The Socialist Alternative

by Lebowitz, Michael

• ISBN13: 9781583672143
• ISBN10: 1583672141
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-07-01
• Publisher: Monthly Review Pr

Summary

"A good society," Michael Lebowitz tells us, "is one that permits the full development of human potential." In this slim, lucid, and insightful book, he argues persuasively that such a society is possible. That capitalism fails his definition of a good society is evident from even a cursory examination of its main features. What comes first in capitalism is not human development but privately accumulated profits by a tiny minority of the population. When there is a conflict between profits and human development, profits take precedence. Just ask the unemployed, those toiling at dead-end jobs, the sick and infirm, the poor, and the imprisoned.But if not capitalism, what? Lebowitz is also critical of those societies that have proclaimed their socialism, such as the former Soviet Union and China. While their systems were not capitalist and were capable of achieving some of what is necessary for the "development of human potential," they were not "good societies."A good society as Lebowitz defines it must be marked by three characteristics: social ownership of the means of production, social production controlled by workers, and satisfaction of communal needs and purposes. Lebowitz shows how these characteristics interact with and reinforce one another, and asks how they can be developed to the point where they occur more or less automaticallythat is, become both a society's premises and outcomes. He also offers fascinating insights into matters such as the nature of wealth, the illegitimacy of profits, the inadequacies of worker-controlled enterprises, the division of labor, and much more.

Author Biography

Michael Lebowitz is professor emeritus of economics at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada, and the author of Beyond Capital: Marx's Political Economy of the Working Class (winner of the Isaac Deutscher Memorial Prize for 2004), and Build It Now: Socialism for the Twenty-First Century. He is Director, Program in Transformative Practice and Human Development, Centro Internacional Miranda, in Caracas, Venezuela.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. 7
Introduction: Reinventing Socialism	p. 13
The Socialist Triangle
The Wealth of People	p. 31
The Production of People	p. 47
The Solidarian Society	p. 65
Building the Socialist Triangle
The Being and Becoming of an Organic System	p. 85
The Concept of a Socialist Transition	p. 105
Making a Path to Socialism	p. 127
Developing a Socialist Mode of Regulation	p. 151
Bibliography	p. 169
Notes	p. 173
Index	p. 187
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