Kevin Carson book

Contents

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