Accountable Capitalism or Democratic Socialism?
- Details
- Published on Sunday, 29 November -0001 16:00
- Written by editor
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~(((( T h e B u l l e t ))))~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A Socialist Project e-bulletin ... No. 1676 ... September 28, 2018
_______________________________________________________________
Accountable Capitalism or Democratic Socialism?
Stephen Maher
Elizabeth Warren’s "Accountable Capitalism Act" promises the most radical shift in economic power since the New Deal. It contains four essential components, including campaign finance regulations, an attempt to limit corporate "short-termism" that has supposedly accompanied the rise of finance, and a requirement that corporations serve the "public benefit" rather than just shareholders. Most substantial, however, is the proposal that employees play an enlarged role in electing corporate boards of directors. As Seth Ackerman argued in calling for the left to "take Elizabeth Warren literally, but not seriously," the Act would in some respects be a step toward greater democratic control of the economy.
Yet even aside from Warren’s proud declaration that "I am a capitalist," there... are many reasons to regard the bill with skepticism. Indeed, given that it is modeled partly on the German social democratic model, the experience of workers in that country -- who have increasingly been forced to accept wage restraint in one of the harshest neoliberal regimes in the world -- should itself serve as a warning. Developing a clear understanding of the limits of Warren’s proposal can be helpful in forming the vision of economic and political democracy that should be at the center of the current "democratic socialist" upsurge in the United States. Even if unachievable today, is Warren’s vision what democratic socialists should struggle for?
Congress could never enact Warren’s bill absent a massive working-class mobilization and a major shift in the balance of forces. Even aside from this, the most substantial proposals, those around corporate governance, are aimed not at empowering workers but rather non-financial corporate executives. Indeed, the bill appears rooted in the familiar false dichotomy between "finance" and the "real economy." The rise of finance is not a cancerous growth on the otherwise healthy body of capitalism, but rather a component of the capitalist globalization of recent decades.