Social Structures of Direct Democracy : On the Political Economy of Equality.
- 1st ed.
- 1 online resource (229 pages)
- Studies in Critical Social Sciences Series ; v.68 .
- Studies in Critical Social Sciences Series .
Intro -- Social Structures of Direct Democracy -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Foreword -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1 Theory, Praxis, and Change -- The Ragged Edge of Anarchy: Direct Democracy -- Mutualism -- Collectivism -- Communist Anarchism -- Conflict Theory -- Why Capitalism Must Always Collapse -- The Relationship between Change and Radicalism -- Structural Limitations to Change -- Insurrection versus Revolution -- A Case Study in Political Revolution: Egypt -- Does Direct Democracy Require Small-scale Societies? -- McDonald's Iron Cage -- 2 Relations of Authority -- The Fraud of Representative Democracy -- The Best Democracy Money Can Buy -- Stealing Democracy Old School -- Political Parties -- A Path to Direct Democracy -- Economic Authority -- Political Authority -- Constitution -- 3 Material Relations -- Economic Utilities of Direct Democracy -- Markets and Prices -- Currency, Income, Banking, and Credit -- Profit and Worker-owned Firms -- Authority over Productive Property -- Innovation and Small Business -- Relations of Consumption -- Income Distribution -- Regulated Labor Markets: Hiring Halls -- Distribution of Productive Property -- Resource Use -- What to Produce -- How to Produce -- Can the System Adapt? -- 4 Social Structure -- Culture and Social Integration -- Organizing Principles of Social Structure -- Social Statuses -- Social Roles -- Virtual Worlds -- Institutions and Socialization -- Religion -- Family and Sexuality -- Education -- The Means of Violence -- Compulsion and Discipline -- Journalism -- The Social Network: The Future that Can be Now -- Conclusion: No Islands of Egalitarianism in a Sea of Inequality -- Afterword: What Can Grow in the Graveyard for Orthodoxies? -- Bibliography -- Index.
In Social Structures of Direct Democracy John Asimakopoulos develops a political economy of structural equality making strong empirical arguments for radical transformation toward direct democracy by filling positions of political and economic authority with randomly selected citizens.