Inclusive Democracy
Encyclopedia
Inclusive Democracy is a political theory and political project that aims for direct democracy
, economic democracy
in a stateless
, moneyless and marketless economy, self-management
(democracy in the social realm) and ecological democracy. The theoretical project of Inclusive Democracy (ID; as distinguished from the political project which is part of the democratic and autonomy traditions) emerged from the work of political philosopher, former academic and activist Takis Fotopoulos
in Towards An Inclusive Democracy and was further developed by him and other writers in the journal Democracy & Nature
and its successor The International Journal of Inclusive Democracy, an electronic journal
freely available and published by the International Network for Inclusive Democracy.
According to Arran Gare
, Towards an Inclusive Democracy "offers a powerful new interpretation of the history and destructive dynamics of the market and provides an inspiring new vision of the future in place of both neo-liberalism and existing forms of socialism
". Also, as David Freeman points out, although Fotopoulos' approach "is not openly anarchism
, yet anarchism seems the formal category within which he works, given his commitment to direct democracy, municipalism and abolition of state, money and market economy".
s in the South".
Starting point of the ID project is that the world, at the beginning of the new millennium, faces a multi-dimensional crisis (economic, ecological, social, cultural and political), which is shown to be caused by the concentration of power in the hands of various elites. This is interpreted to be the outcome of the establishment, in the last few centuries, of the system of market economy (in the Polanyian
sense), Representative democracy
, and the related forms of hierarchical structure. Therefore, an inclusive democracy is seen not simply as a utopia
, but perhaps as the only way out of the crisis, based on the equal distribution of power at all levels.
In this conception of democracy, the public realm includes not just the political realm, as is usual in the republican or democratic project (Hannah Arendt
, Cornelius Castoriadis
, Murray Bookchin
et al.), but also the economic, 'social' and ecological realms. The political realm is the sphere of political decision-making, the area in which political power is exercised. The economic realm is the sphere of economic decision-making, the area in which economic power is exercised with respect to the broad economic choices that any scarcity society has to make. The social realm is the sphere of decision-making in the workplace, the education place and any other economic or cultural institution which is a constituent element of a democratic society. The public realm could be extended to include the "ecological realm", which may be defined as the sphere of the relations between society and nature. Therefore, the public realm, in contrast to the private realm, includes any area of human activity in which decisions can be made collectively and democratically.
According to these four realms, we may distinguish between four main constituent elements of an inclusive democracy: the political, the economic, 'democracy in the social realm' and the ecological. The first three elements form the institutional framework, which aims at the equal distribution of political, economic and social power respectively. In this sense, these elements define a system, which aims at the effective elimination of the domination of human being over human being. Similarly, ecological democracy is defined as the institutional framework, which aims to eliminate any human attempt to dominate the natural world, in other words, the system, which aims to reintegrate humans and nature.
The sufficient condition for the reproduction of a political democracy refers to the citizens' level of democratic consciousness and, as David Gabbard & Karen Appleton point out, "the responsibility of cultivating the democratic consciousness requisite to this conception of citizenship falls to paideia
" which involves not simply education but character development and a well-rounded knowledge and skills, i.e. the education of the individual as citizen, which alone can give substantive content to the public space. This is particularly so because democracy can only be grounded on the conscious choice of citizens for individual and collective autonomy. Thus it cannot be the outcome of any social, economic or natural "laws" or tendencies dialectically leading to it, let alone any divine or mystical dogmas and preconceptions. In this sense, neither representative democracy nor soviet democracy meet the conditions for political democracy, and are simply forms of political oligarchy, where political power is concentrated in the hands of various elites, i.e. professional politicians, and party bureaucrats respectively.
The basic unit of decision making in an inclusive democracy is the demotic assembly, i.e. the assembly of demos, the citizen body in a given geographical area which may encompass a town and the surrounding villages, or even neighbourhoods of large cities. This is very close to the concept of the 'urban village' proposed today by supporters of de-growth economics. However, apart from local decisions, many important decisions are to be made at the regional or confederal level. This is why, as Serge Latouche
observes, the aim of Inclusive Democracy "presupposes a confederation of demoi" made up of small, homogenous units of around 30,000 people. Therefore, an inclusive democracy today can only take the form of a confederal democracy that is based on a network of administrative councils whose members or delegates are elected from popular face-to-face democratic assemblies in the various demoi. Thus, their role is purely administrative and practical, not one of policy-making like that of representatives in representative democracy.
The citizen body is advised by experts but it is the citizen body which functions as the ultimate decision-taker . Authority can be delegated to a segment of the citizen body to carry out specific duties, for example to serve as members of popular courts, or of regional and confederal councils. Such delegation is made, in principle, by lot, on a rotation basis, and is always recallable by the citizen body. Delegates to regional and confederal bodies should have specific mandates.
Finally, political or direct democracy implies a very different conception of citizenship than the usual liberal and socialist conceptions. In this conception, political activity is not a means to an end, but an end in itself so that one does not engage in political action simply to promote one's welfare but to realize the principles intrinsic to political life, such as freedom, equality and solidarity. This, in contrast to the liberal and social-democratic conceptions which adopt an 'instrumentalist' view of citizenship, i.e. a view which implies that citizenship entitles citizens with certain rights that they can exercise as means to the end of individual welfare.
.
According to the ID project, economic democracy is the authority of demos (community) in the economic sphere — which requires equal distribution of economic power. Therefore, all 'macro' economic decisions, namely, decisions concerning the running of the economy as a whole (overall level of production, consumption and investment, amounts of work and leisure implied, technologies to be used, etc.) are made by the citizen body collectively and without representation. However, "micro" economic decisions at the workplace or the household levels are made by the individual production or consumption unit through a proposed system of voucher
s.
