2016 selection and editorial material, Giuseppe Freni, Heinz D. Kurz, Andrea Mario Lavezzi and Rodolfo Signorino; individual chapters, the contributors
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1. EconomicsHistory. 2. Economics. I. Salvadori, Neri, honoree.
II. Freni, Giuseppe, editor.
HB75.E325 2016
330.01dc232015031445
Martn Puchet Anyul , Universidad Nacional Autnoma de Mxico, anyul@servidor.unam.mx
Enrico Bellino , Universit Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Piacenza, enrico.bellino@unicatt.it
Christian Bidard , University of Paris Ouest-Nanterre La Dfense, christian.bidard@u-paris10.fr
Edwin Burmeister , Duke University and University of Virginia, eb@econ.duke.edu
Pasquale Commendatore , University of Naples Federico II, pasquale.commendatore@unina.it
Antonio DAgata , University of Catania, adagata@unict.it
Simone DAlessandro , University of Pisa, s.dale@ec.unipi.it
Amitava Krishna Dutt , University of Notre Dame and FLACSO-Ecuador, Amitava.K.Dutt.1@nd.edu
Silvia Faggian , University Ca Foscari of Venice, faggian@unive.it
Luciano Fanti , University of Pisa, luciano.fanti@unipi.it
Riccardo Faucci , University of Pisa, faucci@dse.unipi.it
Duncan K. Foley , New School for Social Research, foleyd@newschool.edu
Giuseppe Freni , University of Naples Parthenope, giuseppe.freni@uniparthenope.it
Christian Gehrke , University of Graz, Christian.Gehrke@uni-graz.at
Eiji B. Hosoda , Keio University, hosoda@econ.keio.ac.jp
Bruno Jossa , University of Naples Federico II, bruiossa@unina.it
Ingrid Kubin , Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration, ingrid.kubin@wu.ac.at
Heinz D. Kurz , University of Graz, heinz.kurz@uni-graz.at
Andrea Mario Lavezzi , University of Palermo, mario.lavezzi@unipa.it
Edward Nell , New School for Social Research, ejnell2@gmail.com
Arrigo Opocher , Universit di Padova, arrigo.opocher@unipd.it
Carlo Panico , University of Naples Federico II, carlo.panico@unina.it
Man-Seop Park , Korea University, manseop@korea.ac.kr
Sergio Parrinello , University of Rome, La Sapienza, sergio.parrinello@uniroma1.it
Carmelo Petraglia , University of Basilicata, carmelo.petraglia@unibas.it
Antonio Pinto , University of Naples Federico II, antpinto@unina.it
Alberto Quadrio Curzio , Universit Cattolica di Milano and Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, alberto.quadriocurzio@unicatt.it
Alessandro Roncaglia , University of Rome, La Sapienza, alessandro.roncaglia@uniroma1.it
Paul A. Samuelson , formerly of Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Stefan F. Schubert , University of Bozen-Bolzano, stefanfranz.schubert@unibz.it
Rodolfo Signorino , University of Palermo, rodolfo.signorino@unipa.it
Ian Steedman , Manchester Metropolitan University, I.Steedman@mmu.ac.uk
Marta Vazquez Suarez , Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, marta.vazquez@usc.es
Stephen J. Turnovsky , University of Washington, Seattle, sturn@u.washington.edu
Takashi Yagi , Meiji University, yagi8@meiji.ac.jp
Part 5
Imperfect competition
26
Self-management and socialism
Bruno Jossa
Introduction
Hobsbawm has written that historians, while drawing a clear-cut distinction between Marxists and non-Marxists and concerning themselves preferably with the former, have actually widened this group through the inclusion of a large selection of authors. In point of fact, he argued, this distinction is necessary if we are to write a reliable history of Marxism (see Hobsbawm, 1979, 61). In our opinion, instead, the most shared opinion is that the line separating what is Marxist from what is not has been progressively blurred. Maxime Rodinson (1969, 9), for instance, has remarked that, despite the efforts of Marx and Marxists to prove previous philosophical systems wrong, it is far from easy to pinpoint what exactly distinguishes the Marxist approach, and some commentators trace this fact to the involvement of an increasing number of intellectuals in academic research on Marxism. Indeed, an attentive Marx commentator such as Rubel has gone so far as to deny the legitimacy of terms such as Marxian or Marxist (see Rubel, 1974, 2021).
With specific regard to their approach to the next social order, Marxists fall into two broad divisions: those who describe socialism as a command economy founded on planning and those who assume that the correct Marxian view of a socialist economy is one which equates socialism with self-management.
In this paper, we will be arguing that the establishment of a system of cooperative firms reversing the current capitallabour relation is tantamount to a revolution, in that it results in the introduction of a new production mode. Subsequently, we will raise the question: is the idea of a revolution enacted by peaceful and democratic means and in successive steps until worker-managed firms outnumber capitalistic companies fully compatible with the letter of Marx and Engelss writings? From our perspective, the prerequisite for such a revolution is a certain amount of support from the public hand, in terms that the State would have to look upon democratic firms as merit goods and make provision for tax and/or other benefits in their favour.
An additional query we deem worth exploring is whether a form of socialism established through State intervention would be compatible with Marxs and Engelss theorisations. Although the best proxy for the system imagined by Marx is doubtless an economy in which labour managed firms operate within a centrally planned system, we wish to argue that a system with self-managed firms would be consistent with Marxs theoretical edifice even though it should fail to adopt central planning.
A system of producer cooperatives as a new production mode
A great many market socialism models have been theorised over the past years; among them, the system with firms run by workers themselves the one with which we are concerned in this paper is both the simplest to prefigure and the most widely discussed. The question is: is such a system a new production mode? In the prevailing opinion the only way to evade the control of capital is to do away with it (see, for instance, Mszros, 1995, 981).