LIFE WITHOUT MONEY Anitra Nelson and Franz Zimmerman, Eds. Pluto Press, 2011, 244 pp. The GFC, the European 'de-growth' movement, Occupy Wall St, and the Transition Towns movement, all seem to be part of a long overdue surge in discontent with the unacceptability of the system and the quest for alternatives. Thus this is a timely book, reconsidering some classic themes in a contemporary context focused on alternatives to money. Eleven chapters explore a range of interesting and important themes, loosely divided into critiques of capitalism and consumerism, and activism and experiments. Among the topics are non-market socialism, self management, the labour credit system of the Twin Oaks commune, the money-free economy of Spanish squatters, the elimination of work and wages, and the gift economy. There are helpful introductory and concluding chapters by the editors. Although all chapters are clear and easily understood by the non-specialist reader, the discussions are also likely to be valuable refreshers for professional students of political economy. The book's central thesis is that a satisfactory society requires the scrapping of markets, the state and money. The emphasis on the third of these propositions is particularly distinctive and debatable. It is obvious that many of the most absurd and outrageous aspects of consumer-capitalist society are directly due to the monetary system, especially its taken for granted assumption that money must take the form of credit which has to be repaid with interest, and which has to be issued by private banks. But the key question is, are the resulting effects due to the use of money or just due to the form of money used in consumer-capitalist society? Could a different form retain the advantages of money while avoiding these effects? My main doubts regarding the book are to do with whether the case given for the need to scrap all forms of money is convincing. I firmly believe that we are entering an era of intense and irremediable scarcity brought on by resource and ecological problems, in which the rich countries in particular will be jolted into a scramble for radically different social systems. These will not be characterised by heavy industrialisation, globalisation, economic growth or affluent lifestyles, and they will have to at least heavily control markets if not entirely eliminate them. The new local economies will not function satisfactorily unless they are mostly under participatory social control at the level of the neighbourhood committee and town meeting, with a relatively minor role for the remnant 'state'. …
{"title":"Life without Money","authors":"T. Trainer","doi":"10.2307/j.ctt183p6xc","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt183p6xc","url":null,"abstract":"LIFE WITHOUT MONEY Anitra Nelson and Franz Zimmerman, Eds. Pluto Press, 2011, 244 pp. The GFC, the European 'de-growth' movement, Occupy Wall St, and the Transition Towns movement, all seem to be part of a long overdue surge in discontent with the unacceptability of the system and the quest for alternatives. Thus this is a timely book, reconsidering some classic themes in a contemporary context focused on alternatives to money. Eleven chapters explore a range of interesting and important themes, loosely divided into critiques of capitalism and consumerism, and activism and experiments. Among the topics are non-market socialism, self management, the labour credit system of the Twin Oaks commune, the money-free economy of Spanish squatters, the elimination of work and wages, and the gift economy. There are helpful introductory and concluding chapters by the editors. Although all chapters are clear and easily understood by the non-specialist reader, the discussions are also likely to be valuable refreshers for professional students of political economy. The book's central thesis is that a satisfactory society requires the scrapping of markets, the state and money. The emphasis on the third of these propositions is particularly distinctive and debatable. It is obvious that many of the most absurd and outrageous aspects of consumer-capitalist society are directly due to the monetary system, especially its taken for granted assumption that money must take the form of credit which has to be repaid with interest, and which has to be issued by private banks. But the key question is, are the resulting effects due to the use of money or just due to the form of money used in consumer-capitalist society? Could a different form retain the advantages of money while avoiding these effects? My main doubts regarding the book are to do with whether the case given for the need to scrap all forms of money is convincing. I firmly believe that we are entering an era of intense and irremediable scarcity brought on by resource and ecological problems, in which the rich countries in particular will be jolted into a scramble for radically different social systems. These will not be characterised by heavy industrialisation, globalisation, economic growth or affluent lifestyles, and they will have to at least heavily control markets if not entirely eliminate them. The new local economies will not function satisfactorily unless they are mostly under participatory social control at the