As with the case of direct democracy, economic democracy today is only feasible at the level of the confederated demoi. It involves the ownership and control of the means of production by the demos
. This is radically different from the two main forms of concentration of economic power : capitalist and 'socialist' growth
economy. It is also different from the various types of collectivist capitalism, such as workers' control
and milder versions suggested by post-Keynesian social democrats. The demos
, therefore, becomes the authentic unit of economic life.
For economic democracy to be feasible, three preconditions must be satisfied: Demotic self-reliance, demotic ownership of the means of production, and confederal allocation of resources.
A model of economic democracy, as an integral part of an inclusive democracy, is described in Towards An Inclusive Democracy (ch 6), the first book-length description of inclusive democracy. The main characteristic of the proposed model, which also differentiates it from socialist planning models like Parecon, is that it explicitly presupposes a stateless, money-less and market-less economy that precludes private accumulation of wealth and the institutionalisation of privileges for some sections of society, without relying on a mythical post-scarcity state of abundance, or sacrificing freedom of choice. The proposed system aims at satisfying the double aim of:
Therefore, the system consists of two basic elements:
Another distinguishing feature of ID is its distinction between basic and non-basic needs. Remuneration is according to need for basic needs, and according to effort for non-basic needs. ID is based on the principle that meeting basic needs is a fundamental human right which is guaranteed to all who are in a physical condition to offer a minimal amount of work. By contrast,Fotopoulos argues, Parecon follows the socialdemocratic rather than the anarcho-communist tradition and instead of proposing satisfaction according to need (as the ID project does) declares, first, that particular consumption needs such as health care or public parks will be free to all and, second, that as regards special needs, people will be able to make particular requests for need based consumption to be addressed case by case by others in the economy. In fact, Michael Albert explicitly states that what he calls 'norm four', i.e. 'remuneration according to each person's need' should be applied only in exceptional cases of basic needs and not to all needs defined as such by the citizens' assemblies, as the Inclusive Democracy project declares. Thus, as Albert stresses: "beyond economic justice, we have our compassion, to be applied via norm four where appropriate such as in cases of illness, catastrophe, incapacity and so on".
are secured through the creation of assemblies of the people involved in each place of work or education (workers' assemblies, student and teachers' assemblies respectively) who make all important decisions about the functioning of these places, within the framework of the decisions taken by citizens' demotic assemblies as regards the general aims of production, education and culture respectively. The assemblies are federated at the regional and confederal levels so that the confederal assemblies of workers, teaches, students and so on could be involved in a process of constant interaction with the citizens' confederal assemblies to define society's "general interest".
A crucial issue with respect to democracy in the social realm is democratisation of the household. One possible solution is the removal of the divide between the household and the public realm. Thus, some feminist writers, particularly eco-feminists, glorify the oikos and its values as a substitute for the polis and its politics. This can be understood as an attempt to dissolve the public into the private. At the other extreme, some Marxist feminists attempt to remove the public/private divide by dissolving all private space into a singular public, a socialised or fraternal state sphere. Another possible solution is, taking for granted that the household belongs to the private realm, to 'democratise' it in the sense that household relationships should take on the characteristics of democratic relationships, and that the household should take a form which is consistent with the freedom of all its members.
But for the ID project, the issue is not the dissolution of the private/public realm divide. The real issue is how, maintaining and enhancing the autonomy
of the two realms, such institutional arrangements are adopted that introduce democracy at the household and the social realm in general (workplace, educational establishment etcetera) and at the same time enhance the institutional arrangements of political and economic democracy. In this sense, an effective democracy is only conceivable if free time is equally distributed among all citizens, which requires ending the present hierarchical relations in the household, the workplace and elsewhere. Furthermore, democracy in the social realm, particularly in the household, requires institutional arrangements which recognise the character of the household as a need-satisfier and integrate the care and services that the household provides into the general scheme of needs satisfaction.
stresses, "in bold contrast to the limitations of the animal advocacy movement (AAM) and all other reformist causes, Takis Fotopoulos advances a broad view of human dynamics and social institutions, their impact on the earth, and the resulting consequences for society itself. Combining anti-capitalist, radical democracy, and ecological concerns in the concept of "ecological democracy," Fotopoulos defines this notion as "the institutional framework which aims at the elimination of any human attempt to dominate the natural world, in other words, as the system which aims to reintegrate humans and nature. This implies transcending the present 'instrumentalist' view of Nature, in which Nature is seen as an instrument for growth
, within a process of endless concentration of power."
Some critics of inclusive democracy ask what guarantees an inclusive democracy may offer in ensuring a better relationship of society to nature than the alternative systems of the market economy, or socialist statism. For example, a well-known eco-socialist pointed out "the 'required' ecological consensus among ecotopia' s inhabitants might not be ensured merely by establishing an Athenian democracy
where all are educated and rational". However, ID supporters counter argue that this criticism represents a clear misconception of what democracy is about because, "if we see it as a process of social self-institution where there is no divinely or 'objectively' defined code of human conduct, such guarantees are by definition ruled out. Therefore, the replacement of the market economy by a new institutional framework of inclusive democracy constitutes only the necessary condition for a harmonious relation between the natural and social worlds. The sufficient condition refers to the citizens' level of ecological consciousness. Still, the radical change in the dominant social paradigm that would follow the institution of an inclusive democracy, combined with the decisive role that paedeia will play in an environmentally-friendly institutional framework, could reasonably be expected to lead to a radical change in the human attitude towards Nature".
