Economic Democracy: The Political Struggle of the Twenty-First Century [Hardcover]

J.W. Smith (Author), William H. Kotke (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 2000 | ISBN-10: 076560468X | ISBN-13: 978-0765604682

That capitalism, as structured, is efficient is only a belief imposed, through the educational system, for centuries to protect wealth and power. Democratic-cooperative capitalism, as we propose, increases economic efficiency equal to the invention of money, the printing press, and electricity.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

J.W. Smith, with a PhD in Environmental Economics from Union Institute and University, Cleveland, Ohio has written six books on the elimination of poverty and war. He has been invited, and has presented, his concepts in 10 countries. commongoodbank.com is establishing a local currency banking system based on his insights on banking with the intended goal of providing banking services at 1/3 the cost of monopolized banking. Through a professors lecture, his concepts showed up in Indonesia's major newspaper and they are being studied at that university. He has had many such compliments from all over the world. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 380 pages
• Publisher: M.E. Sharpe (August 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 076560468X
• ISBN-13: 978-0765604682
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 7.7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,570,367 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Review of Economic Democracy: The Political Struggle of the, January 25, 2004

By 

Dr. Glen T. Martin (Radford, VA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Economic Democracy: The Political Struggle of the Twenty-First Century, Third Edition (Paperback)

A professor of economics once told me that "mainstream economics is 95% ideology and only 5% social science." This wonderful book by J.W. Smith shows why that is true. I found it utterly complelling and could not put it down. By exposing the macro-economic mechanisms of the past five centuries, Smith blows neo-liberal ideology right out of the water. This book should be required reading everywhere in the world. It points the way toward a liberated and decent world-order and shows that a just world-order would not be that difficult to achieve. This book lays the foundation for a new global economics of freedom and prosperity. Thank-you Dr. Smith!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars rare depth of analysis and scope of vision, January 22, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Economic Democracy: The Political Struggle of the Twenty-First Century, Third Edition (Paperback)

Awe-inspiring. I don't know any other author who can match the trifecta that Smith pulls off in Economic Democracy, as economist, historian and political scientist rolled into one. On top of a world-class documentary unmasking of the brutal nature of occidental ascendancy, both in past history and in current events, he also presents a coherent and original model to replace it.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Co-operative Economic Theory, March 29, 2003

By 

Feisal Mansoor (Sri Lanka) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Economic Democracy the Political Struggle of the Twenty-First Century (Paperback)

Dr J W Smith's magnum opus will one day be heralded as the seminal work debunking Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations and "unequal freetrade". Dr Smith painstakingly traces the history of Plunder by Raids to Plunder by Trade and suggests simple and subtle changes in the free trade theory to make it equitable and just, while retaining all the advantages of the competitive instinct. He tells the Developing world to stop competing agaisnt each other for Developed world markets and instead to co-operate with each other to exchange resources equitably to build the infrastructure we so woefully need. Dr Smith's documentation is copious, exhaustive and unrefutable.

It would be the greatest shame of our new Millennium if we do not act on his advice as a matter of urgency. Part of Dr Smith's thesis is that unless the Developed Countries join in the restructuring of the economic system of the planet, the Developing nations unilateral restructuring will cause unnecessary economic distress. One way or the other, the developing nations are not going to be patsies forever and there need not be the violent reactions that we are seeing.

Human beings naturally co-operate in their common interest and when one gets right down to it, if the majority of humans were not co-operating now, by subscribing, albeit unknowingly, to indoctrinated Social control belief systems, the fraud that is perpertrated against us would not be possible.

When I learnt the secret of poverty creation and maintenance I just started to cry at how simply avoidable it could all have been. This is a book we ignore at our peril.