Market, State, and Community: Theoretical Foundations of Market Socialism

by David Miller

Can we conceive of a market economy that fulfills the ideals of socialism? Here, Miller provides a comprehensive examination, from the standpoint of political theory, of an economy in which market mechanisms retain a central role, but in which capitalist patterns of ownership have been superseded. He shows that liberal ideas of freedom, justice, and efficiency cannot be used to vindicate laissez-faire capitalism, and rebuts left-wing criticisms of a socialist market economy. Justifying his ideas as a workable option, he then presents a new model of the socialist state, whose central idea is that of democratic citizenship.

Genres: Economics, Philosophy

370 pages, Paperback

First published November 23, 1989

About the author

David Miller is professor of political theory and official fellow, Nuffield College, Oxford. He is a fellow of the British Academy and the author or editor of fifteen books, including On Nationality and Principles of Social Justice.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Mi...

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Reviews

[V. · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terrible. This book is full of apologetic twaddle, a cynical attempt to argue that those who are concerned with human progress should have no quarrel with markets after all. The article on "Alienation and Communism" is a howler: he argues that Marx's writings don't advocate communism, after all, but rather can justify the continued existence of markets equally well.

Complete junk that can only do more harm than good to anyone who's serious about understanding Marx and even to anyone who's serious about developing a real critique of Marxism that makes some contact with the theory itself and not some fantastical strawman cooked up by Miller.

[danny · Rating 3 out of 5]

sometimes he is cringe and writes weird but sometimes he has a cool idea like the chapter on exploitation establishes a cool argument for how wage work is exploitative tht doesnt rely on ltv or self-ownership principle