Mutualism And Building The New Economic Democracy

The events of recent years have prompted a wide-ranging debate about the future of our economic system

. Following the collapse of the Soviet bloc in the late 1980s, some observers were quick to proclaim the enduring triumph of liberal democracy as the end of history. Two decades on, however, and with much of Europe gripped by economic crisis and weak growth in developed economies across the world, it seems as if this particular proclamation was distinctly premature. Mainstream economists, for their part, also seem to be afflicted by a peculiar form of paralysis and can only advocate more of the same even though pulling the old levers appears to be having relatively little effect.

Politicians have been quick to try to claim moral capitalism as their own, even though none of them have been able so far to elaborate on what this bold new paradigm might actually mean in practice. There certainly seems to be broad-based support across the political spectrum for a more moderate form of capitalism, with considerable distaste for the kind of wheeling and dealing that characterised the period starting in the early 1980s. However, change is imperative and with the crisis deepening in the eurozone and threatening Britains own economy, the pace of events appears to be running ahead of the political response.

There appears to be little appetite among political leaders for a return to a revamped kind of state capitalism despite the increasing governmental intervention to prop up struggling sectors of the economy but some observers have delved into their history books to see what the lessons of the past can teach us today. The co-operative movements roots stretch back well over 200 years, but the continuing success of mutually-owned firms has attracted more and more attention in recent years. The long-term stability offered by mutualism is also seen by many as an antidote to the short-termist attitudes so prevalent elsewhere in business.

By putting real control and responsibility in the hands of ordinary working people, mutualism could well go on to form a key blueprint for the construction of a new economic democracy, in which a broader variety of stakeholders play an active role. The shareholder value model pioneered by Anglo-American capitalism has lost legitimacy in the eyes of many, and there are calls for businesses to take into account the needs of their workers, the communities they serve and in some cases the national interest rather than simply using share price as the sole gauge of success.

by: Alan Trotter

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