The Economics of Feasible Socialism after Globalization

Abstract

The core ideal of socialism can be summarized as the progressive emancipation of labour from alienation. This requires continuously increasing workers’ control over the labour process and broader economic and social affairs, which, in turn, entails expanding non-market provision of the materials necessary for improvement in the cultural capacity of workers. Yet feasible socialism implies that the implementation of socialist principles must be based on the existence of certain material conditions — socialism, in short, must prove to be more efficient than capitalism. Theoretically, socialism embodies distinctive efficiency attributes vis-à-vis the market system. At one level, there may be loss of allocative efficiency associated with limiting the free operation of the market. At another level, there may be gains in efficiency in the form of economies of scale through planning or economies of scope through co-operation. Feasible socialism thus depends on both the appropriate technical and social conditions, that is, the techno-economic paradigms in question. The conception and experience of central planning provide important insights in this regard.