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Mutualist Blog: Free Market Anti-Capitalism

To dissolve, submerge, and cause to disappear the political or governmental system in the economic system by reducing, simplifying, decentralizing and suppressing, one after another, all the wheels of this great machine, which is called the Government or the State. --Proudhon, General Idea of the Revolution

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Sunday, November 02, 2008

Organization Theory: Latest Chapter Drafts

These are the latest drafts of all sixteen chapters, just uploaded. Not quite in final form yet, but very close.

Chapter Outline


Part One: State Capitalist Intervention in the Market

Chapter One: A Critical Survey of Orthodox Views on Economy of Scale
Appendix 1A. Economy of Scale in Development Economics
Chapter Two: A Survey of Empirical Literature on Economy of Scale
A. Economies of Firm Size
B. Economies of Plant Size
C. The Comparative Significance of Scale Economies and Organizational Efficiency
D. Increased Distribution Costs
E. The Link Between Size and Innovation
F. Economy of Scale in Agriculture
Conclusion
Chapter Three: State Policies Promoting Centralization and Large Organizational Size
I. The Corporate Transformation of Capitalism in the Nineteenth Century
A. The Nineteenth Century Corporate Legal Revolution
B. Subsidies to Transportation and Communication Infrastructure
C. Patents and Copyrights
D. Tariffs
II. Twentieth Century State Capitalism
A. Cartelizing Regulations
B. Tax Policy
C. The Corporate Liberal Pact with Labor
D. The Socialization of Corporate Cost
E. State Action to Absorb Surplus Output
F. Neoliberal Foreign Policy

Part Two: Systemic Effects of Centralization and Excessive Organizational Size


Chapter Four: Systemic Effects of State-Induced Economic Centralization and Large Organizational Size
A. Radical Monopoly and Its Effects on the Individual
B. Systemic Effects on Institutional Culture
C. The Large Organization and Conscript Clienteles
D. The New Middle Class and the Professional-Managerial Revolution
Postscript: Crisis Tendencies
Appendix 4A. Journalism as Stenography

Part Three: Internal Effects of Organizational Size Above That Required for Optimum Efficiency


Chapter Five: Knowledge and Information Problems in the Large Organization
A. The Volume of Data
B. The Distortion of Information Flow by Power
Conclusion and Segue
Appendix 5A. Toilet Paper as Paradigm
Chapter Six: Agency and Incentive Problems in the Large Organization
Summary
Chapter Seven: Economic Calculation in the Corporate Commonwealth (the corporation as planned economy)
A. The Divorce of Entrepreneurial from Technical Knowledge
B. Mises vs. Hayek on Distributed Knowledge
C. Rothbard's Application of Mises' Calculation Argument to the Private Sector
Conclusion
Chapter Eight: Managerialism, Irrationality and Authoritarianism in the Large Organization
A. The Corporate Form and Managerialism
B. Self-Serving Policies for "Cost-Cutting," "Quality" and "Efficiency"
C. The Authoritarian Workplace: Increased Hierarchy and Surveillance
D. Authoritarianism: Contract Feudalism
E. Authoritarianism: The Hegemony of "Professionalism"
F. Motivational Propaganda as a Substitute for Real Incentives
Appendix 8A. Blaming Workers for the Results of Mismanagement
Chapter Nine: Special Agency Problems of Labor (internal crisis tendencies of the large organization)
Introduction
A. The Special Agency Problems of Labor
B. Labor Struggle as Asymmetric Warfare
C. The Growing Importance of Human Capital: Peer Production vs. the Corporate Gatekeepers
D. Austrian Criticism of the Usefulness of Unions
Conclusion
Appendix 9A. Sabotage in a London Nightclub: A Case Study
Appendix 9B. Yochai Benkler on Open-Mouth Sabotage: Diebold and Sinclair Media as Case Studies in Media Swarming
Appendix 9C. DeCSS as an Example of Media Swarming
Appendix 9D. Open-Mouth Sabotage, Cont.: Alisher Usmanov as a Case Study in Media Swarming
Appendix 9E.
Open-Mouth Sabotage, Cont.: Wikileaks as a Case Study in Media Swarming
Appendix 9F. Open-Mouth Sabotage, Cont.: Stupid White Men as a Case Study in Media Swarming
Chapter Ten: Attempts at Reform from Within (Management Fads)
A. New Wine in Old Bottles
B. Lip Service and Business as Usual
C. Management by Stress
D. Dumbing Down
Conclusion
Appendix 10A. The Military Origins of Quality Control