Supporters also claim that ID's institutional framework offers the best hope for a better human relationship to nature than could ever be achieved in a market economy, or one based on socialist statism. The factors supporting this view refer to all three elements of an inclusive democracy: political, economic and social.
Political democracy presupposes a radical decentralisation (physical or administrative) within a confederal society, which, by itself, should enhance its environmentally friendly character. Furthermore, political democracy would create a public space, a fact which would significantly reduce the appeal of materialism
by providing a new meaning of life to fill the existential void that the present consumer society creates. Economic democracy replaces the dynamics of the capitalist market economy leading to growth per se with a new social dynamic aiming at the satisfaction of demos
' needs. If the satisfaction of demotic needs does not depend, as at present, on the continuous expansion of production to cover the 'needs' that the market system itself creates and if society is reintegrated with the economy, then there is no reason why the present instrumentalist view of Nature will continue conditioning human behaviour. Particularly so, since unlike socialist models which are 'centralist', the aim of production in an Inclusive Democracy is not economic growth, but the satisfaction of the basic needs of the community and those non-basic needs for which members of the community express a desire and are willing to work extra for. This implies a new definition of economic efficiency, based not on narrow techno-economic criteria of input minimisation/output maximisation as in socialist models like Parecon, but on criteria securing full coverage of the democratically defined basic needs of all citizens as well as of the non-basic needs they decide to meet—even if this involves a certain amount of inefficiency according to the orthodox economics criteria. Finally, democracy in the social realm should be a decisive step in the creation of the sufficient condition for a harmonious nature-society relationship as the phasing out of patriarchal relations in the household and hierarchical relations in general should create a new ethos of non-domination which would engulf both nature and society.
Direct democracy
Direct democracy is a form of government in which people vote on policy initiatives directly, as opposed to a representative democracy in which people vote for representatives who then vote on policy initiatives. Direct democracy is classically termed "pure democracy"...
, economic democracy
Economic democracy
Economic democracy is a socioeconomic philosophy that suggests a shift in decision-making power from a small minority of corporate shareholders to a larger majority of public stakeholders...
in a stateless
Stateless society
A stateless society is a society that is not governed by a state. In stateless societies, there is little concentration of authority; most positions of authority that do exist are very limited in power and are generally not permanently held positions; and social bodies that resolve disputes through...
, moneyless and marketless economy, self-management
Self-management
Self-management means different things in different fields:* In business, education, and psychology, self-management refers to methods, skills, and strategies by which individuals can effectively direct their own activities toward the achievement of objectives, and includes goal setting, decision...
(democracy in the social realm) and ecological democracy. The theoretical project of Inclusive Democracy (ID; as distinguished from the political project which is part of the democratic and autonomy traditions) emerged from the work of political philosopher, former academic and activist Takis Fotopoulos
Takis Fotopoulos
Takis Fotopoulos , born , is a political philosopher and economist who founded the inclusive democracy movement. He is noted for his synthesis of the classical democracy with the libertarian socialism and the radical currents in the new social movements...
in Towards An Inclusive Democracy and was further developed by him and other writers in the journal Democracy & Nature
Democracy & Nature
Democracy & Nature was a theoretical journal founded in 1992 by Takis Fotopoulos. Initially launched as Society and Nature, it was renamed Democracy & Nature in 1995. Four volumes of three issues each were released by Aigis Publications in the period from 1992 to 1999. From 1999 to 2003, five...
and its successor The International Journal of Inclusive Democracy, an electronic journal
Electronic journal
Electronic journals, also known as ejournals, e-journals, and electronic serials, are scholarly journals or intellectual magazines that can be accessed via electronic transmission. In practice, this means that they are usually published on the Web...
freely available and published by the International Network for Inclusive Democracy.
According to Arran Gare
Arran Gare
Arran Gare is an Australian philosopher known mainly for his work in environmental philosophy, philosophy of culture and the metaphysics of process philosophy...
, Towards an Inclusive Democracy "offers a powerful new interpretation of the history and destructive dynamics of the market and provides an inspiring new vision of the future in place of both neo-liberalism and existing forms of socialism
State socialism
State socialism is an economic system with limited socialist characteristics, such as public ownership of major industries, remedial measures to benefit the working class, and a gradual process of developing socialism through government policy...
". Also, as David Freeman points out, although Fotopoulos' approach "is not openly anarchism
Anarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
, yet anarchism seems the formal category within which he works, given his commitment to direct democracy, municipalism and abolition of state, money and market economy".
Definition
Fotopoulos describes inclusive democracy as "a new conception of democracy, which, using as a starting point the classical definition of it, expresses democracy in terms of direct political democracy, economic democracy (beyond the confines of the market economy and state planning), as well as democracy in the social realm and ecological democracy. In short, inclusive democracy is a form of social organisation which re-integrates society with economy, polity and nature. The concept of inclusive democracy is derived from a synthesis of two major historical traditions, the classical democratic and the socialist, although it also encompasses radical green, feminist, and liberation movementLiberation movement
A liberation movement is an organization leading a rebellion against a colonial power or national government, often seeking independence based on a nationalist identity and an anti-imperialist outlook.-See also:*Anti-imperialism...
s in the South".
Starting point of the ID project is that the world, at the beginning of the new millennium, faces a multi-dimensional crisis (economic, ecological, social, cultural and political), which is shown to be caused by the concentration of power in the hands of various elites. This is interpreted to be the outcome of the establishment, in the last few centuries, of the system of market economy (in the Polanyian
Karl Polanyi
Karl Paul Polanyi was a Hungarian philosopher, political economist and economic anthropologist known for his opposition to traditional economic thought and his book The Great Transformation...
sense), Representative democracy
Representative democracy
Representative democracy is a form of government founded on the principle of elected individuals representing the people, as opposed to autocracy and direct democracy...
