Pluralist Commonwealth

A vision of Solidarity Economics described in the book:

• Gar Alperovitz. America beyond Capitalism. John Wiley, 2005.

= Employee-owned firms, co-ops, neighborhood-owned corporations, and a wide range of municipal and social enterprises, along with municipal and state investing agencies, are among the key locally-based institutions of the "Pluralist Commonwealth" articulated in ABC. [1]

Context

From the review by Len Krimerman"

"According to its publisher’s publicity release, America Beyond Capitalism “offers hope for the future.” The evidence offered for this hopeful scenario is two-fold: first, that a vast array of diverse micro-level economic alternatives, consistently ignored by the mass media, is developing throughout every region of this beleaguered land; and second, that these neighborhood-, community- and state-based alternatives are heading us towards a “radical restructuring," a new homegrown all-american macro-system―beyond capitalism, beyond socialism, neither liberal, conservative, red, or blue―which Alperowitz calls a Pluralist Commonwealth (PC).

The priorities of this emerging PC vision are straightforwardly progressive; they include:

• Developing institutions that hold wealth and make investments on behalf of the public, e.g., on the model of state-wide pension funds;

• Maximizing opportunities, especially for those now excluded, to gain control over their own wealth, and that of the enterprises in which they work, e.g., through worker owned cooperatives, democratic ESOPs, and community-based economic enterprises;

• Decentralizing “continental-scale” government by transferring political power to regions, states, and municipalities;

• Increasing opportunities for democratic participation through increasing economic security and subsidizing free time for all; e.g., by cutting back the work week, while keeping income constant.

The author is at his best when he either describes the emerging panoply of micro-level economic alternatives, from worker-owned firms to state-run pension funds to municipally-owned utilities to community development corporations (Chapters 8-10), or provides a clarifying philosophical account of the basic ideals of his macro-system (Chapter 6 and Conclusion). But he leaves this reader, at least, with a strong sense of disconnect between these two levels of analysis and practice." (http://www.geonewsletter.org/archives/Krimerman_Alperovitz_review.html)

Examples

1. Worker-Owned Firms
2. Municipal Enterprises

Other examples via http://ruby.zcommunications.org/america-beyond-capitalism-the-pluralist-commonwealth-by-gar-alperovitz

More Information

Quite critical review at http://www.geonewsletter.org/archives/Krimerman_Alperovitz_review.html