Part Four: Conjectures on Decentralist Free Market Alternative

Chapter Eleven: The Abolition of Privilege
A. Reciprocity
B. Privilege and Inequality
C. Specific Forms of Privilege, and the Effect of Their Abolition
Appendix 11A. Reciprocity and Thick Libertarianism
Chapter Twelve:
The Cost Principle
Chapter Thirteen:
Dissolution of the State in Society
A. Revolution vs. Evolution
B. Dialectical Libertarianism and the Order of Attack
C. The "Free Market" as Hegemonic Ideology
D. Gradualism and the "Magic Button"
E. "Dissolving the State in the Economy"
F. Counter-Institutions
G. Counter-Institutions and Counter-Economics
H. The Two Economies and the Shifting Correlation of Forces
I. Privatizing State Property
Chapter Fourteen: Decentralized Production Technology
Introduction: Basic Goals and Values
A. Multiple Purpose Production Technology
B. The Transition to Decentralized Manufacturing
C. Desktop Manufacturing Technology
D. Polytechnic
E. Eotechnic, Paleotechnic, and Neotechnic
F. Decentralized Agriculture
G. A Soft Development Path
Chapter Fifteen: Social Organization of Production: Cooperatives and Peer Production
Introduction
A. Self-Employment: Increased Productive Efficiency
B. Cooperatives: Increased Productive Efficiency
C. Innovation Under Worker Self-Management
D. Social Benefits of Worker Empowerment
E. Peer Production
F. The Social Economy and the Crisis of Capitalism
Chapter Sixteen: The Social Organization of Distribution, Exchange and Services
A. Demand-Pull Distribution
B. Local Exchange Systems; Household and Informal Economies
C. Certification, Licensing and Trust
D. Social Services
E. Mutual Aid and the Voluntary Welfare State
F. Education
G. Healthcare


Bibliography

11 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Currently on my "to buy" list.

November 07, 2008 2:35 AM  
Blogger Marcel Dubois said...

There is a broken link inside Chapter 16:

http://www.lysanderspooner.org/poverty.htm

November 11, 2008 4:47 AM  
Blogger Kevin Carson said...

Thanks, rj. I'm trying to put the finishing touches on it and get the text formatted for BookSurge in the next couple of weeks, and hope to have it available by Christmas (fingers crossed).

Thanks for the tip, littlehorn.

November 13, 2008 4:47 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

De Heeren Wonen verkopen Thaise afgekeurde meubels. Nijmegen.

November 14, 2008 2:28 AM  
Blogger Marcel Dubois said...

You're welcome.

I found another typo, chapter 1 page 16:
"Chandler's and model of etc."

November 18, 2008 9:26 AM  
Blogger Kevin Carson said...

Thanks again. I've got it fixed in the last draft. I left the "and" when I was eliminating most of the Lazonick material as a distraction.

November 18, 2008 10:45 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Just a quick message of support from here in the UK. Can't wait till this baby is available in physical form. Keep up the good work.

Take Care, Dave


P.S. You may have already spotted it but pg.24 reads "Every you fill up your grocery cart..." which I assume should have a "time" in there?

November 19, 2008 4:45 AM  
Blogger Cork said...

Wow. Your stories about workplace authoritarianism have moved me increasingly far in your direction, Kevin. That stuff is just plain fascist and evil, whether it's happening in a free market or not. Geez louise.

November 22, 2008 1:30 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Off topic:

Kevin, what is your opinion about the controversy between Roderick Long, Peter Klein, Block, etc. around free markets and corporations?

I believe this is a mutualist issue, and could be interesting see you taking part on it.

See this links:

http://www.cato-unbound.org/2008/11/10/roderick-long/corporations-versus-the-market-or-whip-conflation-now/

http://blog.mises.org/archives/008924.asp

http://www.cato-unbound.org/2008/11/25/roderick-long/free-market-firms-smaller-flatter-and-more-crowded/

http://blog.mises.org/archives/009033.asp

December 01, 2008 9:00 AM  
Blogger Kevin Carson said...

Thanks for the catch, Dave.

Cork: glad you like it. As Roderick Long argued in his Cato Unbound piece, things look a lot different to people who see the pointy-haired boss world from the underside.

Victor L.: Actually, a monster post on l'Affaire Long is on the agenda in the next two weeks or so.

December 04, 2008 3:16 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Excellent, Kevin, I hope to read your reply, mainly in the matter of double taxation (I read in Anarchist Theory of Organizational Behavior Joseph Schumpeter argued against that precisely because promotes "capital concentration", but It isn't developed).

December 05, 2008 5:37 AM  

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