DOCSLIB.ORG

Michael Reich on the Economics of Racism

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Michael Reich on the Economics of Racism The Economics of Racism by Michael Reich Michael Reich is Professor of Political Economy at U. C. Berkeley. This article was written in 1974, hence used only data available at that time. His research was repeated on later census data in his book Racial Inequality: A Political-Economic Analysis, (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press), 1981, and by other researchers, with similar results. His main thesis is that most workers are harmed by racism, regardless of their race. Reich believes this analysis to be based on ideas from Marx, but whether Marx would agree with his assumptions about how wages are determined is debat- able. In the early 1960s it seemed to many and the atmosphere of distrust between blacks that the elimination of racism in the U.S. was and whites has been intensifying. Racism, in- proceeding without requiring a radical restruc- stead of disappearing, seems to be on the in- turing of the entire society. There was a grow- crease. ing civil rights movement, and hundreds of Besides systematically subjugating thousands of blacks were moving to Northern blacks so that their median income is 55 per- cities where discrimination was supposedly cent that of whites, racism is of profound im- less severe than in the South. Government re- portance for the distribution of income among ports pointed to the rapid improvement in the white landowners, capitalists, and workers. For levels of black schooling as blacks moved out example, racism clearly benefits owners of of the South: in 1966 the gap between the me- housing in the ghetto where blacks have no dian years of schooling of black males aged 25 choice but to pay higher rents there than is to 29 and white males in the same age group charged to whites for comparable housing had shrunk to one-quarter the size of the gap elsewhere in the city. But more importantly, that had existed in 1960.1 By 1970, how- racism is a key mechanism for the stabilization ever, the optimism of earlier decades had van- of capitalism and the legitimization of inequal- ished. Despite new civil rights laws, elaborate ity. We shall return to the question of who White House conferences, special ghetto benefits from racism later, but first we shall re- manpower programs, the War on Poverty, and view some of the economic means used to stepped-up tokenist hiring, racism and the subjugate blacks. economic exploitation of blacks has not less- ened. During the past twenty-five years there THE PERVASIVENESS OF RACISM has been virtually no permanent improvement Beginning in the first grade, blacks go in the relative economic position of blacks in to schools of inferior quality and obtain little of America. Median black incomes have been the basic training and skills needed in the labor fluctuating at a level between 47 percent and market. Finding schools of little relevance, 63 percent of median white incomes, the ratio more in need of immediate income, and less rising during economic expansions and falling able anyway to finance their way through to previous low levels during recessions.2 Seg- school, the average black student still drops regation in schools and neighborhoods has out at a lower grade than his white counterpart. been steadily increasing in almost all cities, In 1974 only 8.1 percent of blacks aged 25 to 34 were college graduates, compared to 21.0 1 U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statis- percent of whites in the same age bracket.3 tics, Report No. 375, "The Social and Economic Exploitation really begins in earnest Status of Negroes in the United States, 1969," p. when the black youth enters the labor market. 50. 2 The data refer to male incomes: see Table 10-A, 3 U.S. Bureau of the Census, Series P-60, "Educa- p. 360. tional Attainment." -1- A black worker with the same number of years seniority, age, health, job attitudes, and a host of schooling and the same scores on achieve- of other factors. They presume that they can ment tests as a white worker receives much analyze the sources of "pure wage discrimina- less income. The black worker cannot get as tion" without simultaneously analyzing the ex- good a job because the better-paying jobs are tent to which discrimination also affects the located too far from the ghetto or because he factors they hold constant. or she was turned down by racist personnel But such a technique distorts reality. agencies and employers or because a union The various forms of discrimination are not denied admittance or maybe because of an separable in real life. Employers' hiring and arrest record. Going to school after a certain promotion practices; resource allocation in city point doesn't seem to increase a black per- schools; the structure of transportation sys- son's income possibilities very much. The more tems; residential segregation and housing educated a black person is, the greater is the quality; availability of decent health care; be- disparity between his income and that of a havior of policemen and judges; foremen's white with the same schooling. The result: in prejudices; images of blacks presented in the 1966 black college graduates earned less than media and the schools; price gouging in ghetto white high school dropouts.4 And the higher the stores—these and the other forms of social average wage or salary of an occupation, the and economic discrimination interact strongly lower the percentage of workers in that occu- with each other in determining the occupational pation who are black. status and annual income, and welfare, of The rate of unemployment among black people. The processes are not simply blacks is generally twice as high as among additive but are mutually reinforcing. Often, a