Associative Democracy: New Forms of Economic and Social Governance (New Forms of Ecnoomic and Social Governance)

In this book Paul Hirst makes a major contribution to democratic thinking, advocating'associative democracy'; the belief that human welfare and liberty are best served when as many of the affairs of society as possible are managed by voluntary and democratically self-governing associations. At the end of the twentieth century, if becomes ever more clear that Western countries are witnessing the exhaustion of the two great political and economic systems - democratic capitalism and collective state socialism - that have held sway for the past 150 years. Yet neither the traditional Right nor Left has been able to provide viable solutions to this crisis. In this book, Paul Hirst offers a new approach, which he calls associative democracy. Not simply a utopian idea, associative democracy calls for new forms of economic and social governance as supplements to representative democracy and market economies. It addresses the problems of the overload of big government by democratizing and empowering civil society. It transfers social provision to self-governing voluntary associations, while retaining public funding and political accountability. In the economic sphere, it advocates regional economic regulation through public-private partnerships, the promotion of self-governing industrial districts, and the democratization of the company. Western societies are suffering from a multi-faceted political and economic crisis to which traditional ideologies of the Left and Right no longer offer viable solutions. This book advocates as an alternative 'associative democracy'. It addresses the problems of the overload of big government by democratizing and empowering civil society. Advocates "associative democracy" as an alternative to traditional ideologies of the Left and Right. Far from being a utopian idea, Hirst suggests, "associative democracy" offers new forms of economic and social governance as supplements to representative democracy and market economies At the end of the twentieth century we are witnessing the exhaustion of the great competing intellectual systems of social organization, liberal democratic capitalism and collectivistic state socialism, that came to fruition in the nineteenth century. Ch1......Page 1 Ch2......Page 10 Ch3......Page 25 Ch4......Page 59 Ch5......Page 82 Ch6......Page 92 Paul Hirst. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.