Towards a New Socialism

by Paul Cockshott, Allin F. Cottrell

This book is our attempt to answer the idea that socialism is dead and buried after the demise of the Soviet Union.

The core of the book consists of a series of chapters spelling out what we believe would be efficient and democratic methods for planning a complex economy. We also examine issues of inequality and its elimination, systems of payment for labour, a democratic political constitution for a socialist commonwealth, the commune as a set of arrangements for living, and property relations under socialism.

Genres: Politics, Economics, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Theory, Sociology, Technology

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Paul Cockshott was a computer scientist at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.

Reviews

[Mohamed M · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably the book that made me think about actual operation of socialist economy the most, I have to admit I could have been a market socialist of some sort before I read this book coming from a heavily anti-statist position, this book made me reassess central planning heavily, we definitely need something of this sort, working in actual retail/industry settings makes their arguments more vivid than you would think, central planning happens in market economies much more than the average joe or economist think, it is just hierarchical and very undemocratic

[Alex · Rating 1 out of 5]

Towards a New Socialism was to be my introduction to socialism, a counterbalance to my at the time new laissez-faire views. Not only did it fail to convince me of socialism, it failed to convince me of any merits of socialism. And not only that, it left me feeling like I haven't actually learned anything about this school of thought. It's surprisingly informative in hindsight, after I've read The Road to Serfdom and The Counter-Revolution of Science, but that's not exactly a point in its favor.

One thing that stuck out was that there was virtually zero discussion of anything normative. Equality and democracy are apparently seen as so obviously good that no discussion of them is necessary (even though some people - like me - see both as a scam). The same treatment is given to social justice (another scam), but not to actual justice, and freedom is only used in the sense of positive freedom, whereas negative freedom is not even mentioned, despite these two having been conceived as two sides of the same coin. If you expect an ethical treatise, something to explain the socialist mindset to you, look somewhere else. This book fails completely in this regard. But democracy and equality are important, don't you agree? No, I don't. Towards a New Socialism stands firmly in the tradition of books that are extremely convincing if you already agree with them, and if you don't, then you're a shitlord or something.

Granted, this book is primarily one on economics. So, how does it fare here? Well, not good. The three-page bibliography contains Marx, Lenin, Stalin (because nothing says "economist" like exporting grain during a famine), Keynes, but not Hayek, Rothbard, Friedman, Sowell, or Mises. The latter is mentioned in passing when the calculation-problem is addressed, but his fucking first name is omitted. And mind you, this book spends a good amount of pages on the calculation-problem, yet apparently, the authors only read secondary literature on the topic. Their solution to this problem is mostly to emulate the market, by bringing in pseudo-prices among other things - cheap imitations of the real thing, the thing that actually works and doesn't rest on supercomputers and bureaucrats trying to figure out what you need. The knowledge-problem, formulated by Hayek in The Road to Serfdom, is something they haven't heard about at all. Notice a pattern yet?

What kills this book for me is the callousness with which the authors describe their plans on how to dissolve the traditional family and instead establish a society based on communes, which is really just their hatred of the individual taken to its logical extreme. Here is where Towards a New Socialism shows its true colors, as just another megalomaniac control-fantasy of talentless pseudo-intellectuals that have never left the confines of their Ivory Tower. Absolutely disgusting.

[Илмар Шалаоя · Rating 4 out of 5]

I added the new, extended Finnish edition in the database but for some reason it appears separately. Due to lack of reviews, I share my two cents also here.

A thorough manifesto of the societal system suggested by gentlemen Cockshott and Cottrell. Their detailed and theoretical covering of all major fields of economy deem to be heavy on those of us with no background in economics, but due to the clear style in writing the message is delivered with precision and clarity.

The book gives heavy and direct criticism to all directions, not the least to Soviet system and other "failed" socialist states, without forgetting to give credit to the aspects that were genial and well-planned. The analysis on the reasons why the previous socialist systems have failed proved to be an interesting look on recent history.

If I ever end up pursuing a career in politics or economics, I will definitely give this book another go. For now, it serves as giving directions on how to plan and manage any possible communal living in the future, and an interesting and inspiring look onto a field of literature less frequented by myself.

