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How do we get to our horizon three visions? Gar Alperovitz suggests that “Reform” concepts suggest changes or improvements to the existing [capitalist] system. Revolutionary concepts are often precipitated by crisis or collapse and usually but not always accompanied by violence. In my view, neither of these paths is appealing. Alperovitz suggests an alternative path: a longer term process that is best described as an evolutionary reconstruction — that is, systemic institutional transformation of the political economy that unfolds over time. He suggests that evolutionary reconstruction involves step-by-step nonviolent change. But like revolution, evolutionary reconstruction changes the basic institutions of ownership of the economy, so that the broad public, rather than a narrow band of individuals (i.e., the “one percent”), increasingly owns more and more of the nation’s productive assets.
He cites two big drivers — inequality and environmental overload, — that appear in most calls for a new system or vision collapse, as creating momentum for evolutionary reconstruction. He gives many examples or manifestations of it, such as the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE) and the American Sustainable Business Council (ASBC). He is no Pollyanna, acknowledging an alternative possibility of a painful and sustained era of stalemate and decay.
I like the evolutionary reconstruction concept. In Alperovitz’s case, his end point or vision is what he calls a Pluralist Commonwealth, to underscore its plural forms of democratized ownership. It is anchored through wealth-democratizing strategies as a matter of principle. Four critical axioms underlie the concept:
- democratization of wealth
- community, both locally and in general, as a guiding theme;
- decentralization in general;
- substantial but not complete forms of democratic planning in support of community, and to achieve longer term economic, democracy-building and ecological goals.
I’ve been on a bit of a tech-led abundance kick, so it was nice to shift gears. I originally sorted Pluralist Commonwealth into Non-worker’s Paradise, but it could also fit with Sustainable Commons. Ultimately, if we can come up with an integrated version that has aspects of all three types of visions….well, that could be a quite compelling image, dare we say a Polakian image? – Andy Hines
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