No, we are not against democracy. But we have to recognize that not all its
effects are wholly good in every context. In the context of planning,
democarcy would make the calculation problem worse by amplifying the
information distortions it involves. Democracy is not part of the solution
to the calculation problem. That is not a reninciation of democracy. It is
a criticism of a proposed solution to a problem with planning. Am I
speaking Latin or something, why is this simple stuff so hard to
understand? I thought you guys were economists. --jks
-----
This is really silly. Nobody thinks that democratic planning involves town
meetings to discuss whether buses should use diesel engines or not. Or
whether a government agency should standardize on Sybase or Oracle. It
means delegating people to act responsibly on behalf of society rather than
in their own private interests, which was the case in the former Soviet
Union. If you were in a position of power, you could feather your own nest
while making unwise investment decisions. The former Soviet Union was
characterized not by central planning, but by industrial fiefdoms that
worked out deals with each other to meet arbitrary quotas. All of the
chieftans running factories or mines made decisions based on the needs of
their fiefdom rather than society as a whole. Cuba, on the other hand, has
very little of these types of bureaucratic distortions. One of the reasons
is that there are no particular privileges associated with being a manager.
As Ken pointed out, you can make more money as a bartender in a foreign
owned hotel than you can in a state industry high-level position. There is
also much more democracy in Cuba today than there was in the former Soviet
Union. All in all, the "market socialists" seemed blissfully unaware of
Cuban society and politics. I guess being in an intense dialogue with
Hayekian libertarians determines your area of concern. How sad. Cuba is a
truly inspiring example of socialist development and every PEN-L'er should
try to visit the place at some point in their lives.
Louis Proyect
The Marxism mailing-list: http://www.marxmail.org
