Information Technology and Socialist Construction – The End of Capital and the Transition to Socialism

Information Technology and Socialist Construction
Daniel E. Saros
Routledge, 2014
Level: advanced
Reading sample
Find in library
Perspective: Marxian Political Economy
Topic: Innovation & Technology, Reflection of Economics, Social movements & Transformation
page count: 272 pages
ISBN: 9780415742924

Blurb

The failure of command central planning in the twentieth century has led to a general disillusionment within the socialist movement worldwide. Some alternatives to capitalism have been proposed since the end of the Cold War, but none has offered an alternative form of economic calculation. This book explains how modern information technology may be used to implement a new method of economic calculation that could bring an end to capitalism and make socialism possible. In this book, the author critically examines a number of socialist proposals that have been put forward since the end of the Cold War. It is shown that although these proposals have many merits, their inability effectively to incorporate the benefits of information technology into their models has limited their ability to solve the problem of socialist construction. The final section of the book proposes an entirely new model of socialist development, based on a "needs profile" that makes it possible to convert the needs of large numbers of people into data that can be used as a guide for resource allocation. This analysis makes it possible to rethink and carefully specify the conditions necessary for the abolition of capital and consequently the requirements for socialist revolution and, ultimately, communist society. Information Technology and Socialist Construction will be of interest to students and scholars of political economy, the history of economic thought, labour economics and industrial economics. Source: Publisher

Book summary

Daniel Saros writes about how modern information technology can be used to implement a new method of economic calculation for a better socialist alternative to capitalism. He provides an analysis of relevant literature on the possibility of socialism along with description of non-market-based system of economic calculation and allocation. He re-emphasises on what defines a working class and claims that technology have evolved to the point that it can be used to propose realistic model of a future socialist order.

Comment from our editors:

The book is an unusual and remarkable contribution to the debate on socialist transformation and economic planning. Particularly noteworthy is the independent model for democratic economic planning that the author develops from scratch in Chapter 7. The other parts of the book, which examine, among other things, the Socialist Calculation debate and the market-liberal critique of planned economic alternatives to capitalism, are quite interesting, but in some cases the writing style is not very structured. Although the author says that he broke away from the tradition of radical economics in 2020 and now publishes as a liberal economist, his model for democratic planning is a central point of reference for the increasingly dynamic debate on alternatives to the capitalist market economy based on digital coordination tools. A very good insight into Daniel E. Saros' model is offered in the Future Histories Podcast.

This material has been suggested and edited by:

Daniel Obst
Tags: digital socialism | economic planning | economic transformation | history of economic thought | information technology | planning | post-capitalism | social ecological transformation | social-ecological transformation | socialism | socialist calculation debate | technology | transformation
This book is about history of monetary economic thought. From the 18th century with Hume and Smith to the early 20th, the author explains the different schools of thought regarding the monetary theories and policies and specially the central banking theory.
2012
Level: advanced
Monetary Theory and Policy from Hume and Smith to Wicksell
Arie Arnon
Cambridge University Press
In the first intellectual history of neoliberal globalism, Quinn Slobodian follows neoliberal thinkers from the Habsburg Empire’s fall to the creation of the World Trade Organization to show that neoliberalism emerged less to shrink government and abolish regulations than to deploy them globally to protect capitalism.
2020
Level: beginner
Globalists
Quinn Slobodian
Harvard University Press
The bestselling classic that examines the history of economic thought from Adam Smith to Karl Marx—“all the economic lore most general readers conceivably could want to know, served up with a flourish” (The New York Times). The Worldly Philosophers not only enables us to see more deeply into our history but helps us better understand our own times. In this seventh edition, Robert L. Heilbroner provides a new theme that connects thinkers as diverse as Adam Smith and Karl Marx.
1999
Level: beginner
The Worldly Philosophers
Robert L. Heilbroner
Touchstone
Until the end of the early 1970s, from a history of economic thought perspective, the mainstream in economics was pluralist, but once neoclassical economics became totally dominant it claimed the mainstream as its own. Since then, alternative views and schools of economics increasingly became minorities in the discipline and were considered 'heterodox'.
2016
Level: advanced
Reclaiming Pluralism in Economics
Jerry Courvisanos, Jamie Doughney, Alex Millmow
Routledge
Die Logik des Kapitalismus heißt teilen. Nur teilen darin nicht die Menschen, sondern sie werden geteilt. Es ist daher problematisch, Commons in kapitalistischen Kategorien zu erklären. Wer die Welt der Commons betritt, begegnet einer anderen Logik, einer anderen Sprache und anderen Kategorien.
2015
Level: advanced
Die Welt der Commons
Silke Helfrich, David Bollier, Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung
transcript Verlag
Surviving the Future is a story drawn from the fertile ground of the late David Fleming's extraordinary 'Lean Logic: A Dictionary for the Future and How to Survive It'. That hardback consists of four hundred and four interlinked dictionary entries, inviting readers to choose their own path through its radical vision. Recognizing that Lean Logic's sheer size and unusual structure can be daunting, Fleming's long-time collaborator Shaun Chamberlin has selected and edited one of these potential narratives to create Surviving the Future. The content, rare insights, and uniquely enjoyable writing style remain Fleming's, but are presented here at a more accessible paperback-length and in conventional read-it-front-to-back format
2016
Level: beginner
Surviving the Future
David Fleming
Chelsea Green Publishing

Donate

This project is brought to you by the Network for Pluralist Economics (Netzwerk Plurale Ökonomik e.V.).  It is committed to diversity and independence and is dependent on donations from people like you. Regular or one-off donations would be greatly appreciated.

 

Donate