level of the neighbourhood committee and town meeting, with a relatively minor role for the remnant 'state'. …","PeriodicalId":43895,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Australian Political Economy","volume":"1 1","pages":"158"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2012-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"68704476","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Fair Trade, Corporate Accountability and Beyond: Experiments in Globalizing Justice. Kate Macdonald and Shelley Marshall Ashgate, Farnham, 2010 This book, as the title suggests, tackles an emerging research agenda in identifying and examining 'experiments in globalizing justice'. It embarks on an ambitious agenda, seeking to critically examine distinct but also increasingly linked ethical initiatives like 'fair trade' and 'corporate social responsibility' (CSR), problematising the role and responsibilities of civil society, businesses, mobilised workers and the State within this discussion. These actors and initiatives, are subjected to a broad and challenging question: 'How can production and trade within transnational supply chains be governed effectively so as to protect core human and social rights and advance broader principles of justice within a global economy?' (p. 5). While this question risks being overly ambitious in scope and may overwhelm the reader initially, it is indeed pertinent for an examination of the promises and potential of initiatives such as CSR, which are gaining increasing leverage as market-based alternatives to broad-based structural change. In the context of proliferating social justice initiatives, spanning public and private, government and non-governmental actors, from corporate to civic led initiatives, to the domain of government regulation--the key question raised by the editors is a theoretical one--where should responsibility lie? The editors, Macdonald and Shelley (2010), develop and outline a conceptual framework for examining this question in the introductory chapter to this book. They use the metaphor of 'embedding' (drawing on the theoretical work of a range of scholars, notably Polanyi 1944) to frame the discussion and analysis of the ethical initiatives examined, with the argument that these serve as 'attempt(s) to re-embed capitalism in social justice norms' (p. 7). As such, the editors position these 'experiments in globalizing justice' at the interface between market imperatives and the social justice values that markets arguably reject (akin to Hayek's 1976 argument). Essentially, 're-embedding', for the editors, assumes that a process of 'dis-embedding' has occurred (a phenomenon traced to the rise of neoliberalism from the 1970s, p. 9). Some readers may question the stance taken by the editors and the literature they consult, as the process of dis-embedding which they refer to could, alternatively, reflect a contestation over social values rather than their expulsion. The conceptual framework of (dis)embedding raises two key tasks for the authors: to identify 'ethically defensible norms', by which standards capitalism should be regulated, and; to identify and evaluate the institutional arrangements which are necessary for a process of 're-embedding' to occur (p. 8). The admittedly 'hazy' 'yardstick' by which they seek to evaluate the capacity of the initiatives examined is through the concept of
{"title":"Fair Trade, Corporate Accountability and Beyond: Experiments in Globalizing Justice","authors":"Elisabeth M. Riedl","doi":"10.5860/choice.47-6960","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5860/choice.47-6960","url":null,"abstract":"Fair Trade, Corporate Accountability and Beyond: Experiments in Globalizing Justice. Kate Macdonald and Shelley Marshall Ashgate, Farnham, 2010 This book, as the title suggests, tackles an emerging research agenda in identifying and examining 'experiments in globalizing justice'. It embarks on an ambitious agenda, seeking to critically examine distinct but also increasingly linked ethical initiatives like 'fair trade' and 'corporate social responsibility' (CSR), problematising the role and responsibilities of civil society, businesses, mobilised workers and the State within this discussion. These actors and initiatives, are subjected to a broad and challenging question: 'How can production and trade within transnational supply chains be governed effectively so as to protect core human and social rights and advance broader principles of justice within a global economy?' (p. 5). While this question risks being overly ambitious in scope and may overwhelm the reader initially, it is indeed pertinent for an examination of the promises and potential of initiatives such as CSR, which are gaining increasing leverage as market-based alternatives to broad-based structural change. In the context of proliferating social justice initiatives, spanning public and private, government and non-governmental actors, from corporate to civic led initiatives, to the domain of government regulation--the key question raised by the editors is a theoretical one--where should responsibility lie? The editors, Macdonald and Shelley (2010), develop and outline a conceptual framework for examining this