ABSTRACT
The development of a democratic and egalitarian alternative is long overdue. This chapter outlines the basic objectives and underlying logic. It examines the manner in which a democratic program would address the macroeconomic issues of deficits, productivity growth, and investment. The chapter considers how to overcome some potential barriers to the implementation of a democratic economics in the United States. A democratic economics seeks sustainable improvements in living standards. A democratic economics should enhance democracy and community at home and cooperation abroad. Democrats and Republicans alike pursue the vain project of restoring American primacy. The premises of democratic economics build on much more than wishful thinking. Economic policy must urgently find ways of replacing the economic functions that traditional family households fulfilled before entire new generations of women and children are committed to penury and economic marginality. The twin deficits are symptoms of underlying problems in the US economy. Centrist economics is caught between the rightwing and the democratic approaches.