[Lara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un libro excelente por la manera en que sintetiza los argumentos a favor de un nuevo socialismo y da respuesta a las objeciones más comunes. ¿Hay algo más allá del capitalismo? Sin duda, una respuesta convincente a esta pregunta es algo muy difícil de lograr. Tras el colapso del bloque socialista, la izquierda abandona en masa la idea del socialismo basado en la planificación económica como medio para superar la apropiación del trabajo ajeno, la anarquía de la producción y la enajenación política de los individuos. La respuesta detallada se encuentra en "Towards a new socialism", publicado en 1993; sin embargo, este libro, que permite un nuevo acercamiento a la planificación socialista para los millones de hispanohablantes, resume los mecanismos principales que caracterizarían a este nuevo socialismo; los contrasta con lo que ocurría al otro lado del telón de acero, y refuta contundente a los aduladores del mercado; en particular, a la escuela austriaca de Hayek y Mises, quienes argumentaron que el cálculo económico en el socialismo, y la recopilación de la información necesaria para la ejecución de un plan racional era imposible fuera del mercado. Los escritos de Maxi Nieto, que tocan varios temas -desde la lógica explotadora e inestable del capitalismo, hasta los mecanismos democráticos que deben caracterizar al socialismo- añaden el elemento comunista militante, siempre respaldado en los hechos y consistente lógicamente, que hace que el libro no se convierta en un manifiesto tecnocrático a favor de la planificación económica sobre el mercado. Los únicos detalles negativos son la traducción de los textos del profesor Paul Cockshott, y que en algunas partes parece romperse la secuencia lógica de la obra con la introducción de los mismos. Sin duda, un excelente libro que contribuye a restablecer la convicción de que hay vida -y muchísimo mejor- más allá del agonizante y brutal capitalismo.

[jude · Rating 3 out of 5]

dense and filled with statistics and numerical data, this is far more empirical than what i had expected when i first started out this book. this, alone, is worthy enough rebuttal for the common line that socialists are merely idealists and pay no attention to numbers, because cockshott and cottrell have painstakingly built the groundwork for what i think is a feasible alternative to the neoliberal economics that dominate our markets and our societies today. the only problem i've had with this book is that i'm not myself british, and therefore there are references to services and government offices that i know next to nothing about; but don't get me wrong, this is very well-researched and well-argued.

[Alexander Morozov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very refreshing to read something about building a radically different society. It starts a bit slow and technical but then quickly picks up and becomes a page-turner. The chapters about communes and democracy are absolute bangers because of how radical those ideas are compared to current society.

[Liquidlasagna · Rating 3 out of 5]

wikipedia

Towards a New Socialism is a 1993 non-fiction book written by Scottish computer scientist Paul Cockshott, co-authored by Scottish economics professor Allin F. Cottrell.

The book outlines in detail a proposal for a complex planned socialist economy, taking inspiration from cybernetics, the works of Karl Marx, and British operations research scientist Stafford Beer's 1973 model of a distributed decision support system dubbed Project Cybersyn.

Aspects of a socialist society such as direct democracy, foreign trade and property relations are also explored. The book is, in the authors' words, "our attempt to answer the idea that socialism is dead and buried after the demise of the Soviet Union."

---

he came out with a funny little book in 2020 as well....

In our proposal people would be paid not in money but with nontransferable electronic work accounts. Purchases would be made with smart cards as they are today, but with the difference that the only way people could accumulate work credits would be by actually working. The more hours you work the more credits you get. Goods in the shops would then be priced in hours, and the exchange principle is basically one for one. For one hour of work you get goods that took one hour to make.

Paul Cockshott, How the World Works (2020)

---

Shame he wasn't a follower of Keynes and Samuelson and Galbraith, and put his thoughts into planning and cybernetics with the rest of the gang

[Jason P · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this after Alec Nove's Feasible Socialism book for a different socialist vision. I have read previous Cockshott books, so I am a fan. He has also sold me on the ability to use complex computation to plan economies. Mostly, I liked the book, but I do think there are some things I'd like more full and detailed explanations. Ultimately, my conclusion was that whole Cockshott and Nove have different visions they're likely not as in conflict as some might think. Nove admitted both that planning in some sectors could be effective and that he had to be open minded about potential new technology, technology Cockshott has available. Cockshott on the other hand does allow some market forces to still exist for consumer goods. I also feel that when push comes to shove any transition from capitalism to socialism will have a similar path as that of feudalism to capitalism. It won't happen all at once and it'll happen in stages. We likely will see some form of market socialist economy emerge out of capitalism and it will still feature many capitalist features just like early capitalism featured many relics of feudalism. Eventually these will fade out of existence and we might achieve something closer to Cockshott's vision. Overall, I would highly recommend this book.

