Non-market socialism (2000)

Book Review from the July 2000 issue of the Socialist Standard

‘The Market: Ethics, Knowledge and Politics’, by John O’Neill. (Routledge)

John O’Neill takes on all the arguments put forward by defenders of the market, not just extreme free-marketers such as Von Mises and Hayek but also by mainstream economics textbook writers (free consumer choice, efficient allocation of resources, rational economic calculation, etc) and demolishes them one by one. He argues for a “non-market economic order” in which goods will be produced directly for use and not for sale on a market and calculation concerning production done exclusively in kind. He also argues in favour of the abolition of the state and its replacement by an “association of associations”, i.e. by a co-ordinated network of neighbourhood councils and producer-controlled production units.

Unfortunately, the book is not an easy read as it is put together from articles previously published in academic journals and because O’Neill frequently employs the specialist terminology of “moral philosophy”, of which he is a professor. It is, however, an important addition to the growing library of books arguing the case for an (entirely) non-market socialism.

Adam Buick