Democratic economic planning

From the middle of the 20th century to the present, few economic models have been developed that are not based on market allocation or centralized planning. One can think of the content of socialism according to Cornelius Castoriadis, libertarian municipalism according to Murray Bookchin, coordinated negotiation by Pat Devine and Fikret Adaman and participatory economy according to Michael Albert and Robin Hahnel. Very different from each other, these models all have the advantage of being relatively detailed and written by authors with a certain proximity to the social movements of their time. However, while they have been discussed in some circles, they have rarely been debated and discussed in depth.

This research project has three objectives:

  1. To establish the structures and institutions of these models and to compare them with other existing models (market economy and social democracy), models that previously existed (centralized planning, Yugoslav self-management) or models that have been imagined (market socialism or other models yet to discover).
  2. To update these models by trying to arrange them, even to merge them, but also by adapting them to realities that they do not tackle sufficiently. For example, the issue of reproduction and gender relations, the ecology and exploitation of resources and finally the question of international and colonial relations.
  3. To carry out empirical research on the application of these propositions, either by the study of existing microstructures or through laboratory experiments.

We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council for this project.