[BT · Rating 4 out of 5]

A comprehensive attempt at writing out how a socialist economy could look in the 20th century. Being now in the 21st century, where we feel the pains of capitalism on people and the environment as strongly as ever, this book would need few updates. You should go into this book recognizing that this framework is not a set of minor revisions, but a complete overhaul of how a government would operate and how people would live within it. It is, in some ways, ideological and may feel impossible to implement in a country like the United States (the author is British and focuses on England). But idealism has always been at the heart of socialism, along with the belief that such widespread change is possible.

I do have questions and criticisms, mostly pertaining to the implementation details:

1. I believe the author is too confident in algorithms as the great mediators and managers of the economy. Algorithms are incredible in theory, but as with all software, are left to human hands to implement and therefore subject to human error.

2. The book does little to outright address the existence of people who cannot perform labor due to disability, limiting such provisioning to the elderly and children. That said, their framework can easily be adapted to accommodate them, and perhaps this is one area where the book could be updated for today.

3. How do we accurately report labor performed? In theory, we can adapt time cards and other methods used currently but all of those are subject to "fudging". I suppose there would be some oversight over this, but we don't get a good idea of what this looks like.

I imagine a more economically-minded person reading this may not share the same questions I do, and may see more wrong with its proposals. Overall, the book is a refreshing attempt to go beyond the theory where so much Leftist ideology exists and into the realm of possible implementations.

[Jared Quigg · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The control model here is the same as the dumb central heating controller: it is reactive and lacks foresight. Thus there are bound to be economic fluctuations and instabilities. Actually, the situation is worse as there is no reason to suppose that a large number of firms, each responding to different feedback signals, will display any kind of coherent goal-directed behavior. At least with a dumb central heating system there is some clear overall goal. In a market economy there is no such overall goal.”
—Towards A New Socialism

A wonderful little book defending the merits of economic planning in the face of the Left’s retreat toward the market. The above passage was incredibly memorable. We’ve all experienced a heating system that left us just a little too cold or a little too hot. The “anarchy of the market” is the same way, whether it’s high inflation, high unemployment, or both at once. The market economy is horribly inefficient, exploitative, and it ruins lives.

Just a warning: this book does have many dense passages, so I probably wouldn’t recommend it to anyone getting into left wing politics for the first time. This can come later, but it should be read eventually—as Marx said, there is no royal road to science.

There are an abundance of radical ideas in this book, like a commune system of housing, democracy by lot and the abolition of money. Money would of course be replaced by the labor voucher system advocated by Marx, radically reducing inequality and eliminating exploitation. The communes, modeled on the people’s communes in China, would revolutionize the community, eliminating the isolation of capitalist society. Perhaps the most thought provoking chapter is the one on democracy. Criticizing elections as being inherently aristocratic had never occurred to me, and I’m very interested in reading more about choosing citizens for political positions using a lot system. Lenin’s ideal would be fulfilled—every kitchen maid would learn to rule the state.

My one critique of this book, for all its beautiful ideas, is its lack of a plan of action on how to implement any of it. Is the answer revolution? Somehow securing a victory in a bourgeois election? I wish this facet of politics would have been addressed, but admittedly you can find it elsewhere. Read Marx and Lenin, and then read this book.

[Илмар Шалаоя · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thorough manifesto of the societal system suggested by gentlemen Cockshott and Cottrell. Their detailed and theoretical covering of all major fields of economy deem to be heavy on those of us with no background in economics, but due to the clear style in writing the message is delivered with precision and clarity.

The book gives heavy and direct criticism to all directions, not the least to Soviet system and other "failed" socialist states, without forgetting to give credit to the aspects that were genial and well-planned. The analysis on the reasons why the previous socialist systems have failed proved to be an interesting look on recent history.

If I ever end up pursuing a career in politics or economics, I will definitely give this book another go. For now, it serves as giving directions on how to plan and manage any possible communal living in the future, and an interesting and inspiring look onto a field of literature less frequented by myself.

[El Ciencias · Rating 5 out of 5]

Una de las mejores obras para el MCI que hay en la actualidad.

