Community and the Economy: The Theory of Public Co-Operation

ISBN-13: 9780415116077 / Angielski / Miękka / 1994 / 238 str.

Jonathan Boswell; J. Boswell;Boswell Jonatha

Opis

Throughout recent years conventional political distinctions and ideologies have been on the retreat. The failure of monolithic state Marxism in Central and Eastern Europe has at last been recognised, whilst ideologues on the right have announced the death of the idea of society. To many this claim is premature: there remains a conviction that a political and social system might emerge which satisfies the needs of both the individual and the community as a whole. Community and the Economy offers a broad criticism of individualistic notions of liberty, equality and prosperity. Taking a fresh look at community, it highlights three badly neglected but fundamental values: fraternity, xomplementary association, and democratic participation. The author finds that pointers to these values have existed, surprisingly, even in complex modern economies. Thus, it is possible for economic interests to collaborate freely with each other and government, in the cause of public interests.

Recenzje

`... the most convincing argument for the mixed economy that I have read in my lifetime ...' - Bernard Crick

`... path-breaking analysis of the links between the values of community and the imperatives of an advanced economy... exemplifies a tentative but unmistakable new paradigm... a subtle argument.' - London Review of Books

`...the book makes an interesting contribution to the emerging alternatives to the prevailing, New Right, ideology of the 1980's' - Robert Pyper, Talking Politics

`...must be read by the politicians partly for its exposition of a theory of a sensible mixed economy... even more valuable if read by accountants, bankers, economists and other specialists who, like the citizen, have one day to realise that the Whole is far, far more than the sum of the parts.' - Political Quarterly

`The most philosophical of the books reviewed, and the one which might in the long run have the greatest impact on our political thinking... [Boswell] takes the argument for what he calls `public cooperation' one stage further than all the others, in that he treats the quality of human relations in the economic field as not just a means to an end (eg high production or stopping wage inflation) but an end in itself.' - Long Range Planning

Spis treści

Chapter 1 The recovery of community; Chapter 2 The roots of democratic communitarianism; Chapter 3 Fraternity, associativeness and Part icipation; Chapter 4 Public co-operation in the economy; Chapter 5 Structures, emergencies and beliefs; Chapter 6 Threshold continuity and conformable size; Chapter 7 Organizational transparency and social monitoring; Chapter 8 Social proximity and forums; Chapter 9 Ideological barriers and supports; Chapter 10 Western Europe, the USA and the UK; Chapter 11 Implications and prospects;

O autorze

Jonathan Boswell, Bernard Crick