Session 13

Session 13. Alternatives to Our Form of Capitalism: (1) Mill on the Stationary State: Why a No-Growth Economy Need Not Mean Devastation. (2) Workplace Democracy. (3) Worker-Control Capitalism.

Read first: J. S. Mill, "Of the Stationary State," Principles of Political Economy, pp. 124-30.

Then read: Robert A. Dahl, "The Right to Democracy within Firms," A Preface to Economic Democracy (University of California Press, 1985), pp. 111-136. [ClassesV2]

Then: D. W. Haslett, "Worker-Control Capitalism," Capitalism with Morality (Oxford University Press, 1994), pp. 150-191.

[ClassesV2]

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John Maynard Keynes, "Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren," [1930] in Revisiting Keynes: Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren. ed. L. Pecchi and G. Piga (MIT Press, 2008): 17-24

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W. Arthur Lewis, "Is Economic Growth Desirable?" The Theory of Economic Growth (London: Allen and Unwin, ): 420-435

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An illuminating survey of the benefits of growth, and the criticisms that point out its costs. Written by one of the great

development economists.

Herman E. Daly, "Moving to a Steady-State Economy," Beyond Growth: The Economics of Sustainable Development (Boston: Beacon Press, 1996): 31-44. [ClassesV2]

Jon Elster, "From Here to There; or, If Cooperative Ownership Is So Desirable, Why Are There So Few Cooperatives?" Socialism, ed. Ellen Frankel Paul, Fred D. Miller, Jr., Jeffrey Paul, and Dan Greenberg (Blackwell, 1989): 93-111.

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Considers leading explanations for why there are so few consumer-owned cooperatives, and challenges

those saying that they are unacceptably inefficient.

FINAL PAPER DUE LAST DAY OF READING PERIOD AT NOON.