ABSTRACT
Before proceeding to examine our proposals for how a new, different economic system of comprehensive, democratic economic planning might work, there are two preliminary matters of business to attend to. The first is to clarify the goals to be achieved. The second preliminary matter of business is less straightforward. It has to do with why anyone should be interested in considering a qualitatively different economic system in the first place. A system where productive resources are socially owned is proposed, but democratic worker and consumer councils allocate user rights over these resources among themselves through participatory planning procedures. This means the proposal does not to limit our ambitions to taming market excesses and allowing some social ownership alongside private ownership. Therefore, it is important to make the case for why private enterprise and markets have no role to play in a truly desirable economy and, therefore, why a mixed, regulated, market, “social democratic” economy will inevitably prove inadequate.