whites.5 Layoffs and recessions hit blacks with decrease in one narrow form of discrimination twice the impact they hit whites, since blacks is accompanied by an increase in another are the "last hired, first fired." The ratio of aver- form. Since all aspects of racism interact, an age black to white incomes follows the busi- analysis of racism should incorporate all its as- ness cycle closely, buffering white workers pects in a unified manner. from some of the impact of the recession. No single quantitative index could ade- Blacks pay higher rents for inferior quately measure racism in all its social, cul- housing, higher prices in ghetto stores, higher tural, psychological, and economic dimensions. insurance premiums, higher interest rates in But while racism is far more than a narrow banks and lending companies, travel longer economic phenomenon, it does have very distances at greater expense to their jobs, suf- definite economic consequences: blacks have fer from inferior garbage collection and less far lower incomes than whites. The ratio of access to public recreational facilities, and are median black to median white incomes thus assessed at higher property tax rates when provides a rough, but useful, quantitative index they own housing. Beyond this, blacks are fur- of the economic consequences of racism for ther harassed by police, the courts, and the blacks. We shall use this index statistically to prisons. analyze the causes of racism's persistence in When conventional economists attempt the United States. While this approach over- to analyze racism they usually begin by trying emphasizes the economic aspects of racism, it to separate various forms of racial discrimina- is nevertheless an improvement over the nar- tion. For example, they define "pure wage dis- rower approach taken by conventional econo- crimination" as the racial differential in wages mists. paid to equivalent workers—that is, those with similar years and quality of schooling, skill COMPETING EXPLANATIONS OF RACISM training, previous employment experience and How is the historical persistence of ra- cism in the United States to be explained? The 4 U.S. Bureau of the Census, Series P-60, "Income most prominent analysis of discrimination in 1966 of Families and Persons in the United among economists was formulated in 1957 by States." Gary Becker in his book, The Economics of 5 See, for example, U.S. Department of Labor, Manpower Report of the President, various years. -2- Discrimination.6 Racism, according to Becker, criminate and hiring more blacks, thus raising is fundamentally a problem of tastes and atti- the black wage rate, it is not true that the capi- tudes. Whites are defined to have a "taste for talist class as a whole would benefit if racism discrimination" if they are willing to forfeit in- were eliminated and labor were more efficiently come in order to be associated with other allocated without regard to skin color. We will whites instead of blacks. Since white employ- show below that the divisiveness of racism ers and employees prefer not to associate with weakens workers' strength when bargaining blacks, they require a monetary compensation with employers; the economic consequences for the psychic cost of such association. In of racism are not only lower incomes for blacks Becker's principal model, white employers but also higher incomes for the capitalist class have a taste for discrimination; marginal pro- and lower incomes for white workers. Although ductivity analysis is invoked to show that white capitalists may not have conspired consciously employers lose while white workers gain (in to create racism, and although capitalists may monetary terms) from discrimination against not be its principal perpetuators, never-the-less blacks. racism docs support the continued viability of Becker does not try to explain the the American capitalist system. source of white tastes for discrimination. For We have, then, two alternative ap- him, these attitudes are determined outside of proaches to the analysis of racism.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Michael Reich
    St. John's University St. John's Scholar Theses and Dissertations 2020 eliberative Democracy in the Writing Classroom and Beyond Author(s): Michael Reich Michael Reich Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.stjohns.edu/theses_dissertations Part of the Philosophy Commons, and the Rhetoric and Composition Commons DELIBERATIVE DEMOCRACY IN THE WRITING CLASSROOM AND BEYOND A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY to the faculty of the DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH of ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS AND SCIENCES at ST. JOHN’S UNIVERSITY New York by Michael Reich Date Submitted: ___________________ Date Approved: ___________________ _________________________________ ________________________________ Michael Reich Dr. Granville Ganter © Copyright by Michael Reich 2020 All Rights Reserved ABSTRACT DELIBERATIVE DEMOCRACY IN THE WRITING CLASSROOOM AND BEYOND Michael Reich In this dissertation I explore the consequences of adopting a deliberative pedagogy, based on the study of one or two sample courses taught in 2018 at St. John’s University. The project as a whole argues that the university should be an idea place for students to develop a sense of personal and political agency, and First Year Writing courses organized around deliberation allow students to learn to listen and reason with each other as individuals and as citizens. My first chapter defends the methodology of a humanistic idea of deliberation (a pedagogy not based in classroom drills or Standard English) and where I also worry that the soft and fuzzy notion of deliberation that I practice collides with the measurement of my students’ “progress” on objective rubrics .
