Markets, Planning, and Socialism

It now seems accepted almost throughout the Left that socialist principles and the means to achieve them are in urgent need of fundamental rethinking; I hope that this contribution will be part of a much larger continuing debate. The breadth of debate needed is so vast (especially in view of recent political set-backs) that it is difficult to decide the most productive level at which to begin. Is the priority an abstract account of the possible economic organisation of some imagined future socialist society, or a detailed blueprint of the particular institutions to be introduced by a socialist government in Britain? In fact, there has already been much discussion of socialism at a very high level of abstraction, as well as detailed concrete proposals - for example, of the arrangements which would have been adopted by the British Labour Party had it been successful in the 1987 general election.1 What would seem more valuable, especially in view of the inability to secure for those plans adequate popular support, is to attack the middle ground between theory and detailed institutional implementation. Thus, the discussion in this article will concern that level where a broader socialist vision and its realisation in particular institutional forms intersect: what should be the principles of institutional design inspiring their practical construction? It is clear that it will be some time, at least in Britain, before concrete steps can be taken for the building of any kind of socialist economic arrangements; this at least provides an opportunity for an in-depth assessment of possible approaches to this task. A couple of matters must be quickly disposed of. The first is the meaning of socialism as used here. The argument to be made will explicitly reject any simple identification of socialism with nationalisation; nor will I accept as adequate vague incantations of social control of economic life or the replacement of markets with production for need. All these are elements in socialist thought, but have usually been employed as slogans which act as

Economic system · Economics · Market economy · Political science · Politics · Socialism · Economic Theory and Institutions · Economic Theory and Policy · Law · Political Economy and Marxism

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