Jacques Bidet on the Subsidiarity of Associationism
Discussion
Source unknown, from the reading notes of Michel Bauwens, 2007:
Marx' Capital starts with an analysis of the market, and then only of capital, but he concludes that they are the same system. Socialism cannot be constructed on the basis of the market, but we now know it cannot be constructed on the basis of the planning system.
Capitalism is based on the contractual relations between free agents, but this turns into its opposite because work is treated as a commodity. But statism and associationism are similarly based on contractuality by supposedly free agents. All three are founded on the promise of equality and rationality.
To arrive at a just society, Bidet proposes a version of the subsidiarity principle: everything that can be done by association is primary, and anything that can be democratically planified takes precedence over the market.
More information
- Wikipedia profile at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Bidet
- personal bibliographic site via http://jacques.bidet.pagesperso-orange.fr/