Gar Alperovitz | Historian, political economist, activist, writer

Read my latest book Principles of a Pluralist Commonwealth

Available freely online via The Next System Project

Neither Revolution nor Reform: A New Shape for Progressive Politics

By admin | Published: October 4, 2011

This article originally appeared in the Fall 2011 Issue of Dissent.

For over a century, liberals and radicals have seen the possibility of change in capitalist systems from one of two perspectives: the reform tradition assumes that corporate institutions remain central to the system but believes that regulatory policies can contain, modify, and control corporations and their political allies. The revolutionary tradition assumes that change can come about only if corporate institutions are eliminated or transcended during an acute crisis, usually but not always by violence. But what happens if a system neither reforms nor collapses in crisis?

Quietly, a different kind of progressive change is emerging, one that involves a transformation in institutional structures and power, a process one could call “evolutionary reconstruction.” At the height of the financial crisis in early 2009, some kind of nationalization of the banks seemed possible. “The public hates bankers right now,” the Brookings Institution’s Douglas Elliot observed. “Truthfully, you would find considerable support for hanging a number of bankers…” It was a moment, Barack Obama told banking CEOs, when his administration was “the only thing between you and the pitchforks.” But the president opted for a soft bailout engineered by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and White House economic adviser Lawrence Summers. Whereas Franklin Roosevelt attacked the “economic royalists” and built and mobilized his political base, Obama entered office with an already organized base and largely ignored it.

When the next financial crisis occurs, and it will, a different political opportunity may be possible. Read More »

Two new articles and an extended interview

By admin | Published: October 3, 2011

First and foremost, I want to thank the Capital Institute for the excellent, in-depth interview and profile they’ve just posted. It’s always a pleasure to talk to people who fully understand the necessity of systemic change in the economic system, and I’m grateful not just for this piece, but also for the excellent and comprehensive “Field Study” they did of the Evergreen Cooperatives.

Second, Alternet just posted my review of journalist Maria Armoudian’s Kill the Messenger: The Media’s Role in the Fate of the World, an excellent and much-needed look at the power of the media to knit communities together or tear them apart. Armoudian’s book explains “two things: first, how deeply the media can affect our lives—for good or bad—and second, now more than ever, it is vital to create, empower and support responsible media that educate, explain, and elevate, and to discard those approaches that merely blame, deprecate and divide.” Read the full review on Alternet.

And finally, for those who have access to a university library, be sure to check out my article “The Emerging Paradoxical Possibility of a Democratic Economy” in the Review of Social Economy (Volume 69, Issue 3, 2011).

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Movements, History, & Economic Transformation, Part 5: The end of liberalism? Deadlock and decentralization

By admin | Published: September 13, 2011

In this segment, I trace the path that led to our current political impasse, in which the scale of the economic and ecological crises we are facing continue to grow at the same time that we are increasingly unable at the federal level to democratically arrive at solutions to address them. One way out of this deadlock, which is in part occasioned by the impossibility of meaningful participatory democracy on a continental scale, might be a process of decentralization, devolving decision making down the regional level.

Watch previous segments:

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Speaking at ICAPE in November

By admin | Published: September 8, 2011

This November, I will be taking part in two panels at the ICAPE (International Confederation of Associations for Pluralism in Economics) conference. ICAPE is a fascinating meta-organization which brings together over 30 different groups of “hetererodox” economists, all representing different schools of thought outside the often stifling (and ultimately unproductive) restrictions of mainstream economic dogma.

The first, on Saturday, November 12, is tentatively titled “Tired of Capitalism? How about Economic Democracy? Sensible Socialism? A Community Commonwealth?”, and will be a discussion between myself and David Schweickart, who has just released a thoroughly reworked and updated edition of his book, After Capitalism. This, incidentally, is a book well worth reading, especially in this latest and much reorganized edition.

What’s perhaps most important about Schweickart’s contribution is that he has, from an economic perspective, actually done the work of fleshing out a developed model for a successor system to capitalism—explaining, in some detail, how a market-based system, bringing together substantial public ownership of industry with expansive democracy inside cooperatively managed firms, could potentially operate. The book thus lays down a gauntlet: even if you don’t agree with some of the decisions he takes in outlining his framework for “economic democracy,” what his book does is force you to answer the question (one of my favorite): what actually do you want if you don’t want capitalism? How would the system you want work? What are its design principles? How is it held together politically, economically, and socially? I’m looking forward to what promises to be a great discussion in November.

I’ll also at ICAPE be speaking on a roundtable organized by Erik Olsen on “Worker Cooperatives, Employee Ownership and New Strategies for a Pluralist Economy.” That session will be taking place on Sunday, November 13th at 9AM.

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Two video interviews from this past weekend at the Democracy Convention in Madison

By admin | Published: August 30, 2011

Thanks to Karen Rybold-Chin from On the Earth Productions and The Nation for catching up with me this weekend at the Democracy Convention in Madison, WI and shooting the video interviews below.

And speaking of the Democracy Convention, there’s a great quick summary of one of the panels I spoke on (“Cooperatives: The Co-op Alternative to Corporate Capitalism”) on itsoureconomy.us thanks to Kevin Zeese, and some reflections on the weekend from my co-panelist Rebecca Kemble over at the Progressive.

Gar Alperovitz: America’s Massive Wealth Disparity
In the United States, the richest 400 people own more collective wealth than the bottom 150 million. As historian and writer Gar Alperovitz puts it, this is quite literally medieval.
America’s distribution of wealth is controlled by corporations and the extremely wealthy—if there is to be real social change, this gaping inequality needs to be addressed and radically altered. The people need to take the pain of the laborers affected by politicians such as Governor Scott Walker and unite around this as something to replace with progressive reforms.
In this video by The Nation and On The Earth Productions from this year’s Democracy Convention, Alperovitz explains just how urgent the need for a radical redistribution of wealth really is.

Gar Alperovitz: The Environmental Movement’s Civil Disobedience
Civil disobedience is a transformation of consciousness, a sudden revelation that something new must be done. It is the knowledge that there are two options: disrupt and change the system or remain silent in the face of injustice.
Right now, civil disobedience is emerging from the anti-war and environmental movements in significant ways, most notably around opposition to the proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. In this video with historian and writer Gar Alperovitz at the 2011 Democracy Convention, he wonders when the leadership from these campaigns will inspire the shift in consciousness that will change our broken environmental and economic systems.