[Carlos Asensio · Rating 1 out of 5]

Literalmente los únicos dos puntos que hace sobre el ciber-comunismo (más allá de hablar del comunismo en general o criticar ideas contrarias) son:

1. Todo el problema económico se resume a optimizar una matriz 20M x 20M, cosa que podemos hacer muy rápido.

2. Obtener información no es un problema porque los precios no dependen de las preferencias sino de los costes marginales de producción (¿y esos costes no son precios?).

Uno podría decir: "bueno, técnicamente el punto 1 es cierto, ¿qué comentan sobre el coste computacional y de adquisición de información a las restricciones de la optimización?". 0. 0 páginas. C-e-r-o. Lo cual es llamativo cuando trabajas un problema de optimización multidimensional con restricciones dinámicas y recursivas (en la matriz una fila y columna corresponde a la energía, por ejemplo, pero la cantidad de energía es una restricción que depende de la producción de energía, que es una función de, entre otras variables, la propia energía).

Cuando se preguntan sobre cómo invertir su respuesta es, literalmente, crear un Departamento de la Inversión para asignar fondos. ¿Qué reflexiones hacen sobre cómo estas inversiones afectan a las restricciones de la matriz anterior? Ninguna, simplemente que planificarán la inversión.

El autor más citado, por otro lado, es Lange. No citan esta carta que le envió a Hayek en 1940 tras leer sus críticas (aunque cabe decir que cuando, años más tarde, trabajó para la RDA parece que él mismo se olvidó de ella, pero ese es otro asunto):

"No propongo la fijación de precios por parte de un comité de planificación central como una solución práctica. En mi artículo sólo se empleaba como un mecanismo metodológico para mostrar que los precios de equilibrio pueden ser determinados por el método de prueba y error incluso en ausencia de un mercado en el sentido institucional de la palabra. Es evidente que, en la práctica, voy a recomendar la determinación de los precios por medio del mercado cuando sea posible, por ejemplo, cuando el número de compradores y de vendedores sea lo suficientemente grande. Sólo cuando este número es tan bajo que da lugar a un oligopolio, un oligopsonio o un monopolio bilateral recomendaría la fijación de precios a través de un organismo público […] Me gustaría añadir, asimismo, que tal como señalaba en la última parte de mi trabajo, sólo defiendo en la práctica la socialización de la producción en aquellos ámbitos en los que no funciona el mercado competitivo."

- Oskar Lange, “Oskar Lange’s Letter to Hayek (31 de julio de 1940)”, en Lange, Economic Theory and Market Socialism: Selected Essays of Oskar Lange, coord. por Tadeusz Kowalik, Aldershot, Reino Unido, Edward Elgar, 1944, pág. 298.

Supongo que dirán algo así como "cuando dice que no lo recomendaría en la práctica, se está refiriendo a las limitaciones computacionales de su época", réplica con sentido si no fuera porque ninguna de las críticas de Hayek iban en ese sentido.

Por último, de todo lo que se podría comentar me hizo especialmente gracia el apartado dedicado a criticar la crítica de los incentivos ("si no hay lucro o amenaza de quiebra la gente no va a mover el culo para innovar"). En este apartado exponen la tesis de Mises sobre el tema (resulta llamativo que no haya ninguna mención a la escuela de Public Choice), y, cito textualmente "[...] individuos motivados por la perspectiva de una gran riqueza personal (en caso de éxito) o de la ruina financiera personal (en caso de fracaso), entonces estamos completamente en desacuerdo.

9. ¿POR QUÉ EL TIEMPO DE TRABAJO?"

>Llegan
>Exponen el punto del rival
>Dicen que no están de acuerdo
>No desarrollan

Basados.

[Aung Sett Kyaw Min · Rating 2 out of 5]

The title should read "Towards a slightly different status quo + full employment"

Cockshott takes 300 pages to convince the weary reader that retaining the nation-state, mass commodity production, generalized market exchange, "price-rectification" (achieved via socialist marketing bureau), modern consumer culture and even money (foreign currency, other capitalist nations aren't going to just turn over their currency in exchange for the socialist country's "labor vouchers"), among other things, can lead to a socialist transformation of society. As Cockshott goes on to include more and more questionable patterns under the umbrella of socialism, the whole schema becomes less and less plausible. I applaud his intellectual bravery for tackling some of the thorny issues that have to do with central planning and labor time accounting, but I fear that his approach is doomed from the start.
Would I live and work in a Cockshottian actually existent socialist nation where full employment is guaranteed and 'communes' form the basic unit of social reproduction? Yes. I do believe a Cockshottian actually-existent-socialist nation would promote human flourishing better than an average social democracy.
Will such a commonwealth realize the voluntary association of free-producers that Marx speaks of? The answer is an empathetic "No".