, and the related forms of hierarchical structure. Therefore, an inclusive democracy is seen not simply as a utopia
Utopia
Utopia is an ideal community or society possessing a perfect socio-politico-legal system. The word was imported from Greek by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book Utopia, describing a fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean. The term has been used to describe both intentional communities that attempt...
, but perhaps as the only way out of the crisis, based on the equal distribution of power at all levels.
In this conception of democracy, the public realm includes not just the political realm, as is usual in the republican or democratic project (Hannah Arendt
Hannah Arendt
Hannah Arendt was a German American political theorist. She has often been described as a philosopher, although she refused that label on the grounds that philosophy is concerned with "man in the singular." She described herself instead as a political theorist because her work centers on the fact...
, Cornelius Castoriadis
Cornelius Castoriadis
Cornelius Castoriadis was a Greek philosopher, social critic, economist, psychoanalyst, author of The Imaginary Institution of Society, and co-founder of the Socialisme ou Barbarie group.-Early life in Athens:...
, Murray Bookchin
Murray Bookchin
Murray Bookchin was an American libertarian socialist author, orator, and philosopher. A pioneer in the ecology movement, Bookchin was the founder of the social ecology movement within anarchist, libertarian socialist and ecological thought. He was the author of two dozen books on politics,...
et al.), but also the economic, 'social' and ecological realms. The political realm is the sphere of political decision-making, the area in which political power is exercised. The economic realm is the sphere of economic decision-making, the area in which economic power is exercised with respect to the broad economic choices that any scarcity society has to make. The social realm is the sphere of decision-making in the workplace, the education place and any other economic or cultural institution which is a constituent element of a democratic society. The public realm could be extended to include the "ecological realm", which may be defined as the sphere of the relations between society and nature. Therefore, the public realm, in contrast to the private realm, includes any area of human activity in which decisions can be made collectively and democratically.
According to these four realms, we may distinguish between four main constituent elements of an inclusive democracy: the political, the economic, 'democracy in the social realm' and the ecological. The first three elements form the institutional framework, which aims at the equal distribution of political, economic and social power respectively. In this sense, these elements define a system, which aims at the effective elimination of the domination of human being over human being. Similarly, ecological democracy is defined as the institutional framework, which aims to eliminate any human attempt to dominate the natural world, in other words, the system, which aims to reintegrate humans and nature.
Political or direct democracy
The necessary condition for the establishment of a political democracy involves the creation of appropriate institutions, which secure an equal distribution of political power among all citizens. All political decisions (including those relating to the formation and execution of laws) are taken by the citizen body collectively and without representation.The citizen body of a particular geographical area consists of all residents beyond a certain age of maturity and irrespective of their gender, race, ethnic or cultural identity. The age of maturity is to be defined by the citizen body itself.The sufficient condition for the reproduction of a political democracy refers to the citizens' level of democratic consciousness and, as David Gabbard & Karen Appleton point out, "the responsibility of cultivating the democratic consciousness requisite to this conception of citizenship falls to paideia
Paideia
In ancient Greek, the word n. paedeia or paideia [ to educate + - -IA suffix1] means child-rearing, education. It was a system of instruction in Classical Athens in which students were given a well-rounded cultural education. Subjects included rhetoric, grammar, mathematics, music, philosophy,...
" which involves not simply education but character development and a well-rounded knowledge and skills, i.e. the education of the individual as citizen, which alone can give substantive content to the public space. This is particularly so because democracy can only be grounded on the conscious choice of citizens for individual and collective autonomy. Thus it cannot be the outcome of any social, economic or natural "laws" or tendencies dialectically leading to it, let alone any divine or mystical dogmas and preconceptions. In this sense, neither representative democracy nor soviet democracy meet the conditions for political democracy, and are simply forms of political oligarchy, where political power is concentrated in the hands of various elites, i.e. professional politicians, and party bureaucrats respectively.
The basic unit of decision making in an inclusive democracy is the demotic assembly, i.e. the assembly of demos, the citizen body in a given geographical area which may encompass a town and the surrounding villages, or even neighbourhoods of large cities. This is very close to the concept of the 'urban village' proposed today by supporters of de-growth economics. However, apart from local decisions, many important decisions are to be made at the regional or confederal level. This is why, as Serge Latouche
Serge Latouche
Serge Latouche is a French emeritus professor at the University of Paris-Sud and a critic of the consumer society.-Books:...
observes, the aim of Inclusive Democracy "presupposes a confederation of demoi" made up of small, homogenous units of around 30,000 people. Therefore, an inclusive democracy today can only take the form of a confederal democracy that is based on a network of administrative councils whose members or delegates are elected from popular face-to-face democratic assemblies in the various demoi. Thus, their role is purely administrative and practical, not one of policy-making like that of representatives in representative democracy.
The citizen body is advised by experts but it is the citizen body which functions as the ultimate decision-taker . Authority can be delegated to a segment of the citizen body to carry out specific duties, for example to serve as members of popular courts, or of regional and confederal councils. Such delegation is made, in principle, by lot, on a rotation basis, and is always recallable by the citizen body. Delegates to regional and confederal bodies should have specific mandates.
Finally, political or direct democracy implies a very different conception of citizenship than the usual liberal and socialist conceptions. In this conception, political activity is not a means to an end, but an end in itself so that one does not engage in political action simply to promote one's welfare but to realize the principles intrinsic to political life, such as freedom, equality and solidarity. This, in contrast to the liberal and social-democratic conceptions which adopt an 'instrumentalist' view of citizenship, i.e. a view which implies that citizenship entitles citizens with certain rights that they can exercise as means to the end of individual welfare.
