The political economy of complexity: The case of cyber-communism

Vicente Moreno-Casas, Victor I. Espinosa and William Hongsong Wang

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2022, vol. 204, issue C, 566-580

Abstract: This article analyzes cyber-communism and the feasibility of central planning from complexity theory. It first introduces the most known definitions of complexity in economics, namely computational and dynamic complexity. This enables to construct a complexity political economy from which then deal with cyber-communism. This political economy highlights the notion of cultivation, as a natural selection approach to established successful institutions and rules. In contrast to cultivation, the article presents the notion of control, which corresponds to traditional political economy, as the belief in the effective alteration of economic variables by a group of planners or policymakers. This work emphasizes some problems central planning faces: self-reference, noncomputability of optimal points, reflexivity, and less adaptive capacity. It concludes that cyber-communism conflicts with a complexity political economy based on cultivation, and that cyber-communist planning is not realistic, ultimately meaning that technology cannot allow and effective socialist planning.

Keywords: Complexity theory; Emergence; Natural selection; Cyber-communism; Economic calculation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: B51 B52 B54 C67 C69 P51 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:204:y:2022:i:c:p:566-580

DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2022.10.042

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