    [Show full text]
  • Seattle's Minimum Wage Experience 2015-16
    Chairs Sylvia A. Allegretto Michael Reich CWED Policy Brief Seattle’s Minimum Wage Experience 2015-16 By Michael Reich, Sylvia Allegretto, and Anna Godoey June 2017 Michael Reich is a Professor at UC Berkeley and Co-Chair of the Center on Wage and Employment Dynamics (CWED) at UC Berkeley’s Institute for Research on Labor and Employment. Dr. Sylvia Allegretto is a Research Economist and Co-Chair of CWED. Dr. Anna Godoey is a post-doctoral researcher at CWED. We acknowledge support from the University of California and the Ford Foundation and we are grateful to Arindrajit Dube and Ben Zipperer for their sage advice. ABSTRACT This brief on Seattle’s minimum wage experience represents the first in a series that CWED will be issuing on the effects of the current wave of minimum wage policies—those that range from $12 to $15. Upcoming CWED reports will present similar studies of Chicago, Oakland, San Francisco, San Jose and New York City, among others. The timing of these reports will depend in part upon when quality data become available. We focus here on Seattle because it was one of the early movers. Seattle implemented the first phase of its minimum wage law on April 1, 2015, raising minimum wages from the statewide $9.47 to $10 or $11, depending upon business size, presence of tipped workers and employer provision of health insurance. The second phase began on January 1, 2016, further raising the minimum to four different levels, ranging from $10.50 to $13, again depending upon employer size, presence of tipped workers and provision of health insurance.
    [Show full text]
  • Mpsa Paper on Trans Capitalism
    April 2016 Postsocialist crises and the rise of transnational capitalism in Eastern Europe: a theoretical framework for comparative analysis1 Besnik Pula Department of Political Science Virginia Tech [email protected] There is no question today of the deep institutional divergence of the postsocialist economies of Eastern Europe. The vision and designs of postsocialist reform in the early years aimed at turning Eastern European economies into capitalist economies akin to those of western Europe. But the outcomes of reform have been a plethora of capitalisms, which distinct and widely varying roles played by the state, domestic capitalists, transnational corporations, and workers. To examine this process of change, this paper offers a theoretical framework that explains why some East European economies became more embedded in transnational production than others. Its focus is on the political economy of institutional change. It assumes that economic institutional change is most dramatic under conditions of economic crisis. In the case of East European transformations, it sees the return of economic crises in the late 1990s as such episodes, serving as critical turning points in postsocialist efforts attempts to institute stable regimes of accumulation. 1 Working paper drawn from current manuscript on a comparative analysis of the making of postsocialist capitalisms, presented at the CEEISA-ISA International Conference (Ljubljana, June 23-25, 2016). Please direct comments to the author at [email protected]. 1 In the early years of reform, the reigning “transition paradigm” (Carothers 2002) in the study of East European transformations assumed East European states and economies to be headed towards the same endpoints of liberal democracy and liberal market capitalism.
