ABOUT THE BOOK:

Parecon: Life After Capitalism answers the question so often put to activists: “What do you want?” It puts the lie to Margaret Thatcher’s odious slogan TINA, “There is no alternative.” Participatory economics (“parecon” for short) is an alternative set of institutions for accomplishing economic production, consumption, and allocation in accord with people’s needs and abilities and in ways that promote equity, solidarity, diversity, and democratic decision-making input.

Parecon is built on certain key institutions: worker and consumer council self-management; remuneration for effort rather than output, property, or bargaining power; balanced job complexes instead of corporate divisions of labor; and participatory planning, seeking human fulfillment and development instead of markets seeking private profit.

Parecon briefly critiques existing economic options and models, including those that have gone under the label “socialist,” and then presents the new alternative: first its values, then its institutions, and then graphic descriptions of how it would operate and feel. Finally, the book addresses concerns that skeptics and critics might raise.

Participatory economics was born as an economic vision almost exactly a decade ago. Its advocates have grown slowly but steadily in number, around the world, and all indications are that it is about to enter, stage left, in the international debate about the kind of economic relations we wish to create in place of the “American model” of unrestrained corporate power and neoliberalism.


PRAISE:

"The structure of capitalism is flawed. The motor that powers it cannot but vastly increase the disparity between the poor and the rich globally and within countries as well. Parecon is a brave argument for replacing that flawed machine and offers a much needed -- more equitable, democratic, participatory -- alternative economic vision."

– Arundahti Roy

“I can't count the number of times when serious critics of our social system would say to me: ‘Why can't we come up with a vision of what a good society would be like?’ This is what Mike Albert boldly does in Parecon: Life After Capitalism, and the result is an imaginative, carefully reasoned description, persistently provocative, of how we might live free from economic injustice.”

– Howard Zinn

“There is enormous dissatisfaction, worldwide, with prevailing socioeconomic conditions and the choices imposed by the reigning institutions. Calls for change range from patchwork reform to more far-reaching changes. Michael Albert's work on participatory economics outlines in substantial detail a program of radical reconstruction, presenting a vision that draws from a rich tradition of thought and practice of the libertarian left and popular movements, but adding novel critical analysis and specific ideas and modes of implementation for constructive alternatives. It merits close attention, debate, and action.”

– Noam Chomsky

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:


Michael Albert, a long-time activist, speaker, and writer, is editor of ZNet and co-editor and co-founder of Z Magazine. He also co-founded South End Press and has written numerous books and articles.


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