Economic democracy
The Inclusive Democracy (ID) project introduced a very different conception from the usual one of economic democracyEconomic democracy
Economic democracy is a socioeconomic philosophy that suggests a shift in decision-making power from a small minority of corporate shareholders to a larger majority of public stakeholders...
.
According to the ID project, economic democracy is the authority of demos (community) in the economic sphere — which requires equal distribution of economic power. Therefore, all 'macro' economic decisions, namely, decisions concerning the running of the economy as a whole (overall level of production, consumption and investment, amounts of work and leisure implied, technologies to be used, etc.) are made by the citizen body collectively and without representation. However, "micro" economic decisions at the workplace or the household levels are made by the individual production or consumption unit through a proposed system of voucher
Voucher
A voucher is a bond which is worth a certain monetary value and which may be spent only for specific reasons or on specific goods. Examples include housing, travel, and food vouchers...
s.
As with the case of direct democracy, economic democracy today is only feasible at the level of the confederated demoi. It involves the ownership and control of the means of production by the demos
Demos
Demos may refer to:* Demos, a rhetorical term for the population of an ancient Greek state** Deme or Demoi, the term for an ancient subdivision of Attica, Greece...
. This is radically different from the two main forms of concentration of economic power : capitalist and 'socialist' growth
Economic growth
In economics, economic growth is defined as the increasing capacity of the economy to satisfy the wants of goods and services of the members of society. Economic growth is enabled by increases in productivity, which lowers the inputs for a given amount of output. Lowered costs increase demand...
economy. It is also different from the various types of collectivist capitalism, such as workers' control
Workers' control
Workers' control is a term meaning participation in the management of factories and other commercial enterprises by the people who work there. It has been variously advocated by anarchists, socialists, Communists, Social Democrats and Christian Democrats, and has been combined with various...
and milder versions suggested by post-Keynesian social democrats. The demos
Demos
Demos may refer to:* Demos, a rhetorical term for the population of an ancient Greek state** Deme or Demoi, the term for an ancient subdivision of Attica, Greece...
, therefore, becomes the authentic unit of economic life.
For economic democracy to be feasible, three preconditions must be satisfied: Demotic self-reliance, demotic ownership of the means of production, and confederal allocation of resources.
- Demotic self-relianceSelf-RelianceSelf-Reliance is an essay written by American Transcendentalist philosopher and essayist, Ralph Waldo Emerson. It contains the most thorough statement of one of Emerson's repeating themes, the need for each individual to avoid conformity and false consistency, and follow his or her own instincts...
is meant in terms of radical decentralisationDécentralisationDécentralisation is a french word for both a policy concept in French politics from 1968-1990, and a term employed to describe the results of observations of the evolution of spatial economic and institutional organization of France....
and self-reliance, rather than of self-sufficiency.
- Demotic ownership of productive resources is a kind of ownership which leads to the politicisation of the economy, the real synthesis of economy and polity. This is so because economic decision making is carried out by the entire community, through the demotic assemblies, where people make the fundamental macro-economic decisions which affect the whole community, as citizens, rather than as vocationally oriented groups (e.g. workers, as e.g. in Parecon). At the same time, workers, apart from participating in the demotic decisions about the overall planning targets, would also participate (in the above broad sense of vocationally oriented groups) in their respective workplace assemblies, in a process of modifying/implementing the Democratic Plan and in running their own workplace.
- Confederal allocation of resources is required because, although self-reliance allows many decisions to be made at the community level, much remains to be decided at the regional/national/supra-national level. However, it is delegates (rather than representatives) with specific mandates from the demotic assemblies who are involved in a confederal demotic planning process which, in combination with the proposed system of vouchers, effects the allocation of resources in a confederal inclusive democracy.
A model of economic democracy, as an integral part of an inclusive democracy, is described in Towards An Inclusive Democracy (ch 6), the first book-length description of inclusive democracy. The main characteristic of the proposed model, which also differentiates it from socialist planning models like Parecon, is that it explicitly presupposes a stateless, money-less and market-less economy that precludes private accumulation of wealth and the institutionalisation of privileges for some sections of society, without relying on a mythical post-scarcity state of abundance, or sacrificing freedom of choice. The proposed system aims at satisfying the double aim of:
- (a) meeting the basic needs of all citizens—which requires that basic macro-economic decisions have to be made democratically, and
- (b) securing freedom of choice—which requires the individual to make important decisions affecting his/her own life (what work to do, what to consume etc.).
Therefore, the system consists of two basic elements:
- (1) democratic planning, which involves a feedback process between workplace assemblies, demotic assemblies and the confederal assembly, and
- (2) an artificial marketArtificial marketAn artificial market or arket is an economic institution proposed mainly by libertarian socialists as a replacement for currently existing markets based on money and private ownership and control of an economy's means of production...
using personal vouchers, which ensures freedom of choiceFreedom of choiceFor freedom of choice, see:*choice for information on theories that involve free will and human behavior.*Freedom of choice plans to integrate US schools .*Freedom of Choice, a 1980 synthpop landmark album by Devo...
but avoids the adverse effects of real markets. Although some have called this system "a form of money based on the labour theory of value", it is not a money model since vouchers cannot be used as a general medium of exchange and store of wealth.
