Economic Expertise in Postcapitalist Democratic Economic Planning

Bibliographic Data

ID2371307
AuthorsEllen D Russell (0000-0003-3185-6525, Wilfrid Laurier University), Simon Tremblay-Pepin (0000-0003-2317-0216, Saint Paul University, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume52
Issue2
Pages291-304
Publication date2025-04-12
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCritical Sociology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0896-9205 • E-ISSN: 1569-1632
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/08969205251329582
OpenAlexW4409380510
LanguageEN
References cited19

Postcapitalist democratic economic planning (DEP) seeks to democratize economic decision-making. In response to the failures of central planning, DEP is vigilant lest the emergence of some new elite subvert its democratic and egalitarian aspirations. This article considers the possibility that economic expertise intended to support DEP may be means through which new elites are covertly encouraged. DEP advocates seek to safeguard DEP processes from elite control by proposing institutional oversight structures combined with enhanced subjective oversight capacities. In the case of economic expertise, we contend that these responses mitigate the possibility that economists' analyses will have preferential implications but do not resolve this antidemocratic possibility. Economic expertise poses a problem of democratic accountability because its technical opacity impedes democratic oversight, thus enabling the covert design of economic analysis in ways that favour some groups over others. We conclude by arguing that reconsidering economic expertise in postcapitalism can attenuate this tension

Democracy · Economic democracy · Economic planning · Economic system · Economics · Market economy · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Cultural Industries and Urban Development · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism · Political Economy and Marxism

Tools

Open DOI