TOWARDS A RE-INTERPRETATION OF THE ECONOMICS OF FEASIBLE SOCIALISM

Dic Lo () and Russell Smyth
Additional contact information
Dic Lo: Department of Economics, SOAS University of London, UK

No 119, Working Papers from Department of Economics, SOAS University of London, UK

Abstract: This paper re-examines the debate on whether socialism is feasible from the perspective of the literature on the division of labour and organisational forms. Our central argument is twofold. First, each of the major protagonists in the debate provide a partial explanation as to when market socialism, planned socialism and participatory socialism are feasible. Second, the different perspectives on when socialism is feasible can be reconciled through seeing the arguments in terms of specific techno-economic paradigms, which are underpinned by their own concepts of the division of labour and efficiency attributes. We will show that theories on the economics of socialism reflect different techno-economic paradigms and that when, and whether, the various views on socialism are appropriate depend on the prevailing external conditions, economic growth path and existing mode of institutional arrangement.

Keywords: Division of Labour; Organisational Forms; Socialism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: B2 P3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 35 pages
Date: 2002-02
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.soas.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2022-10/economics-wp119.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Towards a re-interpretation of the economics of feasible socialism (2004)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:soa:wpaper:119

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from Department of Economics, SOAS University of London, UK Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chandni Dwarkasing ().