How to Be an Anticapitalist in the Twenty-First Century

Description

What is wrong with capitalism, and how can we change it? Capitalism has transformed the world and increased our productivity, but at the cost of enormous human suffering. Our shared values - equality and fairness, democracy and freedom, community and solidarity - can both provide the basis for a critique of capitalism, and help to guide us towards a socialist and democratic society. In this elegant book, Erik Olin Wright has distilled decades of work into a concise and tightly argued manifesto - analyzing the varieties of anti-capitalism, assessing different strategic approaches, and laying the foundations for a society dedicated to human flourishing. How to Be an Anticapitalist in the 21st Century is an urgent and powerful argument for socialism, and a unparalleled guide to help us get there. Another world is possible. Cover Page Halftitle Page Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Contents Preface 1. Why Be Anticapitalist? What is capitalism? Grounds for opposing capitalism Normative foundations Equality/fairness Democracy/freedom Community/solidarity 2. Diagnosis and Critique of Capitalism Equality/fairness Class and exploitation Competition and risk Disruptive economic growth Democracy/freedom Community/solidarity Skepticism 3. Varieties of Anticapitalism Strategic logics Smashing capitalism Dismantling capitalism Taming capitalism Resisting capitalism Escaping capitalism Strategic configurations Eroding capitalism 4. The Destination beyond Capitalism: Socialism as Economic Democracy A power-centered concept of socialism Building blocks of a democratic socialist economy Unconditional basic income The cooperative market economy The social and solidarity economy Democratizing capitalist firms Banking as a public utility Nonmarket economic organization State provision of goods and services Peer-to-peer collaborative production The knowledge commons Back to the problem of strategy 5. Anticapitalism and the State The problem of the capitalist state Internal contradictions of the state Contradictory, contested functionality Prospects Democratizing the state Democratically empowered decentralization New forms of citizen participation New institutions for democratic representation Democratizing electoral rules of the game 6. Agents of Transformation Collective actors for eroding capitalism The problem of collective agency The concept of “agency” Identities Interests Values From identities, interests and values to collective actors Overcoming privatized lives Fragmented class structures Competing sources of identity Real politics Afterword by Michael Burawoy