Computers and Economic Democracy
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Load more
Recommended publications
-
SEWER SYNDICALISM: WORKER SELF- MANAGEMENT in PUBLIC SERVICES Eric M
\\jciprod01\productn\N\NVJ\14-2\NVJ208.txt unknown Seq: 1 30-APR-14 10:47 SEWER SYNDICALISM: WORKER SELF- MANAGEMENT IN PUBLIC SERVICES Eric M. Fink* Staat ist ein Verh¨altnis, ist eine Beziehung zwischen den Menschen, ist eine Art, wie die Menschen sich zu einander verhalten; und man zerst¨ort ihn, indem man andere Beziehungen eingeht, indem man sich anders zu einander verh¨alt.1 I. INTRODUCTION In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, municipal govern- ments in various US cities assumed responsibility for utilities and other ser- vices that previously had been privately operated. In the late twentieth century, prompted by fiscal crisis and encouraged by neo-liberal ideology, governments embraced the concept of “privatization,” shifting management and control over public services2 to private entities. Despite disagreements over the merits of privatization, both proponents and opponents accept the premise of a fundamental distinction between the “public” and “private” sectors, and between “state” and “market” institutions. A more skeptical view questions the analytical soundness and practical signifi- cance of these dichotomies. In this view, “privatization” is best understood as a rhetorical strategy, part of a broader neo-liberal ideology that relies on putative antinomies of “public” v. “private” and “state” v. “market” to obscure and rein- force social and economic power relations. While “privatization” may be an ideological definition of the situation, for public service workers the difference between employment in the “public” and “private” sectors can be real in its consequences3 for job security, compensa- * Associate Professor of Law, Elon University School of Law, Greensboro, North Carolina. -
Institutional Economics Institutional Economics
INSTITUTIONAL ECONOMICS INSTITUTIONAL ECONOMICS Sponsored by a Grant TÁMOP-4.1.2-08/2/A/KMR-2009-0041 Course Material Developed by Department of Economics, Faculty of Social Sciences, Eötvös Loránd University Budapest (ELTE) Department of Economics, Eötvös Loránd University Budapest Institute of Economics, Hungarian Academy of Sciences Balassi Kiadó, Budapest ELTE Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Economics INSTITUTIONAL ECONOMICS Author: János Mátyás Kovács Supervised by János Mátyás Kovács June 2011 INSTITUTIONAL ECONOMICS Week 3 ”Old” Institutional Economics I Marxism and the German Historical School János Mátyás Kovács Contents • Marx • Collectivist utopias • German Historical School Marx • Marx versus Marxism • Did Marx have a concept of institution at all? – Institutions and systems: capitalism versus communism – Social-economic formations – Modes of production – Production relations, property relations – Division of labor – Superstructure, state – Classes and hierarchies – The capitalist firm – Market, commodity, capital, competition • Institutions and interests • Historical/dialectic approach • Institutional change and revolution • Class struggle: natural selection? Marx (cont.) • Is the Marxian concept of institution empirical? • Material interests: utilitarian bias? • Acquisitive values, and incentives • Rationality without methodological individualism • Agency problem: determinism; historical laws and institutional change • Capitalism: homogenizing the non-capitalist institutions (Engels: family, state, private property) • Development scenarios: change versus progress, evolutionary optimism • Marx as a German historicist: methodological collectivism? Marx (cont.) Analytical (rational choice) Marxism • An attempt at reinterpretation within the Marxian paradigm in the framework of the revisionist wave of the 1970/80s • The revision happened to become more radical than in the case of neo-Marxist tendencies. • It concerned the theory of capitalism rather than communism: September Group (John Roemer, Jon Elster, Adam Przeworski, etc). -
Participatory Economics & the Next System
Created by Matt Caisley from the Noun Project Participatory Economics & the Next System By Robin Hahnel Introduction It is increasingly apparent that neoliberal capitalism is not working well for most of us. Grow- ing inequality of wealth and income is putting the famous American middle class in danger of becoming a distant memory as American children, for the first time in our history, now face economic prospects worse than what their parents enjoyed. We suffer from more frequent financial “shocks” and linger in recession far longer than in the past. Education and health care systems are being decimated. And if all this were not enough, environmental destruction continues to escalate as we stand on the verge of triggering irreversible, and perhaps cataclys- mic, climate change. yst w s em p e s n s o l s a s i s b o i l p iCreated by Matt Caisley o fromt the Noun Project r ie s & p However, in the midst of escalating economic dysfunction, new economic initia- tives are sprouting up everywhere. What these diverse “new” or “future” economy initiatives have in common is that they reject the economics of competition and greed and aspire instead to develop an economics of equitable cooperation that is environmentally sustainable. What they also have in common is that they must survive in a hostile economic environment.1 Helping these exciting and hopeful future economic initiatives grow and stay true to their principles will require us to think more clearly about what kind of “next system” these initiatives point toward. It is in this spirit -
