A Helpful User’s Guide to Participatory Economics

Economy: “a system for producing, distributing, and consuming wealth or resources”. Economics: the study of economies. Participatory Economics (“Parecon”): an economic model proposed in 1991 by Michael Albert and Robin Hahnel to replace market capitalism and central planning of economies. Values for a good economy:

• Self-management: Having a say in decisions that affect you.

• Equity: Fairness in who gets what.
• Efficiency: Doing the work of an economy without wasting what we value. This often refers to money, but here it refers to human effort, human lives, natural resources and the environment, and individual dignity.
• Diversity: The greatest variety of choices in work, consumption, and life.
• Solidarity: Cooperation, or unity of purpose or goals.

Institutions of Parecon: Parecon is made up of four main institutions to promote the above values:

1. Balanced job complexes: Jobs are balanced for desirability and empowerment. This can mean that jobs comprise some desirable and some undesirable tasks, so that everyone’s job includes some high-functioning and empowering work, and everyone's job complex can include some boring and tedious work.
2. Remuneration for effort and sacrifice: You get compensated for how hard you work (defined in terms of duration, intensity, onerousness) and what you give up to do it -- not for property, bargaining power, or talent.
3. Self-managed council democracy: Economic decisions are made by workers’ councils and consumers’ councils (decision-making bodies comprising those who work in a workplace or consume in a residence) according to the self-management principle (those who are impacted by a decision have a say in that decision to the degree they're impacted by it).
4. Participatory Planning: A different economic allocation system to replace markets and command planning. Individuals and councils submit proposed consumption or production plans to those who are impacted by those plans. Those who submit those plans revise their plans if necessary based on assorted qualitative and quantitative feedback. The process iterates if necessary a handful of times until there is no more excess demand.

How can I help achieve Parecon? Get involved in shorter-term struggles (see reverse) and work to make our movement ever more solidaritous, equitable, efficient, diverse, and democratic. A strong, democratic movement will pursue Parecon or something better. To learn more: Websites:

• www.parecon.org, the main Parecon site, hosted by Michael Albert/ZNet

Books:

• Parecon: Life After Capitalism by Michael Albert (London: Verso, 2003) (Available for free download at www.parecon.org - also available in stores)
• Economic Justice and Democracy by Robin Hahnel (London: Routledge,’05)