Another distinguishing feature of ID is its distinction between basic and non-basic needs. Remuneration is according to need for basic needs, and according to effort for non-basic needs. ID is based on the principle that meeting basic needs is a fundamental human right which is guaranteed to all who are in a physical condition to offer a minimal amount of work. By contrast,Fotopoulos argues, Parecon follows the socialdemocratic rather than the anarcho-communist tradition and instead of proposing satisfaction according to need (as the ID project does) declares, first, that particular consumption needs such as health care or public parks will be free to all and, second, that as regards special needs, people will be able to make particular requests for need based consumption to be addressed case by case by others in the economy. In fact, Michael Albert explicitly states that what he calls 'norm four', i.e. 'remuneration according to each person's need' should be applied only in exceptional cases of basic needs and not to all needs defined as such by the citizens' assemblies, as the Inclusive Democracy project declares. Thus, as Albert stresses: "beyond economic justice, we have our compassion, to be applied via norm four where appropriate such as in cases of illness, catastrophe, incapacity and so on".
Democracy in the social realm
An inclusive democracy is inconceivable unless it extends to the broader social realm to embrace the workplace, the household, the educational institution and indeed any economic or cultural institution, which constitutes an element of this realm. The equal distribution of power in these institutions and self-managementSelf-management
Self-management means different things in different fields:* In business, education, and psychology, self-management refers to methods, skills, and strategies by which individuals can effectively direct their own activities toward the achievement of objectives, and includes goal setting, decision...
are secured through the creation of assemblies of the people involved in each place of work or education (workers' assemblies, student and teachers' assemblies respectively) who make all important decisions about the functioning of these places, within the framework of the decisions taken by citizens' demotic assemblies as regards the general aims of production, education and culture respectively. The assemblies are federated at the regional and confederal levels so that the confederal assemblies of workers, teaches, students and so on could be involved in a process of constant interaction with the citizens' confederal assemblies to define society's "general interest".
A crucial issue with respect to democracy in the social realm is democratisation of the household. One possible solution is the removal of the divide between the household and the public realm. Thus, some feminist writers, particularly eco-feminists, glorify the oikos and its values as a substitute for the polis and its politics. This can be understood as an attempt to dissolve the public into the private. At the other extreme, some Marxist feminists attempt to remove the public/private divide by dissolving all private space into a singular public, a socialised or fraternal state sphere. Another possible solution is, taking for granted that the household belongs to the private realm, to 'democratise' it in the sense that household relationships should take on the characteristics of democratic relationships, and that the household should take a form which is consistent with the freedom of all its members.
But for the ID project, the issue is not the dissolution of the private/public realm divide. The real issue is how, maintaining and enhancing the autonomy
Autonomy
Autonomy is a concept found in moral, political and bioethical philosophy. Within these contexts, it is the capacity of a rational individual to make an informed, un-coerced decision...
of the two realms, such institutional arrangements are adopted that introduce democracy at the household and the social realm in general (workplace, educational establishment etcetera) and at the same time enhance the institutional arrangements of political and economic democracy. In this sense, an effective democracy is only conceivable if free time is equally distributed among all citizens, which requires ending the present hierarchical relations in the household, the workplace and elsewhere. Furthermore, democracy in the social realm, particularly in the household, requires institutional arrangements which recognise the character of the household as a need-satisfier and integrate the care and services that the household provides into the general scheme of needs satisfaction.
Ecological democracy
As Steven BestSteven Best
Steven Best is an American animal rights activist, author, talk-show host, and associate professor of philosophy at the University of Texas at El Paso...
stresses, "in bold contrast to the limitations of the animal advocacy movement (AAM) and all other reformist causes, Takis Fotopoulos advances a broad view of human dynamics and social institutions, their impact on the earth, and the resulting consequences for society itself. Combining anti-capitalist, radical democracy, and ecological concerns in the concept of "ecological democracy," Fotopoulos defines this notion as "the institutional framework which aims at the elimination of any human attempt to dominate the natural world, in other words, as the system which aims to reintegrate humans and nature. This implies transcending the present 'instrumentalist' view of Nature, in which Nature is seen as an instrument for growth
Economic growth
In economics, economic growth is defined as the increasing capacity of the economy to satisfy the wants of goods and services of the members of society. Economic growth is enabled by increases in productivity, which lowers the inputs for a given amount of output. Lowered costs increase demand...
, within a process of endless concentration of power."
Some critics of inclusive democracy ask what guarantees an inclusive democracy may offer in ensuring a better relationship of society to nature than the alternative systems of the market economy, or socialist statism. For example, a well-known eco-socialist pointed out "the 'required' ecological consensus among ecotopia' s inhabitants might not be ensured merely by establishing an Athenian democracy
Athenian democracy
Athenian democracy developed in the Greek city-state of Athens, comprising the central city-state of Athens and the surrounding territory of Attica, around 508 BC. Athens is one of the first known democracies. Other Greek cities set up democracies, and even though most followed an Athenian model,...
where all are educated and rational". However, ID supporters counter argue that this criticism represents a clear misconception of what democracy is about because, "if we see it as a process of social self-institution where there is no divinely or 'objectively' defined code of human conduct, such guarantees are by definition ruled out. Therefore, the replacement of the market economy by a new institutional framework of inclusive democracy constitutes only the necessary condition for a harmonious relation between the natural and social worlds. The sufficient condition refers to the citizens' level of ecological consciousness. Still, the radical change in the dominant social paradigm that would follow the institution of an inclusive democracy, combined with the decisive role that paedeia will play in an environmentally-friendly institutional framework, could reasonably be expected to lead to a radical change in the human attitude towards Nature".
Supporters also claim that ID's institutional framework offers the best hope for a better human relationship to nature than could ever be achieved in a market economy, or one based on socialist statism. The factors supporting this view refer to all three elements of an inclusive democracy: political, economic and social.
