Post-capitalism

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Post-capitalism refers to any hypothetical future economic system that is to supersede capitalism as the dominant form of economic organization.

Post-capitalist systems

There have been a number of proposals for a new economic system to replace capitalism. Some are theorized to come about through spontaneous evolutionary processes as capitalism becomes obsolete, while others are proposed models to replace capitalism. The most notable among them are:

Socialism

• Socialist economics, an economic system based on state or public ownership of the means of production where production is carried out to directly produce use-value, usually implying economic planning in the allocation of the factors of production, and a moneyless form of accounting, such as physical resource accounting or labor-time. Socialism would be based on direct production of utility rather than on the capitalist laws of accumulation and value.

• Cooperative economics, an economic system based on the worker cooperative. Related ideas include mutualism and guild socialism.

• Participatory economics, an economic system that uses participatory decision making as an economic mechanism to guide the allocation of resources and consumption in a given society.

Market socialism

• Market socialism, an economic system based on public ownership or cooperative ownership of the means of production that retains monetary calculation and the market exchange.

• Economic democracy, a socioeconomic philosophy that retains a market economy, but establishes democratic control of firms by their workers, and social control of investment by a network of public banks.^[1]

Communism

• Communism, a hypothetical historical era, based on a mature form of the socialist mode of production according to Leninism but interchangeable with the word socialism according to Marxism, wherein production is not organized on the premise of valorization through exploitation, and distribution follows the principle "to each according to need". Communism would presume the abolition of labour as a separate sphere of life one is coerced into for survival; the material means of subsistence would thus be said to be held in common.

Technocracy

• Bureaucratic technocracy, a governmental or organizational system where decision makers are selected through bureaucratic processes on the basis of specialized knowledge and performance, rather than how much political capital they hold.

Anarchism

• Anarchist communism, a hybrid of communism and anarchism advocating (among others) abolition of the state, common ownership of the means of production and decision making by direct and/or consensus democracy.

• Post scarcity anarchism, an economic system based on social ecology, libertarian municipalism, and an abundance of fundamental resources.^[2]

Plutocracy

In such a society the dominant form of economic organization and government that controls the economy is a Plutocracy or Plutarchy. The governed subjects may be unaware of the true nature of their system as it may have the trappings of or claim to be a republic or democracy, however the direct or indirect rule is controlled by a very small number who are the very wealthiest. Some^[who?] feel that this is not hypothetical future system but exists now in the wealthiest countries such as the United States, post Soviet Russia, Japan, South Korea, and other developed countries that claim to be capitalist and democratic or republic but in which all the major and significant decisions are in reality made by the very few very wealthiest individuals and groups in the society. These de facto rulers may be relatively unknown.

• Plutocracy, an economic system based on private ownership of the means of production, usually meaning a form of Capitalism or other system in which rule is directly or indirectly by the very wealthy, or the power that is provided by immense wealth.
• Plutarchy, a form of plutocracy which is also an oligarchy, which is government by a small group of people.

Other systems

• A form of direct and/or consensus democracy, where all people would be allowed to vote for every major economic matter and thus directly participate in decision-making. Theoretically such a system is plausible on a large scale, especially with the use of modern technology.

• Non-trading cooperative society, where private organizations aren't "owned" (capitalised) by anyone and are democratically operated. "Profit" made by these organisations can go towards research and development or charity, or increasing the cash asset of the organisation for growth. Private property and working for a wage/salary aren't precluded by this system. Share markets would become a thing of the past. Gradual transition to this system is possible through outcompetition with capitalist couterparts due to fund channelling and consumer sentiment.

• Binary economics, an economic system that endorses both private property and a free market but proposes significant reforms to the banking system.

• Distributism, a system encouraging the widest possible distribution of the means of production, so that as many people as possible can be entrepreneurs. Small businesses that support one family are valued more highly than large corporations and large government bureaucracies.

• Gift economy, a society where valuable goods and services are regularly given without any explicit agreement for immediate or future rewards.

• Post-capitalistic, Post scarcity industrial utopia, a society where exponential increases in productivity and automation have led to a self sufficient economy. Such an economy no longer requires the intervention of humans in order to meet the needs and desires of the world population. Such an economic system could coexist with any political system capable of assuring the sustainability of the system.

• Post-capitalistic dystopia, a society where traditional capitalism has collapsed abruptly or just degenerated into dysfunction, but without being superseded properly by any fundamentally different system. Instead such societies are typically characterised by various combinations of elements of feudalism or bastard feudalism, kleptocracy and cryptocracy. Often these systems will pose under the guise of being highly evolved and particularly just and democratic forms of capitalism or communism. In such societies governments have an important role performing as the legitimising front, ensuring the availability of a population of consuming workers under strict micromanagement. A population where the interpersonal relationships are capitalised through tax or toll by obscure corporations controlling the infrastructure, in particular the communications infrastructure.

• Post-humanist, post-singularity, a society where the traditional means of production and the capital market exchange of resources have been replaced by automated systems that, not only create a situation of post-scarcity but transform beyond our current ability to predict the usual restrictions imposed by the human condition: suffering, mortality, disease, and reproduction. Proponents, such as Vernor Vinge, claim such a transformation is inevitable due to what they claim is the currently observable exponential advance in the speed and sophistication of technology.

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

See also

References

Further reading

• Albert, Michael. Parecon: Life After Capitalism. London: Verso, 2003.

External links

• What is Post-Capitalism?
• The Associative Economy: Insights beyond the Welfare System and into Post-Capitalism
• Transition to Postcapitalism and Capitalist Elite