Democracy at work : a cure for capitalism / Richard Wolff.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wolff, Richard D.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Work--Social aspects.

Work.

Democracy.

Physical Description:

201 pages : portrait ; 19 cm

Place of Publication:

Chicago, Ill. : Haymarket ; London : Turnaround [distributor], 2012.

Summary:

Capitalism-the system-has spawned deepening economic crises alongside its bought-and-paid-for political establishment. Neither serves modern societies' needs. Wolff's compelling new manifesto advocates an alternative based on workers themselves directing their workplaces.

Democracy at Work shows why and how to make democratic workplaces real. It speaks to those who realize that capitalist economics and politics as usual have become intolerable and who seek a concrete action program. Book jacket.

Contents:

Part I Capitalism in Deep Trouble 17

1 Capitalism and Crises 19

1.1 Capitalism's Instability and Unevenness 26

1.2 Welfare State Capitalism, 1945-1970s 31

1.3 Capitalism, 1970s-2007: The Crisis Building from Below 37

1.4 Capitalism, 1970s-2007: The Crisis Building from Above 46

1.5 A Digression on What or Whom to Blame 49

2 Crisis and Government Response 53

2.1 The Bailouts and Federal Budget Deficits 56

2.2 The Bailouts and the National Debt 60

2.3 The Bailouts, Monetary Agencies, and Monetary Policies 68

3 Crises, Forms of Capitalism, and Beyond 79

3.1 Capitalism 79

3.2 State Capitalism 81

Part II What Is to Be Done? 85

4 The Major Problems of Private Capitalisms 87

4.1 Distributing the Surplus 88

4.2 Private Capitalism and Democracy 90

5 The Major Problems of State Capitalism 99

5.1 Key Differences between Capitalism and Socialism 100

5.2 Twentieth-Century Socialisms 102

5.3 Socialism and Surplus Analysis 103

5.4 Socialism and Democracy 110

5.5 A Concluding Parable 113

Part III Workers' Self-Directed Enterprises as a Cure 115

6 What "Self-Directed" Means 117

6.1 Worker-Owned Enterprises 119

6.2 Worker-Managed Enterprises 120

6.3 Cooperatives 122

7 How WSDEs Work Internally 123

7.1 The Two Kinds of Workers in Every WSDE 128

7.2 Handling Technical Change 130

7.3 Handling Environmental Issues 133

7.4 Handling the Distribution of Incomes and of Jobs 135

8 Property Ownership, Markets, Planning, and the Efficiency Myth 139

8.1 Macro-Level and Micro-Level Transformations 140

8.2 Ownership of WSDEs 141

8.3 WSDEs and Markets 142

9 Economic and Political Democracy 145

9.1 Democracy in the Workplace 147

9.2 Containing Democracy 148

9.3 Democracy and Crises 151

10 WSDEs in Modern Societies 155

10.1 The Competitive Success of WSDEs 156

10.2 When WSDEs and Capitalist Enterprises Coexist 158

10.3 WSDEs and the State: Economic Flows 161

10.4 WSDEs and the State: Political Flows 165

11 Program and Personnel for Increasing WSDEs 169

11.1 A Federal Jobs Program 169

11.2 Alliances with Cooperative Movements 172

11.3 Alliance with the Trade Union Movement 173

11.4 The "Organic Intellectuals" of the WSDE Movement 175

11.5 A New Independent Political Party 179.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781608462476

1608462471

OCLC:

801605468