Political democracy presupposes a radical decentralisation (physical or administrative) within a confederal society, which, by itself, should enhance its environmentally friendly character. Furthermore, political democracy would create a public space, a fact which would significantly reduce the appeal of materialism
Materialism
In philosophy, the theory of materialism holds that the only thing that exists is matter; that all things are composed of material and all phenomena are the result of material interactions. In other words, matter is the only substance...
by providing a new meaning of life to fill the existential void that the present consumer society creates. Economic democracy replaces the dynamics of the capitalist market economy leading to growth per se with a new social dynamic aiming at the satisfaction of demos
Demos
Demos may refer to:* Demos, a rhetorical term for the population of an ancient Greek state** Deme or Demoi, the term for an ancient subdivision of Attica, Greece...
' needs. If the satisfaction of demotic needs does not depend, as at present, on the continuous expansion of production to cover the 'needs' that the market system itself creates and if society is reintegrated with the economy, then there is no reason why the present instrumentalist view of Nature will continue conditioning human behaviour. Particularly so, since unlike socialist models which are 'centralist', the aim of production in an Inclusive Democracy is not economic growth, but the satisfaction of the basic needs of the community and those non-basic needs for which members of the community express a desire and are willing to work extra for. This implies a new definition of economic efficiency, based not on narrow techno-economic criteria of input minimisation/output maximisation as in socialist models like Parecon, but on criteria securing full coverage of the democratically defined basic needs of all citizens as well as of the non-basic needs they decide to meet—even if this involves a certain amount of inefficiency according to the orthodox economics criteria. Finally, democracy in the social realm should be a decisive step in the creation of the sufficient condition for a harmonious nature-society relationship as the phasing out of patriarchal relations in the household and hierarchical relations in general should create a new ethos of non-domination which would engulf both nature and society.
See also
- AnarchismAnarchismAnarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
- Anarchist economicsAnarchist economicsAnarchist economics is the set of theories and practices of economics and economic activity within the political philosophy of anarchism.-Early views:...
- Anarcho-syndicalismAnarcho-syndicalismAnarcho-syndicalism is a branch of anarchism which focuses on the labour movement. The word syndicalism comes from the French word syndicat which means trade union , from the Latin word syndicus which in turn comes from the Greek word σύνδικος which means caretaker of an issue...
- AutonomyAutonomyAutonomy is a concept found in moral, political and bioethical philosophy. Within these contexts, it is the capacity of a rational individual to make an informed, un-coerced decision...
- Cornelius CastoriadisCornelius CastoriadisCornelius Castoriadis was a Greek philosopher, social critic, economist, psychoanalyst, author of The Imaginary Institution of Society, and co-founder of the Socialisme ou Barbarie group.-Early life in Athens:...
- DemocracyDemocracyDemocracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...
- Direct democracyDirect democracyDirect democracy is a form of government in which people vote on policy initiatives directly, as opposed to a representative democracy in which people vote for representatives who then vote on policy initiatives. Direct democracy is classically termed "pure democracy"...
- Democracy & NatureDemocracy & NatureDemocracy & Nature was a theoretical journal founded in 1992 by Takis Fotopoulos. Initially launched as Society and Nature, it was renamed Democracy & Nature in 1995. Four volumes of three issues each were released by Aigis Publications in the period from 1992 to 1999. From 1999 to 2003, five...
, Journal for Inclusive Democracy (1992–2003) - Economic democracyEconomic democracyEconomic democracy is a socioeconomic philosophy that suggests a shift in decision-making power from a small minority of corporate shareholders to a larger majority of public stakeholders...
- Economic systemEconomic systemAn economic system is the combination of the various agencies, entities that provide the economic structure that defines the social community. These agencies are joined by lines of trade and exchange along which goods, money etc. are continuously flowing. An example of such a system for a closed...
- FeminismFeminismFeminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...
- Takis FotopoulosTakis FotopoulosTakis Fotopoulos , born , is a political philosopher and economist who founded the inclusive democracy movement. He is noted for his synthesis of the classical democracy with the libertarian socialism and the radical currents in the new social movements...
- GreensGreensGreens may refer to:*Leaf vegetables such as collard greens, mustard greens, spring greens, winter greens, spinach, etc.-Politics:Supranational* Green politics* Green party, political parties adhering to Green politics* Global Greens...
- Libertarian municipalismLibertarian municipalismLibertarian municipalism is a term first used by libertarian socialist theorist Murray Bookchin, and is used to describe a system in which libertarian institutions of directly democratic assemblies would oppose and replace the state with a confederation of free municipalities...
- Libertarian socialismLibertarian socialismLibertarian socialism is a group of political philosophies that promote a non-hierarchical, non-bureaucratic, stateless society without private property in the means of production...
- Parecon
- SocialismSocialismSocialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
- Social justiceSocial justiceSocial justice generally refers to the idea of creating a society or institution that is based on the principles of equality and solidarity, that understands and values human rights, and that recognizes the dignity of every human being. The term and modern concept of "social justice" was coined by...
External resources
Note that several of the printed resources listed below are also available online.Online resources
- Inclusive Democracy website
- The International Journal of Inclusive Democracy website ISSN: 1753-240X, an electronic journalElectronic journalElectronic journals, also known as ejournals, e-journals, and electronic serials, are scholarly journals or intellectual magazines that can be accessed via electronic transmission. In practice, this means that they are usually published on the Web...
freely available and published by the International Network for Inclusive Democracy - Democracy & Nature website
- Greek Inclusive Democracy Journal website
- Takis Fotopoulos' Archive website
- DOAJ - "Directory of Open Access Journals", International Journal of Inclusive Democracy ISSN 1753-240X.
