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WHAT IS SOCIALISM TODAY? CONCEPTIONS OF A COOPERATIVE ECONOMY
Author(s) -
Roemer John E.
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
international economic review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.658
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1468-2354
pISSN - 0020-6598
DOI - 10.1111/iere.12498
Subject(s) - ethos , socialism , equity (law) , individualism , property (philosophy) , neoclassical economics , proposition , economics , economic system , politics , relation (database) , property rights , positive economics , law and economics , political science , market economy , microeconomics , law , epistemology , philosophy , computer science , communism , database
Socialism is back on the political agenda in the United States. I propose several variants of socialism, characterized by different kinds of property relation in the ownership of firms. In addition to property relations, a conception of socialism should include a specification of the cooperative ethos , in place of the individualistic ethos of capitalist society. Individualistic economic agents will optimize in the manner of John Nash, whereas cooperative ones do so in the manner of Immanuel Kant. I argue that Kantian optimization decentralizes resource allocation in ways that separate issues of equity (income distribution) from efficiency. I offer tentative thoughts concerning how we should conceive of socialism today.