    [Show full text]
  • SOCIOLOGY 9191A Social Science in the Marxian Tradition Fall 2020
    SOCIOLOGY 9191A Social Science in the Marxian Tradition Fall 2020 DRAFT Class times and location Wednesday 10:30am -12:30pm Virtual synchronous Instructor: David Calnitsky Office Hours by appointment Department of Sociology Office: SSC 5402 Email: [email protected] Technical Requirements: Stable internet connection Laptop or computer Working microphone Working webcam “The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it.” – Karl Marx That is the point, it’s true—but not in this course. This quote, indirectly, hints at a deep tension in Marxism. If we want to change the world we need to understand it. But the desire to change something can infect our understanding of it. This is a pervasive dynamic in the history of Marxism and the first step is to admit there is a problem. This means acknowledging the presence of wishful thinking, without letting it induce paralysis. On the other hand, if there are pitfalls in being upfront in your desire to change the world there are also virtues. The normative 1 goal of social change helps to avoid common trappings of academia, in particular, the laser focus on irrelevant questions. Plus, in having a set of value commitments, stated clearly, you avoid the false pretense that values don’t enter in the backdoor in social science, which they often do if you’re paying attention. With this caveat in place, Marxian social science really does have a lot to offer in understanding the world and that’s what we’ll analyze in this course. The goal is to look at the different hypotheses that broadly emerge out of the Marxian tradition and see the extent to which they can be supported both theoretically and empirically.
    [Show full text]
  • Social Structures of Accumulation: the Political Economy of Growth and Crisis (1994), Edited by 5
    Social Structure of Accumulation Theory Paper prepared for conference on Growth and Crises: Social Structure of Accumulation Theory and Analysis, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland, November 2-4, 2006. Victor D. Lippit Department of Economics Univeristy of California Riverside, CA 92521 U.S.A. [email protected] 2 Social Structure of Accumulation Theory SSA theory and its origins Social Structure of Accumulation (SSA) theory seeks to explain the long waves-- averaging about fifty or sixty years for a complete cycle--that have characterized capitalist economic growth, and the distinct stages of capitalism that have marked each long upswing. Thus in the United States, the upswing early in the twentieth century was marked by industrial consolidation, mass production, and the introduction of "scientific management"; the one following World War II was marked by the growth of the state, U.S. leadership in the world economy, limited competition, and tacit "accords" between capital and labor on the one hand, and between capital and the citizenry on the other. This second SSA is among those analyzed in greater detail below as a means of supporting and clarifying the theoretical argument presented here. The focus of SSA theory is on the institutional arrangements that help to sustain long wave upswings. Institutions can be thought of in a narrow sense as organizations (like universities or the World Bank), or in a broader sense as made up of customs, habits and expectations. In this sense, they are typically country or culture-specific.i A further division can be made within the broader sense, which might refer to something rather specific like collective bargaining on the one hand, or more broadly to the entire system of labor relations that exists within a country.
    [Show full text]
  • Class Approaches to Ethnicity and Race
    CLASS APPROACHES TO ETHNICITY AND RACE Edna Bonacich The eld of ethnic and race relations has recently tended to be dom- inated by an assumption that race and ethnicity are “primordial” bases of aYliation, rooted in “human nature.” This assumption is increasingly being challenged by authors who contend that, while race and ethnic- ity may appear to be primordial attachments, in fact they re ect a deeper reality, namely, class relations and dynamics. I believe that class approaches are the most fruitful way to study ethnicity and race. Not only are they more in accord with a “deeper” level of reality that enables us to understand phenomena at the surface of society, but they also provide us with the tools for changing that reality. The purpose of this paper is to brie y review and criticize primordial assumptions about ethnicity and race, to present several class approaches to the subject in an eVort to demonstrate the richness of available ideas, and nally, to attempt a tentative synthesis of some of these ideas. Before we start, let us de ne our terms. Ethnicity and race are “com- munalistic” forms of social aYliation, sharing an assumption of a spe- cial bond between people of like origins, and the obverse of a negative relation to, or rejection of, people of dissimilar origins. There are other bases of communalistic aYliation as well, notably, nationality and “tribe”. For the sake of this discussion, I would like to treat all of these as a single phenomenon. Thus, ethnocentrism, racism, nationalism, and trib- alism are similar kinds of sentiments, dividing people along lines of shared ancestry rather than other possible lines of aYliation and con ict, such as common economic or political interest.
