Notes About Selected Literature About Socialism
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Notes about Selected Literature about Socialism Hans G. Ehrbar November 16, 1999 Contents 1 Bottomore's Socialist Economy, Theory and Practice 5 1.1 The Nineteenth Century Vision . 6 1.2 Marxist Conceptions of a Socialist Economy . 8 1.3 Experience of Planning since WWI . 9 1.4 Critiques of Socialist Planning . 11 1.5 State Bureacuracy and Self Management . 13 1.6 Plan and Market . 14 1.7 Problems of Socialism Today . 16 1.8 Modes of Transition to a Socialist Economy . 18 2 Cockshott and Cottrell: Towards a New Socialism 20 2.1 Inequality . 21 2.2 Eliminating Inequalities . 24 2.3 Work, Time and Computers . 27 2.4 Basic Concepts of Planning . 29 2.5 Strategic Planning . 30 2.5.1 Planning industrial structure . 30 2.5.2 Environmental Considerations and Natural Resource Constraints . 31 2.5.3 Time dimension of production . 31 2.5.4 Market and Nonmarket Distribution . 31 2.5.5 Agriculture . 32 2.6 Detailed Planning . 32 2.6.1 Planning in the USSR . 32 2.6.2 Detailed Planning and Stock Constraints . 33 2.6.3 A New Plan Balancing Algorithm . 33 2.6.4 Economic Cybernetics in Chile . 33 2.7 Macroeconomic Planning and Budgetary Policy . 33 2.7.1 Household Saving and Credit . 34 2.8 The Marketing of Consumer Goods . 35 2.9 Planning and Information . 36 2.10 Foreign Trade . 37 2.10.1 Techonoligal Development the Primary Determinant of Trade Patterns . 38 2.10.2 Competition between Low Wage and High Wage Economies . 38 2.10.3 Advantages of Trade Deficits . 38 2.10.4 International Trade in the Context of Socialism . 38 2.10.5 Exchange rate policy, tourism and black markets . 39 2.10.6 ? . 39 2.11 Trade Between Socialist Countries . 40 2.11.1 What we advocate . 40 2.11.2 Significance of national sovereignty . 40 2.12 The Commune . 40 2.12.1 The activities of urban communes . 40 2 CONTENTS 3 2.12.2 Basic rationale in terms of efficiency . 41 2.12.3 System of payments ond external trade . 41 2.13 On Democracy . 41 2.13.1 Democracy and Parlamentarism . 41 2.13.2 Direct Democracy or Soviet Democracy? . 41 3 Albert and Hahnel's Participatory Democracy 43 3.1 Work Without Hierarchy . 43 3.2 Participatory Workplaces . 44 4 Schweickart's \Against Capitalism" 53 4.1 Noncomparative Justifications . 53 4.1.1 Marginal Product as Contribution . 54 4.1.2 Capitalist Contribution as Entrepreneurial Activity . 55 4.1.3 Interest as Time Preference . 56 4.1.4 Interest as rreword for waiting . 57 4.1.5 Profit as Reward for Risk . 58 4.2 Terms of Comparison . 58 4.2.1 Capitalism: Laissez Faire . 60 4.2.2 Socialism: Economic Democracy . 60 5 Nove: Reasible Socialism 62 5.2 Socialism and the Soviet Experience . 62 5.3 Reform Models and Experiences . 73 6 Transformation and Struggle 78 6.1 The Cuban Rectification . 78 6.1.1 A History of Rectifications . 78 6.1.2 Dynamics of the Rectification Process . 79 6.1.3 A More Critical Cuban Mass Media . 80 6.1.4 Improvements Under the Rectification Process . 80 6.1.5 Castro's and Gorbachev's Different Paths . 81 6.3 The Matter of Democracy in Cuba: Snapshots of Three Moments . 81 6.3.1 The Heroic 1960s and the Failure to Institutionalize Democracy . 81 6.3.2 Institutionalization of Popular Participation . 82 6.3.3 The Rectification Campaign, Perestroika, and Current Problems . 82 6.5 Human Rights in Cuba: Politics and Ideology . 83 6.5.1 Introduction . 83 6.5.2 Cuba's Human Rights Record . 83 6.5.3 Tropical Gulag . 83 6.5.4 An Echo of Official Assumptions . 84 6.5.5 Perspectives on Human Rights . 84 6.5.6 Human Rights, Democracy, and Socialism . 84 6.6 6: The Cuban Economy: A Current Assessment . 84 6.9 Cuba's Economic Diversification: Progress and Shortcomings . 86 7 Victory of Morality over Socialism 87 7.1 Short Book Review, never published . 87 7.2 Book Review published in RRPE . 88 7.3 Draft for even longer Book Review . 90 7.4 Reading Notes About The Victory of Morality over Socialism . 92 4 CONTENTS 8 Sherman: The Soviet Economy 99 8.3 Economic Development 1917{1928 . 99 8.4 Economic Development 1928{1950 . 102 Chapter 1 Bottomore's Book: The Socialist Economy, Theory and Practice This book is an excellent review of the literature, In capitalism, means of production are privately can almost be considered an annotated bibliography. owned by the capitalists, workers must work for a Also gives good observations about how the thinking wage. Even non-Marxists consider socialism to be about socialism was influenced by current events and the transformation of private ownership into social the prevailing social structures. ownership. This book was written shortly before the collapse of the Eastern European socialist experiments. Rel- Question 1 To what extent can one say the economy evant literature which are not covered in this survey is \primary" in a capitalist society. Will this still be are [Lev95], [AH91a] and [CC93]. true in socialism? 2:2{3:2 `Cooperative production' has more than economic significance but implies that individuals are Introduction: Socialist Economy independent of dominant minorities and can develop and Socialist Society freely in a social environment which they took a full and equal part in creating. Brings a Marx quote that 1:1 Socialism has never had purely economic aims; its the sphere of necessities will never become negligible. aims are also political and social. From the beginning Therefore work time is important: a nation is only its ideal was the creation of a new type of society. truly rich if they work only 6 hours instead of 12. 1:2 Prior to 1920, socialists did not even seriously think about structure of socialist economy. This book Question 2 Why will, according to Marx, the time will discuss the absence of economic thinking early devoted by society to the production of necessities on, the economic theories debated in the 30s, and never become negligible? post-WWII experiences. Approach is sociological, 3:1/o Marx anticipated continued growth of ma- setting economic relations in a wider social and cul- terial wealth, and virtually unlimited development tural framework. of human powers of production in socialist society. 1:3/o What unites the diverse conceptions of so- Bottomore asks whether this is possible or desirable cialism is the theme of the importance of the econ- in the face of ecological problems. Marx sometimes omy in shaping social life|an idea having its roots mentioned ecological themes, and the early Marx had in Marxism and subject to various modern interpre- emphasized human freedom and creativity outside tations. Bottomore interprets this theory not as a the sphere of work. strict determination of political and cultural super- structure by the economic `base', but that the man- Question 3 Should one emphasize non-material ner in which human beings produce and reproduce needs in socialism? What would this look like? the material condition of their existence is a major factor in the creation of a whole `form of.