Page 13 - Culture Society and Economy

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CULTURE, SOCIETY AND ECONOMY

On the one hand, I argue that any alternative economy must be founded
on large-scale economic organization and the global division of labor already
achieved. On the other hand, I argue that it must be based on the free and
direct exchange between socially organized producers in which ‘the free
development of each becomes the condition for the free development of
all’. Pace Hilferding and Stalinism, central planning is neither the ideal nor
the differentia specifica of a socialist economy. On the contrary, alternative
economic models must recover and re-incorporate the liberal ideals of
freely associating individuals involved in direct relations with each other
and, over time, unsupervised and unmediated either by the state or the
transnational corporation. Given the necessities of coordinating a global
economy based on the international division of labor, some significant
degree of centralization will be inescapable in any feasible alternative. But
this centralization must be minimized and robust efforts made to maintain
and enhance the democratic accountability of these undoubtedly powerful
central bodies.
In recent decades such ideas have become the preserve of economic
and political neo-liberalism with socialism painting itself into a statist
economic and political corner. Yet, because of their support for the large
transnational corporation, neo-liberals cannot consistently support direct
economic relations between individuals. Socialists, however, face no such
constraint. Socialism therefore has an opportunity to recover these eco-
nomic and political ideals which are sharply critical of the state, envisage
its steady reduction and abolition and to some extent celebrate libertarian
ideals. Without this auto-critique and re-orientation to democracy and the
individual, it is difficult to see how socialism will regain broad public
support.
Taken separately, each of the seven main points outlined above is
unremarkable. I hope, however, that when taken together, the arguments
here presented may offer some limited insight into urgent questions facing
the contemporary social sciences. Only the reader can judge whether and
to what extent this turns out to be the case.

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