Rethinking public ownership as economic democracy
Rethinking public ownership as economic democracy
Despite the spectacular failure of market fundamentalism in Europe and the US, with a seemingly never-ending spate of corporate scandals and financial crises, the grip of a neoliberal economic policy discourse among political and economic elites seems unshakeable. If anything, neoliberal policies of privatisation, labour market deregulation and state and welfare retrenchment seem to have been ratcheted up since the 2008-9 financial crisis. How can a left and more progressive politics– even in the form of a moderate eco-Keynesianism – be reasserted in these circumstances? This chapter argues that there has, until recently, been a serious vacuum in left and progressive circles about alternative economic models that might challenge the mainstream consensus. Cumbers uses the lens of public ownership, and examples from recent research in Denmark and Germany, to argue for the need to remake and re-scale institutional structures and practices on the left to successfully contest neoliberalism and construct more progressive, egalitarian and sustainable economies and societies.
Keywords: cooperatives, Denmark, economic democracy, Germany, local authorities, Norway, public ownership, sustainable economies
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