Alternatives to Capitalism

by Elster, Jon; Moene, Karl Ove

• ISBN13: 9780521378154
• ISBN10: 052137815X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1989-06-01
• Publisher: Cambridge Univ Pr

Summary

The essays in this provocative collection survey and assess institutional arrangements that offer possible alternatives to capitalism as it exists today. The point of departure agreed upon by the contributors is that on the one hand, capitalism produces unemployment, a lack of autonomy in the workplace, and massive income inequalities; while on the other, central socialist planning is characterized by underemployment, inefficiency, and bureaucracy. In Part I of the volume, various alternatives are proposed: profit-sharing systems, capitalism combined with some central planning, worker-owned firms in a market economy into a centrally planned economy, as has occurred recently in Hungary. Part II provides a theoretical analysis and assessment of these systems. This book is the first to cover such a wide range of subjects as central planning, market socialism, and profit sharing. It will prove indispensable to political and social scientists, and economists.

Table of Contents

Notes on the contributors

1. Introduction

Part I: 2. Internal subcontracting in Hungarian enterprises

3. Profit-sharing capitalism

4. The unclearing market

5. Strong unions or worker control?

6. The role of central planning under capitalism and market socialism

Part II: 7. Are freedom and equality compatible?

8. Self-realisation in work and politics: the Marxist conception of the good life

9. Public ownership and private property externalities.