Tensions in Piketty’s Participatory Socialism: Reconciling Justice and Democracy

Analyse & Kritik 43 (1):71-88 (2021)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

In the final parts of Piketty’s Capital and Ideology, he presents his vision for a just and more equal society. This vision marks an alternative to contemporary societies, and differs radically both from the planned Soviet economies and from social democratic welfare states. In his sketch of this vision, Piketty provides a principled account of how such a society would look and how it would modify the current status of private property through co-managed enterprises and the creation of temporary ownership models. He also sets out two principles for when inequalities are just. The first principle permits inequalities that are beneficial to the worst-off, while the second permits inequalities that reflect differences in people’s choices and ambitions. This article identifies a tension between Piketty’s two inequality-permitting principles. It also argues that the procedural limits on how decisions are made within the enterprises of participatory socialism might create inequalities not permitted by the guiding distributive principles of participatory socialism. This tension points to the need for either further changes in firm structure and ownership, an even more progressive taxation scheme, or an egalitarian ethos reflected in citizens’ choices in their everyday lives under participatory socialism.

Other Versions

No versions found

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 99,410

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Ideologies and Utopia: A Ricoeurian Reading of Thomas Piketty.Benoît Walraevens - 2023 - Erasmus Journal for Philosophy and Economics 16 (1):1-27.
Capital, Ideology, and the Liberal Order.Vincent Geloso & Nick Cowen - 2021 - Analyse & Kritik 43 (2):413-435.
About Capital, Socialism and Ideology.Thomas Piketty - 2021 - Analyse & Kritik 43 (1):147-168.
Bunge Nevertheless. [REVIEW]Joseph Agassi - 2013 - Philosophy of the Social Sciences 43 (4):542-562.
A Preface to Economic Democracy.Robert H. Dahl (ed.) - 1985 - University of California Press.
A Preface to Economic Democracy.Robert Alan Dahl - 1985 - University of California Press.

Analytics

Added to PP
2021-06-24

Downloads
30 (#624,304)

6 months
5 (#897,479)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author Profiles

Citations of this work

Democratic Ethical Consumption and Social Justice.Andreas Albertsen - 2022 - Public Health Ethics 15 (2):130-137.

Add more citations

References found in this work

Unjust Equalities.Andreas Albertsen & Sören Flinch Midtgaard - 2014 - Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 17 (2):335-346.

Add more references