Is Socialism Feasible?
Author | : Geoffrey M. Hodgson |
Publisher | : Edward Elgar Publishing |
Total Pages | : 235 |
Release | : 2019 |
ISBN-10 | : 9781789901627 |
ISBN-13 | : 1789901626 |
Rating | : 4/5 (27 Downloads) |
Book excerpt: After being proclaimed dead, there is now a major revival of socialism ideology in the West. But what does socialism mean? This book shows that it is irretrievably associated with common ownership. The twentieth-century experience of comprehensive national planning with state ownership has been disastrous, and in no case has democracy endured within large-scale socialism. This volume explains why. The alternative socialist option of worker-owned cooperatives must accept a major role for markets that many socialists reject. Further experiments in that direction must be subordinate to higher principles of liberal solidarity, involving a mixed market economy with a welfare state.