ABSTRACT
The society that is historically possible, more desirable, and potentially more efficient than the available alternatives is also historically necessary. Two general principles underlie alternative organizations of productive units and entire societies: hierarchy and participation. The first generates classes and, in modern times, capitalist or etatist social orders. The second implies classlessness and is the organizational precondition for socialism. Feudal society was a society of dependence, a prototype of a paternalistic order. Workers began to organize themselves into political parties and trade unions. Within industry, the existence of unions implied a counterstructure built on the same workers’ base. Scientific management concentrated on the organizational structure and treated the worker as a dehumanized bundle of muscles and nerves. The capitalist economy is based on private ownership. The resulting autonomy of the firm makes for relatively high microeconomic efficiency. But the lack of coordination at the national level generates macroeconomic waste. Etatist economy is based on state ownership.
