands: it provides a systematic argument for building a behaviorally informed theory of democracy; and it examines how scientific knowledge on quirks and bounds of human rationality can inform the design of resilient democratic institutions. Drawing these together, the book explores the centrality of the rationality assumption in the methodological debates surrounding behavioral sciences as exemplified by the dispute between neoclassical and behavioral economics; the role of (ir)rationality in democratic social choice; behaviorally informed paternalism as a response to the challenge of irrationality; and non-paternalistic avenues to increase the resilience of the democratic institutions toward political irrationality. This book is invaluable reading for anyone interested in behavioral economics and sciences, political philosophy, and the future of democracy.