- Inclusive Democracy - A transcript of a video interview by Takis Fotopoulos at republicart.net
- An Interview with T.Fotopoulos by Indymedia Hungary, April 2005
- "On the Bookchin/Biehl Resignations and the Creation of a New Liberatory Project" and reply in
- "On a distorted view of the Inclusive Democracy project" See also
- "The Autonomy and Inclusive Democracy Projects and "Agora's" Defamatory Delirium" which now includes a brief history of all the exchanges with a constantly updated, complete webography.
- "On eco-villages and the transition" by Ted Trainer and reply in
- "Is the eco-village movement a solution or part of the problem?"
- Inclusive Democracy and Participatory Economics and also
- "Reply to Democracy and Nature Comments"
- "Crisis Culture and the Waning of Revolutionary Politics" by Steven Best
- "The myths about the economic crisis, the reformist Left and economic democracy"
- "The Crime of the Zionists and the Transnational Elite and the Stand of the Left"
- "The systemic crisis in Greece"
- "The pink revolution in Iran and the "Left"" E-Book, PDF Version
Videos
- Takis Fotopoulos' Interview to Oliver Ressler about Inclusive Democracy. This is an interview with Takis Fotopoulos taken by Oliver Ressler for his video series "Alternative Economics, Alternative Societies" on July 19, 2003, about the Inclusive Democracy project. English and Greek subtitles are available. In this video, Fotopoulos discusses the constituents of Inclusive Democracy: Political, Economic, democracy at the Social level and Ecological democracy. He is also offering an introductory analysis of the ID' s proposed economic model for a state-less, market-less and money-less economy. Finally, he refers to the transitional strategy for the transformation to an autonomous society, for an Inclusive Democracy.
- Takis Fotopoulos talk on the Multidimensional Crisis and Inclusive Democracy, Oxford University, November 2008. Google Video in 3 parts. Part 1 (talk), part 2 (talk/discussion), part 3 (discussion).
- A talk given by Takis Fotopoulos at the University of VermontUniversity of VermontThe University of Vermont comprises seven undergraduate schools, an honors college, a graduate college, and a college of medicine. The Honors College does not offer its own degrees; students in the Honors College concurrently enroll in one of the university's seven undergraduate colleges or...
(USA) in 1996, followed by a discussion in which Murray Bookchin, Dan Chodorkoff and others take part. Google Video in 3 parts Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
Printed resources
- Takis Fotopoulos, An Inclusive Democracy (London/New York: Cassell/Continuum, 1997), 401 pp. (translated in French,German,Spanish,Italian,Greek,Chinese).
- Takis Fotopoulos, "Inclusive Democracy" in Alternative Economies, Alternative Societies ed. by Oliver ResslerOliver ResslerOliver Ressler lives and works in Vienna. He produces theme-specific exhibitions, projects in the public space and videos on issues such as global capitalism, forms of resistance, social alternatives, racism and global warming...
& Aneta Szylak, 240 pages (20 pages in color), languages: English and Polish, ISBN 978-83-924665-0-5 (Gdansk: Wyspa Institute of Art, Poland, 2007) - Takis Fotopoulos: "Umfassende Demokratie" in: Oliver Ressler (ed.): Alternative Ökonomien, Alternative Gesellschaften (Promedia VerlagPromedia VerlagPromedia Verlag is an Austrian publishing house established in 1983. Founded to publish "books against the grain", particularly in the field of cultural history, it has since expanded to cover politics, history and travel books...
, Vienna, 2008), languages: German and Hungarian. ISBN 978-3-85371-291-7. - The Multidimensional Crisis and Inclusive Democracy, (English translation of a book under the same title published in Greek, Athens: Gordios, 2005)
- "Inclusive Democracy" entry in Routledge Encyclopedia of International Political Economy, ed. by R.J. Barry Jones (Routledge, 2001), pp. 732–740.
- "The Inclusive Democracy project – six years on", essays on the ID project by Michael Levin, Arran Gare, David Freeman, Serge Latouche, Jean-Claude Richard , Takis Nikolopoulos, Rafael Spósito, Guido Galafassi, Takis Fotopoulos and others (Democracy & NatureDemocracy & NatureDemocracy & Nature was a theoretical journal founded in 1992 by Takis Fotopoulos. Initially launched as Society and Nature, it was renamed Democracy & Nature in 1995. Four volumes of three issues each were released by Aigis Publications in the period from 1992 to 1999. From 1999 to 2003, five...
, Vol. 9, No. 3 (November 2003). - "Debate on the Inclusive Democracy project (Parts I & II)", The International Journal of Inclusive Democracy, Vol. 1, No. 2 (January 2005) and Vol. 1, No. 3 (May 2005).
- Takis Fotopoulos, "Globalisation and the multi-dimensional crisis: The Inclusive Democracy approach", Theomai journal, No. 4 (2nd semester 2001).
- Takis Fotopoulos, "The State, the market & (Mis)education" in Defending Public Schools, ed. by D. Gabbard & W. Ross, ISBN 978-0-275-98295-9 (London: Praeger, 2004), ch. 2.
- Takis Fotopoulos, "New World Order and NATO's war against Yugoslavia", New Political Science, vol. 24, no. 1 (March 2002), pp. 73–104.
- Takis Fotopoulos, "The Global 'War' of the Transnational Elite", in Critical Perspectives on Globalisation, ed. by Marina Della Giusta et al., ISBN 978-1-84542-176-2, (Chelthenham, UK & Norrhampton, MA, USA: Edward Elgar publishing, 2006), ch. 28.
- Steve Best (editor), Global Capitalism and the Demise of the Left: Renewing Radicalism through Inclusive Democracy (Athens, Greece: Koukkida, 2008) ISBN 978-960-98038-5-4. and as a Special Issue of 'The International Journal of Inclusive Democracy', Winter 2009, in English.