question in the introductory chapter to this book. They use the metaphor of 'embedding' (drawing on the theoretical work of a range of scholars, notably Polanyi 1944) to frame the discussion and analysis of the ethical initiatives examined, with the argument that these serve as 'attempt(s) to re-embed capitalism in social justice norms' (p. 7). As such, the editors position these 'experiments in globalizing justice' at the interface between market imperatives and the social justice values that markets arguably reject (akin to Hayek's 1976 argument). Essentially, 're-embedding', for the editors, assumes that a process of 'dis-embedding' has occurred (a phenomenon traced to the rise of neoliberalism from the 1970s, p. 9). Some readers may question the stance taken by the editors and the literature they consult, as the process of dis-embedding which they refer to could, alternatively, reflect a contestation over social values rather than their expulsion. The conceptual framework of (dis)embedding raises two key tasks for the authors: to identify 'ethically defensible norms', by which standards capitalism should be regulated, and; to identify and evaluate the institutional arrangements which are necessary for a process of 're-embedding' to occur (p. 8). The admittedly 'hazy' 'yardstick' by which they seek to evaluate the capacity of the initiatives examined is through the concept of ","PeriodicalId":43895,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Australian Political Economy","volume":"1 1","pages":"154"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2011-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"71130114","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The impact of economic crises on macroeconomic policies in the United States (US), Mexico, Ireland and Sweden at the start of the 1980s is discussed. The independence of politics and economics is highlighted and helps in the understanding of the process of policy change.
{"title":"Economic Crises and Policy Change in the Early 1980s: A Four Country Comparison","authors":"J. Hogan","doi":"10.21427/D7S201","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21427/D7S201","url":null,"abstract":"The impact of economic crises on macroeconomic policies in the United States (US), Mexico, Ireland and Sweden at the start of the 1980s is discussed. The independence of politics and economics is highlighted and helps in the understanding of the process of policy change.","PeriodicalId":43895,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Australian Political Economy","volume":"1 1","pages":"106"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2010-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67748908","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Economics for Everyone: A Short Guide to the Economics of Capitalism Jim Stanford Pluto Press, London, 2008, pp. 350, RRP $42.00 Economics for Everyone is an important new offering by Jim Stanford a progressive economist who works for the Canadian Auto Workers union. Amongst the plethora of academic texts concerning political economy, Economics for Everyone is notable for its general use of accessible language. Also commendable is the book's systemic treatment of economic issues of concern to ordinary workers, activists, and citizens. Jim Stanford's book addresses essential questions. In whose interests does the economic system work? What is the personal role and stake of workers and capitalists in the system? What are the values and assumptions underlying the system? Can we trust the expertise of professional economists who are the high priests of competition, deregulation and privatisation? Stanford observes that most economists 'fully believe that competition, inequality, economic advantage and the accumulation of private wealth are central, natural and desirable features of a vibrant, efficient economy' (p 3). Ideology, however, infuses their arguments. As he argues, 'the elitism of economics disempowers and silences the voices of non-experts'. The 'opinion makers' imply that people who question neoliberal orthodoxies such as free trade 'must either be acting from ignorance, or else are pursuing some narrow vested interest' (p 2). This is what Stanford sets out to challenge. The process of empowerment begins with becoming aware of our own interests. This awareness then needs to be complemented with an understanding of how the economy works and how (conceivably) it can be transformed. Finally, there is the matter of combining such knowledge with values, so that we might propose a real alternative--argued for on the basis of both common interest and moral right. Capitalism Deconstructed In his preliminary analysis, Stanford portrays a system based on the production and distribution of goods and services. In addition to production for the market, there is the 'domestic' economic sector, comprising household work that does not factor into most measured economic activity, but which is crucial to social reproduction, quality of life and our very survival. To this category may also be added the important area of voluntary work (pp 20-21). Later in the text other aspects are considered: innovation, economic growth driven by the profit dynamic, inequality, class struggle, and cycles of 'boom and bust' (pp 34-35). The foundations laid down by Stanford provide the basis for an analysis that gathers in pace and complexity as the book progresses. He notes that the word 'capitalism' is rarely used in popular discourse. To name the system, and thus identify it as relative to others, is considered 'radical' (p 5). Stanford, however, considers the economy with a historian's eye to 'the long term'. The capitalist system can be understood as arising from the 18