    [Show full text]
  • CRUSADES AGAINST CRISIS a View from the United States on the "Rank-And-File" Critique and Other Catalogues of Labour History's Alleged Ills*
    SUGGESTIONS AND DEBATES Eric Arnesen CRUSADES AGAINST CRISIS A View from the United States on the "Rank-and-File" Critique and Other Catalogues of Labour History's Alleged Ills* Over the past generation, labour historians have produced an impressive number of studies of crafts, trade unions, communities, and social move- ments that have deeply enriched our understanding of working-class and U.S. history. Groups once assigned to the margins (if assigned anywhere at all) of the historical narrative now occupy a more central position. Pro- cesses long invisible have become clearer, while cherished myths have been qualified, challenged, or demolished. Since the 1960s, labour historians have successfully redefined their field, documenting the legacy of working- class struggles large and small, formal and informal, from massive strikes to workers' control of the labour process to small group or individual resist- ance. The topics addressed continue to include trade unions and radical movements, such as journeymen's societies, the Knights of Labor, craft unions, Populists, socialists, syndicalists, communists, and industrial unionists. But the field's scope has broadened considerably to embrace working-class culture, politics, and ideology, as well as processes of class formation. Recently, questions of gender, ethnicity, and race have begun to command long overdue attention. While there remains a tremendous amount to learn about the working-class experience, there is much to appreciate in the achievements of the past decades. Today, we can debate the degree to which the subjects and insights of the new historiography have been incorporated into the academic canon, but few can question that the U.S.
    [Show full text]
  • Claire Montialoux
    CLAIRE MONTIALOUX www.clairemontialoux.com University of California at Berkeley Goldman School of Public Policy 1893 Le Roy Ave., #209, Berkeley, CA 94720 E-mail: [email protected] ACADEMIC POSITIONS 2019 – Assistant Professor, Goldman School of Public Policy, UC Berkeley AFFILIATIONS 2019 – Faculty Affiliate, Opportunity Lab, UC Berkeley 2019 – Faculty Affiliate, IRLE, UC Berkeley EDUCATION 2016 – 2019 PhD in economics, CREST 2018 – 2019 Visiting PhD student, UC Berkeley 2017 – 2018 Visiting PhD student, Stanford SIEPR 2010 MSc. in economics and statistics, ENSAE ParisTech (Paris) 2008 MSc. “Economic Policy Analysis”, Paris School of Economics 2006 B.A. in econometrics & in sociology, Paris-X Nanterre 2005 – 2009 École Normale Supérieure Paris-Saclay WORKING PAPERS “Racial inequality, minimum wage spillovers, and the informal sector”, May 2021, working paper, with Ellora DERENONCOURT, Lorenzo LAGOS and François GÉRARD. “Collective bargaining, wage floors, and the racial earnings gap”, April 2021, working paper, with Ellora DERENONCOURT, Lorenzo LAGOS and François GÉRARD. PUBLICATIONS “Minimum wages and racial inequality”, with Ellora DERENONCOURT, 2021, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 136(1):169-228. “The pass-through of minimum wages into US retail prices: evidence from supermarket scanner data”, with Tobias RENKIN and Michael SIEGENTHALER, September 2020, forthcoming, Review of Economics and Statistics. OTHER WRITINGS “Why minimum wages are a critical tool for achieving racial justice in the U.S. labor market”, with Kate BAHN and Ellora DERENONCOURT, WCEG Issue brief, October 2020. “The Employment effects of a $15 Minimum Wage in the U.S. and in Mississippi: A Simulation Approach”, with Sylvia ALLEGRETTO and Michael REICH, CWED Policy report, March 2019.
    [Show full text]
  • Radical Political Economy and the Theory of Contracts Towards a One and Only View Of
    Bruno TINEL* (Centre Walras) 15 / 12 / 1999 (last modification : 17/03/2000) Radical political economy and the theory of contracts: towards a one and only view of the origins and functions of hierarchy?** IWGVT mini-conference (EEA Annual Conference 2000) Washington D.C. 1. Introduction More than forty years ago, Paul Samuelson wrote : “in a competitive market it really doesn’t matter who hires whom; so let labor hire capital”.1 At that time, this point of view was shared by almost every mainstream scientists who believed that what happened inside the firm, the “black box”, was only a technical matter which could amount to a production function. This probably doesn’t mean that they denied any existence to hierarchy or authority inside the firm but rather that they denied any economic relevance of those notions. Economists had hence nothing to say about hierarchy and authority. But today it would be very difficult for their epigones to agree with the assertion that “it really doesn’t matter who hires whom”. The new microeconomic theories of the firm, such as transaction costs economics or principal agent analysis or incomplete contracts approach, did indeed profoundly change the way the dominant approach look at the notions of authority or hierarchy. The doctrinal evolution is so significant as several leading contemporary authors in this field, such as for example Hart [1995] or Rajan and Zingales [1998], are going further and use now * Université Lumière Lyon 2, Faculté de Sciences Économiques, Centre WALRAS, Institut des Sciences de L'Homme, 14 avenue Berthelot, 69 363 Lyon cedex 07, France; [email protected] ** An earlier version of this paper has been first presented at the Fourth Annual Conference of the European Society for the History of Economic Thought, Graz, Austria, 24-27 february 2000.
