Remaking scarcity : from capitalist inefficiency to economic democracy / Costas Panayotakis ; [foreword byJoel Kovel].

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Panayotakis, Costas.

Contributor:

Kovel, Joel, 1936-2018.

Series:

Future of world capitalism (Winnipeg, Man.)

The future of world capitalism

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Sustainable development--Citizen participation.

Sustainable development.

Scarcity.

Capitalism--Social aspects.

Capitalism.

Economic policy--Citizen participation.

Economic policy.

Supply and demand.

Resource allocation.

Physical Description:

xiv, 209 pages ; 22 cm.

Place of Publication:

London : Pluto ; Winnipeg : Fernwood, 2011.

Summary:

This book is a powerful challenge to current economic orthodoxy. Neo-classical economists dictate that material scarcity is an inevitable product of human nature. Against this, Costas Panayotakis argues that scarcity is in fact a result of the social and economic processes of the capitalist system.

Panayotakis explores why the logic of capital accumulation ensures that human society does not make rational use of scarce resources or its own productive potential. Instead, capitalism produces grotesque inequalities, unnecessary suffering and deepening ecological problems. Panayotakis argues that the core principle of economic democracy - where all human beings have an equal say over the priorities of the economic system - could be the most promising response to scarcity and ecological crisis. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 Capitalism, scarcity, and economic democracy 1

Plan of the book 7

2 The neoclassical approach to scarcity 10

3 Scarcity and capital accumulation 18

The source of capitalism's technological dynamism 18

Economic crises and the cyclical nature of capitalism's configurations of scarcity 21

Scarcity and the long-term evolution of the capitalist system 23

Do we need to abolish scarcity? 26

Scarcity and the undemocratic logic of capital 32

A note on the Soviet experience 35

4 Scarcity, capitalist exploitation, and consumption 38

Is scarcity only the product of inflated needs? 41

Consumerism and capitalism's configurations of scarcity 47

Consumerism, exploitation, and economic democracy 50

5 Economic democracy and the multiplicity of social inequalities and struggles 57

Struggles over the profit rate 57

Configurations of scarcity and capitalism's cross-cutting social inequalities and struggles 59

Capitalism, scarcity, and households 61

Economic democracy, households, and the question of time 62

Capital and the vicious cycles undercutting economic democracy 64

The struggle over the working day as a struggle for economic democracy 67

The cultural dimension of the struggle for economic democracy 70

6 Capitalism, scarcity, and global inequalities 72

Global inequalities as a dimension of capitalism's configurations of scarcity 74

The growth of global inequalities: a brief historical overview 78

The struggle(s) against neoliberalism and the logic of profit 88

7 Scarcity and the deepening ecological crisis 93

The deepening ecological crisis 94

Ecological problems as economic externalities? 97

Political economy, externalities, and the role of the state 103

Externalities, efficiency, and the conflict approach to scarcity 106

The link between cross-cutting inequalities and ecological problems 109

8 Imagining economic democracy: two models 113

Post-capitalist alternatives: market socialism versus democratic planning 114

David Schweickart's 'economic democracy' 115

Albert and Hahnel's model of a participatory economy 119

Economic democracy and the debate on post-capitalist alternatives 124

9 The way forward: economic democratization as a strategy of reforms and fundamental social change 129.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781552664612

1552664619

9780745330990

0745330991

9780745331003

0745331009

OCLC:

728826012