[Van-Parecon] Participatory Economics & the Environment (Pt. 4)

[vancouverparecon at resist.ca]

Hello,

Here is the 4th and finnal part of our latest feature, "Participatory
Economics & the
Environment": an interview with Robin Hahnel. You can find all four parts
on our web site. See links at the bottom of this e-mail.


The Vancouver ParEcon Collective interviews Robin Hahnel (Pt. 4)

Robin Hahnel has taught political economy at American University for over
25 years. He has co-authored, along with Michael Albert, numerous books on
participatory economics. His forthcoming book is "Economic Justice and
Democracy: From Competition to Cooperation" published by Routledge. Chris
Spannos is a member of the Vancouver Parecon Collective.


Spannos: What role would environmental activism, groups like Green Peace,
or future environmental political parties, say the Green Party, have in a
future society based on parecon?


Hahnel: Substituting the institutions of a participatory economy -- worker
and consumer councils and federations, participatory planning, balanced
job complexes, and remuneration on the basis of effort or sacrifice -- for
the institutions of capitalism -- private enterprise, markets, and
hierarchical decision making -- does not guarantee that the environment
will be adequately protected, much less restored. A participatory economy
gives people decision making power to the degree they are affected. A
participatory economy eliminates perverse incentives that make it in the
individual interest of decision makers to overexploit and despoil the
environment. Unlike capitalism and communism, each of which contain
powerful incentives for decision makers to ignore adverse affects on the
environment -- and unlike market socialism, which is little better suited
to accounting for environmental externalities, avoiding conspicuous
consumption, and avoiding injudicious growth -- in a participatory economy
it is in the individual interests of decision makers to treat the
environment wisely. There is no bias favoring growth of output over growth
of leisure. Status cannot be achieved through conspicuous consumption.
There are no perverse incentives that make it in the interests of
producers or consumers to over pollute because of neglected externalities.
Instead, those who benefit from environmental preservation have the power
necessary to protect their interests. Long-term plans place constraints on
annual plans in ways that balance the interests of present and future
generations. And the interests of future generations -- which depend on
environmental preservation -- are given every opportunity to receive their
due in the long-run, participatory planning process. But a participatory
economy provides no guarantee that people will treat the environment
wisely, which is to say it does not make the environmental movement
obsolete. A participatory economy merely eliminates perverse incentives
that create biases against environmental preservation and restoration on a
playing field where people weigh their competing goals democratically and
fairly.

Therefore, an active environmental movement will be necessary in a
participatory economy to argue for the importance of environmental
protection and restoration. Many who a participatory economy empowers for
the first time will be ignorant of their own true interests regarding the
environment. The environmental movement will have to teach newly
enfranchised voters in a participatory economy why environmental
preservation is important to their well being. Environmentalists will have
to speak up in worker and consumer councils and federations, pointing out
the true benefits of environmental preservation and the magnitude of the
costs of environmental degradation. When consumer federations decide how
much local pollution they are willing to tolerate for a given level of
compensation, environmentalists in those federations must point out all
the damage the pollution causes, and convince their fellow citizens not to
permit too much. During the long-run planning process environmentalists
must speak up when they believe others are insufficiently prioritizing the
interests of future generations by failing to prioritize environmental
restoration. Whenever environmentalists believe that people are being
overly anthropocentric -- i.e. considering only the effects of decisions
on humans rather than placing some weight on the interests of other
species and the biosphere itself -- they will have to argue their case and
try to convince others. And if there are going to be environmentalists to
do all this in worker and consumer councils and federations and long-run
planning sessions there will have to be an active environmental movement
to sensitize, educate, and empower its members to effectively carry out
the work of environmental consciousness raising. Finally, if
environmentalists believe that exemplary actions to obstruct mistakes, or
to call attention to environmental concerns they believe are going
unheeded by an ignorant or selfish majority, then organizations like
Greenpeace willing to engage in civil disobedience in defense of the
environment will have an important role to play in a participatory economy
as well. Real world economic democracy means more than voting power in
proportion to the degree one is affected. It also means discussion and
debate when there are differences of opinion, and civil disobedience can
be an important part of "discussion and debate" in a real economic
democracy as well. When we chant "this is what democracy looks like" while
marching in the streets and engaging in civil disobedience, we need to
realize that we really mean it! That is also what democracy will look like
in a participatory economy and society as well.

But I should also point out another aspect of the relationship between the
environmental movement and participatory economics: Participatory
economics will never replace capitalism until a number of progressive
social movements come to see replacing capitalism with participatory
economics as necessary to achieve their goals. Until the labor movement,
the consumer movement, the anti-corporate movement, the poor people's
movement, the globalization movement, the civil rights/anti-racist
movement, the women's movement, the gay movement, the
peace/anti-imperialist movement, and the environmental movement all grow
in size, and come to support something like a participatory economy we
will not succeed in replacing the unsustainable economics of competition
and greed with the sustainable economics of equitable cooperation in the
first place. Strengthening the environmental movement and environmental
activism are necessary parts of a successful strategy for achieving
participatory economics, and the environmental movement and environmental
activists must continue to function once a participatory economy is
established to achieve environmental protection and preservation.


Spannos: Thank you very much.


Hahnel: I want to thank the Vancouver Parecon Collective for this
opportunity to discuss participatory economics and the environment. I also
want to than the members of the Southern Maryland Greens Local, which as
been the primary organization for my political activism over the past four
years, for deepening my understanding of environmental issues and their
importance to local organizing.




Read each part on our web site:

Pt. 1: http://vanparecon.resist.ca/parecon_files/pareconenvironmentone.html
Pt. 2: http://vanparecon.resist.ca/parecon_files/pareconenvironmenttwo.html
Pt. 3: http://vanparecon.resist.ca/parecon_files/pareconenvironmentthree.html
Pt. 4: http://vanparecon.resist.ca/parecon_files/pareconenvironmentfour.html


Robin Hahnel has taught political economy at American University for over
25 years. He has co-authored, along with Michael Albert, numerous books on
participatory economics. His forthcoming book is Economic Justice and
Democracy: From Competition to Cooperation published by Routledge
(http://www.routledge-ny.com).