    [Show full text]
  • The Effects of Minimum Wages on Employment: the Legacy of Myth and Measurement
    Durham Research Online Deposited in DRO: 25 October 2016 Version of attached le: Accepted Version Peer-review status of attached le: Peer-reviewed Citation for published item: Addison, J.T. (2017) 'The eects of minimum wages on employment : the legacy of myth and measurement.', ILR review., 70 (3). pp. 814-818. Further information on publisher's website: https://doi.org/10.1177/0019793917696309a Publisher's copyright statement: Addison, J.T. (2017) 'The eects of minimum wages on employment : the legacy of myth and measurement.', ILR review., 70 (3). pp. 814-818. Copyright c 2017 The Author(s). Reprinted by permission of SAGE Publications. Additional information: Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. Durham University Library, Stockton Road, Durham DH1 3LY, United Kingdom Tel : +44 (0)191 334 3042 | Fax : +44 (0)191 334 2971 https://dro.dur.ac.uk The Effects of Minimum Wages on Employment: The Legacy of Myth and Measurement John T. Addison Darla Moore School of Business, Durham University Business School (U.K.), and IZA Bonn Abstract This essay offers a critical review of the path taken by U.S.
    [Show full text]
  • Why Does the Minimum Wage Have No Discernible Effect on Employment? John Schmitt
    Why Does the Minimum Wage Have No Discernible Effect on Employment? John Schmitt February 2013 Center for Economic and Policy Research 1611 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 400 Washington, D.C. 20009 202-293-5380 www.cepr.net CEPR Why Does the Minimum Wage Have No Discernible Effect on Employment? i Contents Executive Summary ........................................................................................................................................... 1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................................ 2 Empirical Research on the Minimum Wage .................................................................................................. 2 Pre-2000s ....................................................................................................................................................... 2 Since the early 2000s .................................................................................................................................... 4 Meta-studies .................................................................................................................................................. 4 Reviews .......................................................................................................................................................... 6 A closer look at several key recent studies ...............................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Toward a Socialism for the Future
    TOWARD A SOCIALISM FOR THE FUTURE: IN THE WAKE OF THE DEMISE OF THE SOCIALISM OF THE PAST' Thomas E. Weisskopf Department of Economics University of Michigan October 1991 *This paper grew out of my involvement for the past two years in lively and wide-ranging discussions of Marxism and socialism over the Progressive Economists' Network (PEN) for electronic computer correspondence. I am grateful to countless PEN participants for their engagement in these discussions; and I would like to mention in particular my indebtedness to Michael Lebowitz for his role in a series of stimulating debates. I am also grateful to Sam Bowles, David Kotz, and participants in Michael Reich's political economy seminar at the University of California, Berkeley, for constructive comments on earlier drafts of this paper. I remain, of course, solely responsible for the views expressed here. ABSTRACT In this paper I seek to explore what kind of socialist system can best make good on the socialist commitment to equity; democracy and solidarity -- in the wake of the failure of the political-economic systems of the USSR and Eastern Europe. I identify and explore two alternative models of socialism -- market socialism and participatory socialism -- and conclude by endorsing a form of democratic self-managed market socialism. Jntroduction What is socialism really all about? The revolutionary events of 1989 in Eastern Europe, and the enormous changes that have been taking place in the Soviet Union since then, have raised this question with renewed acuity. The idea of socialism developed historically out of opposition to the reality of capitalism.
    [Show full text]