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Design of a Worker Cooperatives Society. An Alternative Beyond Capitalism and Socialism, and the Transition Towards It

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Published Oct 2023

Geert Reuten

Author: Geert Reuten
What would an alternative to contemporary capitalism look like? In this book, Geert Reuten sets out a detailed design of a democratic society organised in worker cooperatives, followed by an equally detailed democratic transition to it, thereby making a convincing case. In Reuten’s design, Workers constitute the single economic class. However, unlike in capitalism, there is no class that owns the means of production. The legal structure of worker cooperatives is such that workers have full rights to the fruits of the cooperative without owning it, and yet the state does not own the cooperatives either. Interestingly, worker councils in the economic and state domains vote on all economically relevant matters. In Reuten’s work, the free choice of occupation and of specific consumer goods is even larger than in capitalism.

Biographical Note

Geert Reuten, PhD (1988) taught economics at the University of Amsterdam’s School of Economics, where he is currently a guest research associate. He has authored four academic books, edited six volumes, and published 80 academic articles (http://reuten.eu). For nine years he was a member of the Senate of the Netherlands for the Socialist Party.

Readership

People interested in a feasible democratic alternative to capitalism, including scholars and advanced students in economics and other social sciences, as well as members of political parties and grassroots organisations.

Table of Contents

Preface and acknowledgements

General introduction

Part One Design of the organisation of a worker cooperatives society

1 Preview of the main elements of the design’s worker cooperatives society

2 Design of the economy of a worker cooperatives society: economic democracy and the organisation of cooperatives

3 Design of the state in a worker cooperatives society: democratic governance of the state and the organisation of state institutions

4 Municipal and provincial administrations

5 International economic relations

Part Two From modifying capitalism to transition

Introduction to Part Two

6 The modification of capitalist practices by ‘worker-owned cooperatives’ and similar democratic enterprises

7 Circumstances just before the transition: financial and real estate markets and the scope of capital flight

8 Transition to a worker cooperatives society

General summary

References
Index of names
Index of subjects
Abbreviations
Extended list of contents