Does Modern ICT Enable More Efficient Economic Models? Of
Does modern ICT enable more efficient economic models? of. Dr. Burkhard Stiller Burkhard Dr. of. Gionata Genazzi Zürich, Switzerland Student ID: 09-742-669 Supervisor: Poullie, Patrick Date of Submission: December 15, 2014 Vertiefungsarbeit — Vertiefungsarbeit CommunicationSystems Group, Pr University of Zurich Department of Informatics (IFI) Binzmühlestrasse 14, CH—8050 Zürich, Switzerland Index 0 Introduction and motivation ................................................................................................. 1 1 Arguments against planned and moneyless economy ....................................................... 3 1.1 Economic calculation problem .............................................................................. 3 1.2 Distribution of consumption goods ........................................................................ 4 1.3 Innovation and technical progress ........................................................................ 5 2 Cockshott and Cottrell’s model ............................................................................................ 7 2.1 Labor time as measure of cost ............................................................................. 7 2.2 Labor token system of distribution ........................................................................ 8 2.3 Resource allocation .............................................................................................. 9 2.4 Democratic decisions on major allocation questions ............................................. 9 2.5 -
What We Know and Do Not Know About the Natural Rate of Unemployment
Journal of Economic Perspectives—Volume 11, Number 1—Winter 1997—Pages 51–72 What We Know and Do Not Know About the Natural Rate of Unemployment Olivier Blanchard and Lawrence F. Katz lmost 30 years ago, Friedman (1968) and Phelps (1968) developed the concept of the "natural rate of unemployment." In what must be one of Athe longest sentences he ever wrote, Milton Friedman explained: "The natural rate of unemployment is the level which would be ground out by the Wal- rasian system of general equilibrium equations, provided that there is imbedded in them the actual structural characteristics of the labor and commodity markets, in- cluding market imperfections, stochastic variability in demands and supplies, the cost of gathering information about job vacancies and labor availabilities, the costs of mobility, and so on." Over the past three decades a large amount of research has attempted to formalize Friedman's long sentence and to identify, both theo- retically and empirically, the determinants of the natural rate. It is this body of work we assess in this paper. We reach two main conclusions. The first is that there has been considerable theoretical progress over the past 30 years. A framework has emerged, organized around two central ideas. The first is that the labor market is a market with a high level of traffic, with large flows of workers who have either lost their jobs or are looking for better ones. This by itself implies that there must be some "frictional unemployment." The second is that the nature of relations between firms and workers leads to wage setting that often differs substantially from competitive wage setting. -
Mill's "Very Simple Principle": Liberty, Utilitarianism And
MILL'S "VERY SIMPLE PRINCIPLE": LIBERTY, UTILITARIANISM AND SOCIALISM MICHAEL GRENFELL submitted for degree of Ph.D. London School of Economics and Political Science UMI Number: U048607 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U048607 Published by ProQuest LLC 2014. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 I H^S £ S F 6SI6 ABSTRACT OF THESIS MILL'S "VERY SIMPLE PRINCIPLE'*: LIBERTY. UTILITARIANISM AND SOCIALISM 1 The thesis aims to examine the political consequences of applying J.S. Mill's "very simple principle" of liberty in practice: whether the result would be free-market liberalism or socialism, and to what extent a society governed in accordance with the principle would be free. 2 Contrary to Mill's claims for the principle, it fails to provide a clear or coherent answer to this "practical question". This is largely because of three essential ambiguities in Mill's formulation of the principle, examined in turn in the three chapters of the thesis. 3 First, Mill is ambivalent about whether liberty is to be promoted for its intrinsic value, or because it is instrumental to the achievement of other objectives, principally the utilitarian objective of "general welfare". -
Divided Strategies and Political Crisis in a Soviet Enterprise
