Originally published on 19 Jan 2013.
Robin Hahnel is interviewed by PopulistDialogues. He talks about his new book, Of the People, By the People, The Case for a Participatory Economy.
Excerpt: ‘Political economist Robin Hahnel returns as the guest this week talking about his new book, Of the People, By the People, The Case for a Participatory Economy. Saying that progressive people need a future vision of what an alternative economy might look like, Robin notes that the only alternative to capitalism is not the communist systems of the last century but rather one which allows the participation by workers and consumers in deciding for themselves. The private decision making structures around ownership must be replaced by worker and consumer decision making. His new book outlines how that might happen’.
Robin Hahnel is a radical economist and political activist. He is Professor Emeritus at American University in Washington, D.C. where he taught in the Economics Department from 1976 – 2008. He is currently a visiting professor in economics at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon, where he resides with his family. His work in economic theory is informed by the work of Thorstein Veblen, John Maynard Keynes, Karl Polanyi, Pierro Straffa, Joan Robinson, and Amartya Sen among others. He is best known as co-creator, along with Michael Albert, of a radical alternative to capitalism known as participatory economics, (or parecon for short). His more recent work is focused on economic justice and democracy, and the global financial and ecological crisis. Politically he considers himself a proud product of the New Left and is sympathetic to libertarian socialism. He has been active in many social movements and organizations over forty years, beginning with the Harvard and MIT SDS chapters and the Boston area anti-Vietnam war movement in the 1960s.
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