Decision-Making in a Good Society: The Case for Nested Councils | Stephen R. Shalom

The Centre for Postcapitalist Civilisation presents Professor Stephen R. Shalom’s mέta Working Paper entitled Decision-Making in a Good Society: The Case for Nested Councils (accessible here), part of the “Towards (a Better) Postcapitalism: A Handy How-To Guide” series under “Decision Making.”

DOI: 10.55405/mwp08en

mέta Working Papers’ series “Towards (a Better) Postcapitalism: A Handy How-To Guide” publishes solicited policy papers on aspects of how would a non-dystopian postcapitalism look like. The series focuses on three ‘pillars’:

Production | Allocation | Decision Making

i.e., how could/would postcapitalist production be like (and who would own the means of production), what shape would the allocation of goods take (and which alternatives to the market economy may be explored), and what would be the main tenets of postcapitalist decision making and democracy.

In this paper, Stephen R. Shalom addresses the third pillar: postcapitalist decision making.

(Earlier additions to the “Towards (a Better) Postcapitalism: A Handy How-To Guide” series include Professor Robin Hahnel’s paper on Participatory Planning and Michael Albert’s papers Postcapitalist Decision Making and Postcapitalist Work.)

Stephen R. Shalom is emeritus professor of Political Science at William Paterson University of New Jersey, USA. He is a member of the editorial board of New Politics, and a long-time activist in peace and justice movements. Among other works, he is the author of Which Side Are You On? An Introduction to Politics (Longman, 2003), “Parpolity: A Political System for a Good Society,” in Real Utopia: Participatory Society for the 21st Century, ed. Chris Spannos, AK Press, 2008) and editor of Socialist Visions (South End Press, 1983).