Elements of a post capitalist society are and have been developing in actually existing capitalism. This post points out a couple of examples.
The Green Bay Packers is a community-owned (non-profit) football team in the National Football League (NFL). One can find some arguing that they are socialist. And some are concerned to refute this claim.
Decades ago, some universities in the United States set up research and development organizations that then became independent, not-for-profit companies. For example, here is the web site for SRC, formerly Syracuse Research Corporation. This means, apparently, that they re-invest what they make. IRS Publication 557 explains how to apply for status as a 501(c) organization.
A quick Google search gets me to the National Center for Employee Ownership. They explain how a Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) works.
The cooperative movement is of interest in this context. I gather the Mondragon Corporation, in Spain, is the most well-known example. But I want to turn to producer cooperatives in dairy. The Lowville Producers Dairy Cooperative is one near me. Apparently, the National Milk Producers Federation is a federation of such cooperatives. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) provides background. I see that they confirm what I know anecdotally, that not all dairy farmers are members of a coop.
I guess some theory is needed to make sense of any claim that, say, producer coops are an example of socialism or to obtain a general understanding of such organizations. I have only read Hodgson (1998) and Jossa (2005) in the list of references below. From Hodgson, as I recall, I learned that an issue with cooperatives is start-up finance. It may be that producer cooperatives are more efficient than capitalist firms and still be smaller than one would hope. Jossa (2005) argues that cooperatives are consistent with Marx's vision. He draws on Vanek's distinction between worker-managed firms (WMFs) and labor-managed firms (LMFs). In WMFs, workers provide the finance, while in a LMF, the firm borrows. Anyways, here is some literature to explore.
References- Geoffrey M. Hodgson (1998). Economics and Utopia: Why the Learning Economy is not the End of History. Routledge.
- Bruno Jossa (2019). The Political Economy of Cooperatives and Socialism, Routledge.
- Bruno Jossa (2005). Marx, Marxism and the cooperative movement. Cambridge Journal of Economics 29: 3-18.
- Jaroslav Vanek (1970). The General Theory of Labor-Managed Market Economies. NCOL.
- Jaroslav Vanek (1971). The Participatory Economy: An Evolutionary Hypothesis and a Strategy for Development. Cornell University Press.
- Jaroslav Vanek (1977). The Labor-Managed Economy: Essays. Cornell University Press.
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2 comments:
Jossa (2005) argues that cooperatives are consistent with Marx's vision.
Well, Marx did make some positive -- but passing -- comments on co-operatives on a few occassions but almost always noted that to reach their full potential they would need a common plan. So attempts to suggest he aimed at a market socialist system based on worker-run co-operatives cannot be sustained (at best, he may have seen that as a transitional scheme towards planning). I discuss it here:
http://anarchism.pageabode.com/anarcho/review-democracy-work-cure-capitalism
Not that Marx expressed any real support for workers' self-management -- nationalisation, yes, many times, workers' control? Not so much, if at all. So Lenin, for example, was faithful to Marxism in his destruction of the worker control experiments in Russia and the placing of the factory committees under the State planning bodies.
The neo-classical model of worker-run firms is a bit lacking, as it is based not on empirical evidence of real co-operatives but rather on an abstract model developed in 1958. It predicts that a co-operative system ends in "producing less output and using less labour than its capitalist counterpart." [Benjamin Ward, "The Firm in Illyria: Market Syndicalism", pp. 566-589, The American Economic Review, Vol. 48, No. 4, p. 580] To quote one Yugoslav economist, this is "a theory whose predictions have absolutely nothing to do with the observed facts." [Branko Horvat, "The Theory of the Worker-Managed Firm Revisited", pp. 9-25, Journal of Comparative Economics, vol. 10, no. 1, p. 9]
In terms of socialism based on worker co-operatives, Proudhon's writings would be recommended as his vision is one which abolishes wage-labour by socialising the means of production but retaining market exchange between co-operatives, artisans and farmers. Marx distorted it (by saying Proudhon advocated "labour-notes" when he did not) but it is a socialist model, as it abolished wage-labour and property. As Marx suggested: “Let us suppose the workers are themselves in possession of their respective means of production and exchange their commodities with one another. These commodities would not be products of capital.” (Capital, vol. 3, p. 276)
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