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{"title":"Keynes and His Battles","authors":"G. Dow","doi":"10.5860/choice.45-6291","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5860/choice.45-6291","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":43895,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Australian Political Economy","volume":"60 1","pages":"144-154"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2007-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"71121228","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
For most mainstream economists, of course, there is only one way to do economics. It requires the construction of a model, collection of relevant data and subsequent testing. The model itself must be consistent with the fundamental principle of methodological individualism: that is to say, it must be based on the assumption of optimising behaviour by rational agents. The tests must emjlloy the most advanced econometric techniques rather than or at least in addition to descriptive statistics. For the defenders of mainstream economics these simple rules are what make it a science, which is envied and increasingly imitated by the practitioners of less favoured disciplines in the areas of management and social studies (Lazear, 2000).
{"title":"Three arguments for pluralism in economics","authors":"J. King","doi":"10.2307/j.ctt1gxp77q.23","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt1gxp77q.23","url":null,"abstract":"For most mainstream economists, of course, there is only one way to do economics. It requires the construction of a model, collection of relevant data and subsequent testing. The model itself must be consistent with the fundamental principle of methodological individualism: that is to say, it must be based on the assumption of optimising behaviour by rational agents. The tests must emjlloy the most advanced econometric techniques rather than or at least in addition to descriptive statistics. For the defenders of mainstream economics these simple rules are what make it a science, which is envied and increasingly imitated by the practitioners of less favoured disciplines in the areas of management and social studies (Lazear, 2000).","PeriodicalId":43895,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Australian Political Economy","volume":"1 1","pages":"82"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2002-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"68717860","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Contemporary political economy can make an important contribution to the human rights debates which have come to dominate political relations over the past half century. These debates hide a wide variety of political agendas. Rights arguments often indicate ethical deficiencies, and sometimes help adjudicate social disputes but not always. Defming rights does not necessarily resolve and may even aggravate social conflicts (Ignatieff 2000: 16). Further, an abstract portrayal of formal, individual rights may obscure actual rights in a particular social situation. At the same time, human rights have become a unique moral and political consensus. Dictators and democrats alike now rely on some variant of rights arguments, as the touchstone of their political legitimacy. This, of course, only adds to the confusion of meanings.
{"title":"The political economy of human rights","authors":"Tim Anderson","doi":"10.2307/j.ctt18fsb9g.9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt18fsb9g.9","url":null,"abstract":"Contemporary political economy can make an important contribution to the human rights debates which have come to dominate political relations over the past half century. These debates hide a wide variety of political agendas. Rights arguments often indicate ethical deficiencies, and sometimes help adjudicate social disputes but not always. Defming rights does not necessarily resolve and may even aggravate social conflicts (Ignatieff 2000: 16). Further, an abstract portrayal of formal, individual rights may obscure actual rights in a particular social situation. At the same time, human rights have become a unique moral and political consensus. Dictators and democrats alike now rely on some variant of rights arguments, as the touchstone of their political legitimacy. This, of course, only adds to the confusion of meanings.","PeriodicalId":43895,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Australian Political Economy","volume":"8 1","pages":"200"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2002-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"68706809","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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