[Eli · Rating 5 out of 5]

excellent on the question of socialist economic planning models even if at some of the book's assertions are questionable (like motherly labor being considered low productivity or advocating for Ricardian ground rent under a planned socialist economy) but nonetheless authoritative on how to construct planning mechanisms. Also leads further towards the conclusion of a planned degrowth economy with rather direct discussion on environmental issues within capitalist/socialist production

[Kosta · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the early 90s when this was written, socialism and communism were dirty words. In that context, where the USSR, already marketing it's economy but by bit since the 50s had collapsed and private ownership and markets were on the upsurge, Cockshott and Cottrell put out this modern day manifesto for central planning and a communist economy.
Studying the history of the socialist experiments of the 20th century and building on pioneering statistical formalisations of the Labor Theory of Value by Farjoun and Machover, they scientifically analyse the causes of modern inequality, diagnose causes, propose and justify solutions. They cover the cybernetic planning radical political democracy that would be necessary, historical and technological precedents, and the social changes that could result.
Though a bit maths heavy, its essential reading for anyone interested in criticism of capitalist economics.

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nur 3 Jahre nach dem katastrophalen Zusammenbruch der Sovietunion erschienen, hat dieses Buch mit seinen klaren Forderungen, Vorschlägen und Analysen eine immense Inspirationskraft. Was hilft besser gegen den sich anbahnenden Capitalist Realism als ein kohärentes und gut durchdachtes Modell für eine wahrhaft vernünftige Wirtschaft? Sollte mehr gelesen werden.

[José · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a wild effort of a book - reimagining the market to make it work without capitalists. Ultimately it provides some solid work on this and would be made even better with knowledge on modern computer systems (while writing in 1997, Cockshott and Cottrell do a remarkable work at outlining a potential computational economic governance system using technologies that now would be comically outdated). By taking on this effort, they demonstrate that market forces (demand and offer) can be - from an intuitive standpoint - replicated by a modern computational system and do away with the capitalists living off of such a system by making participation in the economy considerable more democratic and much less hierarchical.

Nonetheless, it feels as though the authors try to create a "socialism" which still implicates heavy forms of forced social organisation and aggregation. To some extent, this has to be achieved for governance purposes (and is more democratic and still preferable to what the capitalist market does by driving low wage workers out of the cities where they've lived or work), but this society imagined by Cockshott and Cottrell feels more like a starting point to something more liberating and not so much like a permanent system (perhaps modern knowledge on automation systems would've been helpful on driving that mentality). Apart from this, the book sometimes relies on somewhat overly simplifying assumptions of how specific aspects of the market work and assumes that modelling them is trivial (in effect the economy has consistently proven itself to be unpredictable). I would still recommend it because it is such an overarching reimagination of society, it's kind of mind-blowing to go through it.

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Jsme přesvědčeni, že je třeba spojit tři klíčové ideje – pracovní teorii hodnoty, kybernetickou koordinaci a participativní demokracii – jako alternativu k liberální trojici cen, trhů a parlamentu."

"Abychom pokročili dál, musíme uznat vyprázdněnost nároků volených institucí na titul demokracie. Nezáleží na tom, zda si taková instituce říká parlament nebo rada. Pokud jsou její členové vybíráni ve volbách, můžete si být jisti, že takoví reprezentanti budou nereprezentativní. Instituce bude obsazena dominantní společenskou skupinou – třídami podnikatelů a profesionálů v buržoazní společnosti, nebo revoluční aristokracií a stranou v socialistické společnosti. Jsme přesvědčeni, že jedinou schůdnou alternativou je přímá demokracie."

[Trev · Rating 5 out of 5]

Utopian socialism ain't got nothing on a mf like Paul Cockshott. Love it or hate it, the man has answers. Even if you disagree with everything he says, if this doesn't get your imagination going for how the world could be different, I feel sorry for you.

It is so awesome how he dedicates multiple pages justifying why Gaussian Elimination at scale would finally be possible now (meaning 1993). Today (2023), more compute is likely used on the average Google Translate query than his worse case lin alg matrix row reduction for the largest country on Earth. Like the problem is ~so~ solvable today that it's genuine cool.

