Is Socialist Participatory Democracy a Feasible and Desirable Alternative to Capitalism and Liberal Representative Democracy?

People commonly think that there is no alternative to the status quo. Yet there is an interesting and important body of literature that focuses on the issue of whether a socialist and democratic alternative to capitalism is feasible and desirable. The next book in my democracy research programme will directly address this issue. It is tentatively entitled – The Future Socialist Society.

If you are interested in finding out more about the feasibility of socialist participatory democracy, then start your reading with these sources: 

*A. Callinicos, “What will socialism be like?” in Socialist Review, Jan. 1993, pp.18-20.

*A. Callinicos, “Socialism and Democracy” in D. Held (ed), Prospects for Democracy,  ch.9, pp. 200-213.

*A. Callinicos, An Anti-Capitalist Manifesto, Polity Press, Cambridge, 2003.

*P. Devine, Democracy and Economic Planning: The Political Economy of a Self-Governing Society, Polity Press, Oxford, 1988, “Introduction”.

*E. Mandel, “In Defence of Socialist Planning”, in New Left Review, no. 159, Sept-Oct 1986, pp. 5-38.

*D. McNally, Against the Market, Verso, London, 1993, ch. 6 “Beyond the Market”. 

*D. McNally, Another World is Possible: Globalization and Anti-Capitalism, Second Edition, Arbeiter Ring Publishing, Winnipeg, 2006, chs.1, 6 & 7.

*J. Molyneux, Arguments for Revolutionary Socialism, Second Edition, Bookmarks, London, 1991, ch.7 “The Future Socialist Society”.  

Beyond this, more detailed discussions of particular aspects of socialist participatory democracy include: 

E. Mandel, “Socialism and Individual Rights” in Against the Current, vol. 6, no.2, May-June 1991, pp.41-42. In POLS 208: Democracy Readings.

A. Campbell, “Democratic Planned Socialism: Feasible Economic Procedures” in Science and Society, vol. 66, no. 1, 2002, pp.29-42.

P. Cockshott and A. Cottrell, “The Relation Between Economic and Political Instances in the Communist Mode of Production” in Science and Society, vol. 66, no. 1, 2002, pp.50-63.

M. Albert and R. Hahnel, “In Defence of Participatory Economics” in Science and Society, vol. 66, no. 1, 2002, pp.7-21.

P. Devine, “Participatory Planning Through Negotiated Coordination’ in Science and Society, vol. 66, no. 1, 2002, pp.72-87.

P. Devine, “Market Socialism or Participatory Planning?” in Review of Radical Political Economics, vol. 24 nos 3&4, 1992, pp. 67-89.

P. Devine, Democracy and Economic Planning: The Political Economy of a Self-Governing Society, as above, Ch.6 “Democracy”.

D. Kotz, ‘Socialism and Innovation’, in Science and Society, vol. 66, no. 1, 2002, pp.94-99.

E. Mandel, “The Myth of Market Socialism”, in New Left Review, no. 169, May-June 1988, pp. 108-120.

N. Geras,  “Seven Types of Obloquy: Travesties of Marxism”. In The Socialist Register, 1990, 1-36.

C. Harman,   “The Myth of Market Socialism”, in International Socialism, 2:42, 1989, pp. 3-63.

G. Pearce, et al., “The Case for Socialism Restated”, in NZMR, no. 303, November 1987.