Socialist Optimism: An Alternative Political Economy for the Twenty-First Century

ISBN-13: 9781137563958 / Angielski / Miękka / 2016 / 522 str.

Paul Auerbach

Opis

Paul Auerbach's Socialist Optimism offers an alternative political economy for the twenty-first century. Present-day capitalism has generated growing inequality of income and wealth, persistent high levels of unemployment and ever-diminishing prospects for young people. But in the absence of a positive vision of how society and the economy might develop in the future, the present trajectory of capitalism will never be derailed, no matter how acute the critique of present-day developments. The detailed blueprint presented here focuses upon the education and upbringing of children in the context of social equality and household security. It yields a well-defined path to human development and liberation, as well as democratic control of working life and public affairs. Socialism as human development gives a unity and direction to progressive policies that are otherwise seen to be a form of pragmatic tinkering in the context of a pervasive capitalist reality.

Recenzje

"Auerbach (Kingston Univ., UK) begins with a blunt description of present-day capitalism as a system of instability and dysfunction, producing inequality, unemployment, and diminishing prospects. Socialist Optimism offers an alternative vision for the future, one that rejects free-market neoliberalism, Keynesian managed capitalism, and traditional concepts of socialism as central planning. ... It offers a pathway into the future that is both possible and profoundly transformative. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty." (R. Hudelson, Choice, Vol. 54 (3), November, 2016)

O autorze

Paul Auerbach received his PhD from the University of Wisconsin, USA, and has been Reader in Economics at Kingston University, UK, since 1990. He has published work in academic journals such as the Journal of Economic Surveys and the Journal of Economic Issues as well as the New Left Review, and is the author of Competition: The Economics of Industrial Change (1988). His research interests include the measurement of economic growth, the economics of competition, and the relationship between education and economic development.