Buy new:
$19.95$19.95
Delivery Tuesday, April 23
Ships from: Amazon.com Sold by: Amazon.com
Buy used: $9.10
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
Parecon: Life After Capitalism Paperback – May 1, 2004
Purchase options and add-ons
- Print length311 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherVerso
- Publication dateMay 1, 2004
- Dimensions5.75 x 0.65 x 8.2 inches
- ISBN-10184467505X
- ISBN-13978-1844675050
Frequently bought together

Customers who bought this item also bought

Ours to Master and to Own: Workers' Control from the Commune to the PresentPaperback$17.40 shippingUsually ships within 3 to 5 days
Practical Utopia: Strategies for a Desirable Society (Kairos)Paperback$15.38 shippingOnly 5 left in stock (more on the way).
Editorial Reviews
Review
“Parecon is a pragmatic and visionary programme that would certainly boost human freedom; we ought at least to try it out.”—Red Pepper
“an imaginative, carefully reasoned description, persistently provocative, of how we might live free from economic injustice.”—Howard Zinn
“It merits close attention, debate, and action.”—Noam Chomsky
“Albert is ideally suited to synthesizing all the strands running through the anti-capitalist movement.”—The Ecologist
“Parecon is a brave argument for ... a much needed ... more equitable, democratic, participatory ... alternative economic vision.”—Arrundhati Roy
“A historically informed and logical economic blueprint with the practicality of a hand-tool, and a vision guided by the desire to find nobility in work.”—Kirkus Reviews
“He is advocating a top to bottom economic revolution.”—Library Journal
“Capitalism not working for you? Michael Albert may be tilting at windmills, but readers are flocking to his book on a system to spread the wealth and work.”—Los Angeles Times
“an important contribution to the imaginative tools for everyone who wants to dismantle capitalism.”—International Socialism
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : Verso (May 1, 2004)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 311 pages
- ISBN-10 : 184467505X
- ISBN-13 : 978-1844675050
- Item Weight : 1 pounds
- Dimensions : 5.75 x 0.65 x 8.2 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,866,904 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,444 in Economic Policy
- #1,666 in International Economics (Books)
- #1,832 in Theory of Economics
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Michael Albert has been a political activist and radical publisher and author for his whole adult life.
Schooled in the 1960s, he was highly active at MIT and in the Boston/Cambridge area, as well as nationally. He later helped found the U.S. book publisher South End Press, the monthly periodical Z Magazine, the Z Media Institute, the noted international website ZNet (www.zcomm.org/znet), and numerous other projects.
Author of over 20 books and hundreds of articles, teacher, organizer, and innovator, Albert is perhaps best known as co-creator with Robin Hahnel of the economic vision called participatory economics.
Albert's most recent books (both Fall 2017) are Practical Utopia, "a succinct and thoughtful discussion of ambitious goals and practical principles of creating a desirable society," and RPS/2044, An Oral History of the Next American Revolution.
Albert can be reached via the email sysop@zmag.org or the website ZNet.
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on Amazon-
Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
the argument against capitalism, market socialism and centrally planned economies is firmly established by this book.
this is a bible for anyone who wants to democratize the economy
The first argument in support of TINA is typically along the lines of "without work and punishment, what would motivate people, because they are basically selfish?" Albert's latter chapters address this philosophical yet reality-based question head-on. He uses a compelling example. If you saw a large adult grab an ice cream cone out of a child's hand, pushing the child to the ground, what would you do? Albert says that of course, most of us would be outraged and may even come to the defense of the child. If humans are so animalistic and depraved, then why aren't more people pushing and shoving? Could it be that the forces around us, versus only our "inner selves," push and shove on us to make it more difficult to be good samaratins. Despite 24 hour, "me first," "screw you, hooray for me" individualism married to ultra-social-Darwinistic capitalism, people care about others and the values of commnity. Of course the state wants to convince us that we are under constant threat and that it is the police that keeps order. Oh really? Then why do they lose control of a crowd during a riot? I guess we need one policeman per person to keep us in check. Maybe we have such a thing as inner humanity and morality, which actually lessens the need for a police state.
I've often found another TINA defense funny. People often act that if capitalism weren't around to monitor people, the motive to work would mysteriously vanish. My response is, how do (did) tribes survive? Did Native American groups just sit around and starve without the "benevolent" foreman to "motivate" them along? Do local villages in all parts of the world today lounge around, waiting to be given direction? Heavens to Betsey, how DID any of us achieve human progress and purpose before capitalism? I mean, it's all of 300 years old. Compare that to, say, Ancient Egypt, and there's no contest, right? Albert aruges that work, producing value, is an essential part of being human. It is the alienating kinds of labor that the majority of the world is involved in that's the problem. Note that the top 20% who get to experience more autonomous and creative work ususally scratch their head trying to figure out why everyone is "whining." Albert points out that this same group also gets a) paid more even though they experience less harsh labor conditions, and b) gets more of a say in important political decisions! Under our current system, the message is "one-dollar-one-vote." If you aren't college eduated, you don't deserve a living wage, etc.
Albert rightly points to examples of unemployed communities taking back factories and turning them into productive entities. The only difference is that THEY, the WORKERS are the ones doing it, not state-owned socialism or market capitalism. The activism of the unemployed (who most automatically picture as lounging around and being stubborn at the same time) is tremendous in South and Central America.
It would take some time to implement Albert's ideas, mostly because the ideology of capitalism is more entrenched than we realize. Our entire system of hierarchy, where education supposedly equals merit (typically measured and reinforced via standardized tests), comes to bear in even the most liberal of the upper 20%. "I wouldn't want to do MENIAL work. That's what I went to college for" as if menial work isn't valuable and that we simply expect certain groups to do it (after all, they deserve to do it because they aren't smart or special like us).
I recommend this book for those interested in learning something new about something old...human nature.
an alternative to captitalism, market socialism, and
Soviet-style central planning. The participatory economics
model was developed by Michael Albert in collaboration
with Robin Hahnel. I would recommend reading this book
with Hahnel's recent book, The ABCs of Political Economy,
which provides a more in-depth critique of mainstream
pro-market economics.
Instead of allocation by how much
power or bargaining clout you have -- which is how markets
really work (forget about mainstream propaganda
about markets as "efficiency machines"!) --
participatory economics is based on the idea of
self-management -- each is to have a say over economic
decisions in proportion to how much they are impacted.
Governance by corporations and the state is replaced
by democratic worker and neighborhood organizations.
The market is replaced by participatory planning -- the
creation of a comprehensive agenda for production by
the direct input of requests
for work and consumption outcomes by individuals and
groups, and a back and forth process of negotiation.
Intead of elite planners, as in Soviet-style central
planning, we all would craft the economic plan.
In the process of individuals and groups evaluating
possible outcomes, the planning system takes account
of consumer and worker preferences, thus giving measures
of social benefits and costs. As each production group
approximates to the average social cost/benefit, waste
is avoided. The overall structure is designed to support
the tendencies in human nature towards solidarity and
cooperation, as opposed to the market, which imposes
a regime where "nice guys finish last."
Parecon has a particularly elegant solution to the
problem of under-production of collective goods,
and over-production of negative external effects,
like pollution, which are widespread and destructive
effects of markets.
Little is said about how such an economic framework
would come about. Albert thinks that having a good
vision of where we want to go is important to motivating
the kinds of mass movements that would be needed to
bring about such a change.




