Title: Market, socialism and democracy in an interdisciplinary perspective

Authors: Arturo Hermann

Addresses: Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT), Piazza Indipendenza 4, 00185, Rome, Italy

Abstract: In this period of economic and social distress, a comprehensive assessment of the foundations of our economic and social systems has been unfolding in virtually all the most developed countries. We will employ a pluralistic and interdisciplinary approach for analysing some controversial elements of the following issues: 1) the definition and analysis of the market in an institutional and evolutionary perspective; 2) authoritarian and democratic socialism, namely, how to bring together freedom and social justice; 3) the possibility of reformulating the Marxist labour theory of value without reference to the concepts of classic economics; 4) the theory of historical materialism and the importance of bringing to the fore also the cultural and psychological factors; 5) the links of these issues with the debate between holism and methodological individualism; 6) the role of psychoanalytic perspective in elucidating many aspects of these concepts and, on this basis, to identify suitable policies for our most urgent economic and social problems.

Keywords: institutional foundations; Marxist theory; classic economics; theories of socialism; historical materialism; cultural patterns; holism; methodological individualism; political economy; interdisciplinarity; psychology; psychoanalysis; democracy; pluralism; market definition; market analysis; authoritarian socialism; democratic socialism; freedom; social justice.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPEE.2014.068325

International Journal of Pluralism and Economics Education, 2014 Vol.5 No.4, pp.327 - 353

Published online: 08 Apr 2015 *

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