SOVIET STUDIES, Vol. 44, NO. 3, 1992, 37 1-402 Between Perestroika and Privatisation: Divided Strategies and Political Crisis in a Soviet Enterprise MICHAEL BURAWOY & KATHRYN HENDLEY INTHE CLASSIC STUDIES of the Soviet enterprise, the failures of central planning are attributed not to some traditional or 'non-economic' logic but to the enterprise's rational pursuit of its own interests.' Thus, enterprises bargain for loose plan targets by hiding resources, by not overfulfilling plans and by exaggerated underfulfilment of difficult targets. Enterprise performance is evaluated according to plan indicators which, if followed, lead to wasteful use of resources and the production of goods no one wants-heavy machinery, thin glass or large nak2So, the classic studies conclude, within a planned economy it is impossible to create an incentive system that stimulates the production of what is needed. The more recent literature on enterprises in the reformed economies of Eastern Europe, particularly the Hungarian economy, argues that pathologies persist when physical planning gives way to fiscal planning. Janos Kornai argues that soft budget constraints inevitably follow from state ownership of the means of production, and therefore enterprises seek to increase their bargaining power with the state by expanding as rapidly as p~ssible.~This results in a distribution of investment resources which is unrelated to enterprise efficiency or profitability. In a more elaborate bargaining model, Tamas Bauer shows how enterprises entice government sponsorship of new investment schemes by underestimating the costs of new project^.^ Once hooked, the government can be subjected to considerable pressure to continue financing the new project even as costs escalate. -
Towards Economic Democracy and Social Justice: Profit Sharing, Co-Determination, and Employee Ownership
DISCUSSION PAPER SERIES IZA DP No. 13238 Towards Economic Democracy and Social Justice: Profit Sharing, Co-Determination, and Employee Ownership Felix FitzRoy Michael Nolan MAY 2020 DISCUSSION PAPER SERIES IZA DP No. 13238 Towards Economic Democracy and Social Justice: Profit Sharing, Co-Determination, and Employee Ownership Felix FitzRoy University of St. Andrews and IZA Michael Nolan University of Hull MAY 2020 Any opinions expressed in this paper are those of the author(s) and not those of IZA. Research published in this series may include views on policy, but IZA takes no institutional policy positions. The IZA research network is committed to the IZA Guiding Principles of Research Integrity. The IZA Institute of Labor Economics is an independent economic research institute that conducts research in labor economics and offers evidence-based policy advice on labor market issues. Supported by the Deutsche Post Foundation, IZA runs the world’s largest network of economists, whose research aims to provide answers to the global labor market challenges of our time. Our key objective is to build bridges between academic research, policymakers and society. IZA Discussion Papers often represent preliminary work and are circulated to encourage discussion. Citation of such a paper should account for its provisional character. A revised version may be available directly from the author. ISSN: 2365-9793 IZA – Institute of Labor Economics Schaumburg-Lippe-Straße 5–9 Phone: +49-228-3894-0 53113 Bonn, Germany Email: [email protected] www.iza.org IZA DP No. 13238 MAY 2020 ABSTRACT Towards Economic Democracy and Social Justice: Profit Sharing, Co-Determination, and Employee Ownership* Modern economies deprive workers of natural democratic rights and any share of the surplus they produce, with most of the benefits of growth appropriated by capital owners. -
A Stakeholder Analysis of the Soviet Second Economy by CHOI, Jae
A Stakeholder Analysis of the Soviet Second Economy By CHOI, Jae-hyoung THESIS Submitted to KDI School of Public Policy and Management in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF PUBLIC POLICY 2015 A Stakeholder Analysis of the Soviet Second Economy By CHOI, Jae-hyoung THESIS Submitted to KDI School of Public Policy and Management in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF PUBLIC POLICY 2015 Professor Chang-Yong Choi A Stakeholder Analysis of the Soviet Second Economy By CHOI, Jae-hyoung THESIS Submitted to KDI School of Public Policy and Management in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF PUBLIC POLICY Committee in charge: Professor Chang Yong CHOI, Supervisor Professor Jung Ho YOO Professor June Soo LEE Approval as of April, 2015 Abstract This research aims to demonstrate, through a stakeholder analysis, that the institutionalization of the second economy in the Soviet Union was a natural byproduct of the interaction among three major stakeholders of Soviet society: the state, the bureaucracy, and the people. The three stakeholders responded to the incentive structure of the socialist economic system, interacting with each other in order to enhance their own interests. This research argues that their interaction was the internal necessity or dynamics that formed this informal market mechanism and elevated it to a characteristic feature of Soviet society. i Table of Contents Abstract ...................................................................................................................................... -
The Monetary Legacy of the Soviet Union / Patrick Conway