[Usman Pasha · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book, in the first chapter, quite successfully argues that socialism isn't just desirable, it's quite achievable using modern technology. The rest of the book lays our a viable political and economic system for a future socialist society while pointing out where contemporary and past socialist societies have gone wrong. One thing I didn't appreciate its use of peculiar economics terms without explaining what they mean first. An average reader would certainly have to look those terms up.

[Nechayev_V · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best book on socialist economics you could ever read. This book clearly demonstrates the utter economic viability of central planning and the LTV, and puts forth these classical economic ideas in a fully analytic, empirically-effective manner. I highly recommend this book for any socialists studying econ, as it is a thorough challenge to the prevailing neoliberal order.

[A YOGAM · Rating 4 out of 5]

Das Buch Alternativen aus dem Rechner. Für sozialistische Planung und direkte Demokratie ist ein Buch von Paul Cockshott und Allin F. Cottrell, das die Möglichkeit einer geplanten Wirtschaft durch den Einsatz moderner Computertechnologie untersucht. Es bietet eine Alternative zu marktbasierten Wirtschaftssystemen. Cockshott und Cottrell sind überzeugt, dass heutige Rechenleistung und Technologie die Herausforderungen einer zentralisierten Planung lösen könnten, die in früheren sozialistischen Modellen scheiterten.
In Platons Dialog Politeia werden die Modelle einer gerechten Gesellschaft und einer gerechten Erziehung diskutiert, wobei unter anderem die Rollen von Frauen und Kindern thematisiert werden. Die Frage, wie Gemeinschaften aufgebaut werden können, in denen alle Mitglieder, unabhängig von Geschlecht oder Alter, ihren Platz und ihre Funktion finden, wird darin gestellt. Hier wird ein radikales Modell einer gerechten Gesellschaft vorgestellt, das die traditionellen sozialen Normen infrage stellt und die Beteiligung von Frauen und Kindern an der Gemeinschaft fördert, ohne dass diese in starren Hierarchien eingebunden sind. Dies kann als ein Vorläufer moderner Diskussionen über die Gleichberechtigung und die Integration marginalisierter Gruppen verstanden werden. Trotz der revolutionären Ideen in Platons Gedankenwelt bleibt die praktische Umsetzung solcher Visionen in der realen Welt eine große Herausforderung.
Wenn wir über die Visionen einer gerechteren Gesellschaft und die Rolle von Gemeinschaft und Solidarität nachdenken, stoßen wir unweigerlich auf moderne Überlegungen, die das kapitalistische System infrage stellen. Ein Beispiel für eine solche Auseinandersetzung ist das Buch Alternativen aus dem Rechner von Paul Cockshott und Allin F. Cottrell, in dem die Autoren alternative ökonomische Modelle entwickeln, die über den Markt hinausgehen und eine gemeinschaftlichere, gerechtere Verteilung von Ressourcen ermöglichen. Diese Perspektiven bieten wertvolle Einsichten, wenn wir die Herausforderungen und Potenziale einer postkapitalistischen Gesellschaft in den Blick nehmen, in der die Bedürfnisse aller Mitglieder der Gesellschaft berücksichtigt werden.

IN ARBEIT

[boocia]

this was a bit of a drag! it had a few inclinations i enjoyed though:
- being situated in specifically how to envision socialist economies after the failure of the soviet union was nice and narrow
- conscientiousness of feminist and ecologist ideologies; so thinking about reorganizing the economy including domestic life to emancipate/acknowledge "women's work" and also to account for not overusing earth resources/thinking about property rights in relation to land rights in relation to the earth

ultimately i think i was perhaps emotional about this book though; it is sort of predicated on using the economy as a carrot to impel/deterministically create a good citizen i think; and there is a bit of cynicism perhaps to that. for ex. i feel like perfectly calculating how much more someone should be paid for a dangerous job or still having sort of supply/demand determine the price of items that use limited natural resources both suggest (rightly?) that people won't just do the right thing or do risky things for the greater cause of their community/earth. maybe i'm a bit mutual aid-pilled; so it's hard to feel good about this like, perfectly venmo-ing each of your friends down to the cent way of figuring out rewards for work. and also i guess i do believe that people who do risky or difficult jobs do deserve higher rewards though? so mixed bag.

i think also the other fault of either mine or this concept is whether or not algorithms can really do enough to react to the changing landscape of needs, wants, etc. but maybe that is just me being used market-forces, to believe that the economy is partially emotional and therefore just going by "input" and "output" without considering like the optics of who is willing to wait, what the urgency feels like, morale, etc is just me lacking a more utopianly bloodless vision of economy.

