Artikel

Monopoliekapitalisme versus een stelsel van arbeidszelfbestuur

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Abstract

Monopoly capitalism and monopoly laborism versus workers’ selfmanagement - Three alternative economic systems and their underlying theoretical concepts are explored and compared i.e. monopoly capitalism, monopoly laborism and the system of workers’ self-management. The monopoly capitalism deals with strong employers’ power to fix biasedly the prices of commodities and services thus bringing real wages off their structural balance. This case will led to excess-capacity of capital goods and possibly to structural underemployment. The latter will occur if less-paying enterprises are taken over by super-paying big industry who can use their power to submit the acquired firms to a process of a close down. Inflation will be inevitable if nominal wages are adjusted automatically for increases in price-level and increases in nominal wage-level will be followed by increases in price-level. Monopoly laborism can be characterized by means of a strong employees’ power in so far that employees can fix biasedly their own nominal wage-level. A substantial rise of the real wages will cause an acceleration of economic obsolescence of machinery and by this structural unemployment which can hardly be compensated by means of an increase of effective demand. The latter process will be more serious if psychological elements will cause a decrease in the propensity to invest. In the system of workers’ self-management all investments should be financed with the help of the central investment bank. Structural unemployment and inflation can be avoided here provided „low-interest-policy” is combined with suitable price fixation rules. However the presence of a class of managers being well-motivated to take care of the need for continuity of the enterprise remains necessary. The more the latter will be the case the higher the degree of success of the workers’ self-management.

How to Cite:

Schouten, D., (1977) “Monopoliekapitalisme versus een stelsel van arbeidszelfbestuur”, Tijdschrift voor Sociale Wetenschappen 22(2), 129–144. doi: https://doi.org/10.21825/tvsw.96056