(This article was first published on ZCommunications: Reimagining Society Project)
Is it possible to conceive in serious and practical terms an “America Beyond Capitalism” (ABC)? The following presents a summation of the systemic argument of my recent book of this title, together with an expanded elaboration of certain key points related to problems of political-economic context and possibility, on the one hand; and, on the other, of larger system goals and outcomes (Alperovitz 2006).
Just below the surface level of media attention, theorists, policy makers, and informed citizens have been generating an extraordinary range of new ideas in recent decades. It is possible to bring together critical elements of the evolving foundational thinking, and project and extend others, to define the underlying structural building blocks of a democratic political-economic system “model” that is different in fundamental ways from both traditional capitalism and most models of traditional socialism.