[J · Rating 4 out of 5]

In his book Cockshott, going back to Marxs "Critique of the Gotha Program", delivers many fresh ideas on how a socialist economy is to be organized.

Cockshott mainly concerns himself with questions regarding how a socialist economy in wich all economic sectors are based upon the Labour Theory of Value (LTV) is to be organized.
This and the planning of the socialist state owned economy make up the basis of the Book.
He develops the basic Ideas of Marx further, applying it to the macro and micro economic Level of the whole of a socialist society. His economic background shines throughout the book not only when applying the LTV to Britains economy, calculating the worth of an hour in Britain but also in his revolutionary proposals for how planning is ought to be organized in a socialist society.
All economic aspects of the Book are incredible and worth a read for every Marxist.

Sadly in all other aspects of Marxism Cockshott is really weak, especially the Chapters on Democracy and the Commune are evidence of this. His background is not mainly a Scientific Socialist one but one of a Marxist influenced Economist.

"Towards a New Socialism" takes inspiration from Marx, The Soviet Union, Chile and even Neuroscience. It has plenty new aspects from wich every Communist can benefit!!! It is thus recommended to read in a smart way: taking inspiration from the worthwhile parts while not overweighing its weak points.

[Nshan Burns · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book contains many real, thought-provoking contributions, including its proposed system of labor-time accounting and especially its "market" mechanism (although I don't think of it as such) to ensure planning remains responsive to changes in consumption preferences. These address questions I've had in trying to form my own idea of what a planned economy could look like. However, I disagree with several points the authors make and feel that they warrant further discussion than they receive. Foremost among them are the lack of pay differentials in response to preferences over different types of labor, the lack of "reward" of state enterprises' performance, and the types of decision-making that are carried out by representative bodies chosen by lot. Go into this book expecting introductions to each of these issues, but not satisfactory discussions about their implications for economic efficiency.

[Antonio Zambrano Allende · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entender la teoría del valor, la planificación y la democratización de la sociedad en función de las nuevas capacidades instaladas en la sociedad actual, así como estás podrían eventualmente generar sociedades más justas, son algunos de los temas que Cockshott intenta abordar en este libro.

Y lo hace de la forma más probocadora posible. Arremetiendo contra las formas capitalistas y las teorías neoliberales, así como planteando posibles estructuras descentralizadas de planificación eficiente de la producción, donde incluso, podría suprimirse el mercado e incluso el dinero.

Los argumentos y el analisis me parecen lo suficientemente solidos como para continuar multiples discusiones en este sentido, y seguir pensando en un mundo mejor.

[Amine Bouzayeni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ce bouquin est une perle pour ceux qui n’ont pas encore abandonner l’espoir d’une alternative sérieuse au capitalisme.
Proposition quasi exhaustive d’un fonctionnement économique basé sur une planification par ordinateurs de la production, ça discute du comment et des moyens qu’il faudrait y mettre et ça va jusqu’à discuter de la complexité des fonctions mathématiques utilisés pour le plan.
un fonctionnement démocratique basé sur une participation plus concrète des citoyens que ce qui en est aujourd’hui en avec un retour au source du côté des grecs.
D’autees thématiques liés aux inégalités sont étayées et discutées et des solutions sont envisagées pour y mettre un termes.
Bref ça change aussi de lire quelque chose de concret proposé qui va au delà de la posture « anti machin ».

[Matija · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cockshott proves the mathemathical feasability of Centrally planned economies with integrated market solutions to problems of Soviet-style command economy, while giving some insights into how a society that is employing this type of planning would look like. Advocating for abolishment of electoral politics, he calls back on Aristotles definition of democracy as randomly chosen representatives of the working people, and the immense potential that modern communication gives us in participating in making decisions that really impact our lives.

[KT · Rating 3 out of 5]

An ambitious and thought provoking, although not entirely convincing read in which the authors work from economic first principles in putting forward a cooperative, planned form of social economy under a radically democratic political constitution as the preferred form of political economy to achieve the greatest possible fulfillment of the potential of each human being, as individual and as a member of society

Particularly enjoyed the well thought out chapter on communes, which could break down the sexual division of labour and help establish a presumption of human equality