ESSAYS IN INTERNATIONAL FINANCE ESSAYS IN INTERNATIONAL FINANCE are published by the International Finance Section of the Department of Economics of Princeton University. The Section sponsors this series of publications, but the opinions expressed are those of the authors. The Section welcomes the submission of manuscripts for publication in this and its other series. Please see the Notice to Contributors at the back of this Essay. The author of this Essay, Patrick Conway, is Professor of Economics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has written extensively on the subject of structural adjustment in developing and transitional economies, beginning with Economic Shocks and Structural Adjustment: Turkey after 1973 (1987) and continuing, most recently, with “An Atheoretic Evaluation of Success in Structural Adjustment” (1994a). Professor Conway has considerable experience with the economies of the former Soviet Union and has made research visits to each of the republics discussed in this Essay. PETER B. KENEN, Director International Finance Section INTERNATIONAL FINANCE SECTION EDITORIAL STAFF Peter B. Kenen, Director Margaret B. Riccardi, Editor Lillian Spais, Editorial Aide Lalitha H. Chandra, Subscriptions and Orders Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Conway, Patrick J. Currency proliferation: the monetary legacy of the Soviet Union / Patrick Conway. p. cm. — (Essays in international finance, ISSN 0071-142X ; no. 197) Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0-88165-104-4 (pbk.) : $8.00 1. Currency question—Former Soviet republics. 2. Monetary policy—Former Soviet republics. 3. Finance—Former Soviet republics. I. Title. II. Series. HG136.P7 no. 197 [HG1075] 332′.042 s—dc20 [332.4′947] 95-18713 CIP Copyright © 1995 by International Finance Section, Department of Economics, Princeton University. -
Reform and Human Rights the Gorbachev Record
100TH-CONGRESS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES [ 1023 REFORM AND HUMAN RIGHTS THE GORBACHEV RECORD REPORT SUBMITTED TO THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES BY THE COMMISSION ON SECURITY AND COOPERATION IN EUROPE MAY 1988 Printed for the use of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE WASHINGTON: 1988 84-979 = For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, Congressional Sales Office U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402 COMMISSION ON SECURITY AND COOPERATION IN EUROPE STENY H. HOYER, Maryland, Chairman DENNIS DeCONCINI, Arizona, Cochairman DANTE B. FASCELL, Florida FRANK LAUTENBERG, New Jersey EDWARD J. MARKEY, Massachusetts TIMOTHY WIRTH, Colorado BILL RICHARDSON, New Mexico WYCHE FOWLER, Georgia EDWARD FEIGHAN, Ohio HARRY REED, Nevada DON RITTER, Pennslyvania ALFONSE M. D'AMATO, New York CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey JOHN HEINZ, Pennsylvania JACK F. KEMP, New York JAMES McCLURE, Idaho JOHN EDWARD PORTER, Illinois MALCOLM WALLOP, Wyoming EXECUTIvR BRANCH HON. RICHARD SCHIFIER, Department of State Vacancy, Department of Defense Vacancy, Department of Commerce Samuel G. Wise, Staff Director Mary Sue Hafner, Deputy Staff Director and General Counsel Jane S. Fisher, Senior Staff Consultant Michael Amitay, Staff Assistant Catherine Cosman, Staff Assistant Orest Deychakiwsky, Staff Assistant Josh Dorosin, Staff Assistant John Finerty, Staff Assistant Robert Hand, Staff Assistant Gina M. Harner, Administrative Assistant Judy Ingram, Staff Assistant Jesse L. Jacobs, Staff Assistant Judi Kerns, Ofrice Manager Ronald McNamara, Staff Assistant Michael Ochs, Staff Assistant Spencer Oliver, Consultant Erika B. Schlager, Staff Assistant Thomas Warner, Pinting Clerk (11) CONTENTS Page Summary Letter of Transmittal .................... V........................................V Reform and Human Rights: The Gorbachev Record ................................................ -
In Kind Accounting of O. Neurath and A. Chayanov
Calculating Without Money: in kind accounting of O. Neurath and A. Chayanov Nikolay NENOVSKY (University of Picardie Jules Verne) ESHET Annual Conference, 23-25 May 2019, Lille Objectives and contributions - Discuss proposals of alternative to money measurement and accounting, in particular 1918 – 1921 period, more precisely in kind models of A. Chayanov and O. Neurath - This is insightful for understanding currents technological trends and discussions on digital currency, decentralised and moneyless economy, “labour time banks”, EU discussion on clearing, on Target 2 etc. - Precursors (Chayanov) of frontier operational research productive efficiency of DMUs (DEA and SFA) - Fundamental discussion on possibilities of building socialism, planification (since Mises, …) Objectives and contributions - First post War and Bolshevik years - Russia and Austria (Hayek, 1935) - Austria (1919 O. Neurath’s proposal well known, Weber, Hayek etc.) - Russia (A. Chayanov, 1920 (1918?) less known outside Russia, unlike labour and energetical value models, according to L. Yurovsky Chayanov model has “some merits, the most logical proposal”) Neurath and Chayanov - O. Neurath (1882 -1945) and A. Chayanov (1888 - 1937) Common elements - War Economy, Bolsheviks practices (Russia, Hungary, Bavaria) - Ideas of Marxism, socialism, agrariarism, etc - Utopia as science - Neurath: “Utopianism as science” (System of socialisation, 1920) - Chayanov: on his literary, peasant utopias, see Raskov, 2014, Glovelli, 2004 Elements on Neurath and Russia On Neurath and Russia - Vienna, practical experiences during the war (Ministry of Planning, 1917/18) and Soviet Bavaria (April 1919) - “Economics in kind, calculation in kind and their relation to war economics” (1919/… 1916) - “Of the two stages of the future to came” (1919) - “System of socialisation” (1920/21) etc.