ABSTRACT
An influential objection to socialism is that the potential combination of political and economic power in the hands of state authorities it allows would likely endanger democracy. Market socialism remains a hypothetical possibility because it has not yet been implemented anywhere in the real world. Competition between political parties for elective government offices is another important characteristic of American democracy. In a "market system" economic decision-making power is highly dispersed and economic decision- makers are largely autonomous. The Bureau of Public Ownership (BPO) is the agency under pragmatic market socialism that the incumbent party may use to take undue advantage of its authority and power. Under pragmatic market socialism, instruments of entitlement to property income such as stocks and bonds, owned by private individuals under capitalism, would be placed under the ownership of a single national government agency designated herein as the BPO.
