Abstract
Political economy includes the principles of the social sciences of economics, political science and sociology that apply to economic systems in political regimes. This chapter describes the political regimes of democracy and oligarchy in terms of their principles, institutions and purposes. Political economy is defined and analyzed to show that the implicit purpose of oligarchies requires a much higher rate of economic growth than democracies regire. Since World War II, Canadian governments established economic growth as a paramount policy objective. It is argued that this objective is central to a political regime of oligarchies and that Canadian governance has de facto been oligarchic. The results have been an excessive rate of economic growth, a substantial increase in economic inequality and degradation of the nation’s environment all of which are inconsistent with the common good of democracy. Democratic outcomes can be achieved with a much lower rate of economic growth than has been the case in Canada especially since 1979. An example of policies of political economy for achieving democratic outcomes in Canada is taken from environmental economist Peter Victor’s book Managing Without Growth. Victor shows how the rate of Canada’s economic growth over a 30-year period could be reduced by 50% and at the same time, the incidence of poverty would be reduced by 50% while greenhouse gas emissions would be reduced by 31%.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Bagby L (2011) Thucydides and the importance of ideology in conflict. In: Tabachnick D, Koivukoski T (eds) On oligarchy: ancient lessons for global politics. University of Toronto Press, Toronto, pp 110–139
Banting K, Myles J (2016) Framing the new inequality: the politics of income redistribution in Canada. In: Income inequality: the Canadian story. Institute for Research in Public Policy, Montreal. February 2016
Bergandi D (2017) The ecological catastrophe: the political-economic caste as the origin and cause of environmental destruction and the pre-announced democratic disaster. In: Westra L, Gray J, Gottwald F-J (eds) The role of integrity in the governance of the commons: governance, ecology, law, ethics. Springer Publishing AG, New York, pp 179–189
Cooper C (2011) Oligarchy and the rule of law. In: Tabachnick D, Koivukoski T (eds) On oligarchy: ancient lessons for global politics. University of Toronto Press, Toronto, pp 196–201
Ferguson N (2019) Young Americans need to learn what socialism actually means. Globe and Mail, May 18, 2019
Fodor M (2013) Taxation and neo-liberal counter-revolution: the Canadian case. In: Himelfarb A, Himelfarb J (eds) Tax is not a four letter word: a different take on taxes in Canada. Wilfrid Laurier University Press, Waterloo, pp 101–117
Klein N (2014) This changes everything: capitalism versus the climate. Alfred Knopf Canada, Toronto
Kuttner R (2018) Can democracy survive global capitalism? W.W. Norton, New York
Lipsey R, Purvis D, Steiner O (1988) Sixth Edition economics. Harper & Row, New York
Mann G (2013) Disassembly required: a field guide to actually existing capitalism. AK Press, Oakland
Montini M, Volpe F (2017) Sustainable development: renaissance or sunset Boulevard? In: Westra L, Gray J, Gottwald F-J (eds) The role of integrity in the governance of the commons: governance, ecology, law, ethics. Springer Publishing AG, New York
Neill J (2011) Aristotle and American oligarchy: a study in political influence. In: Tabachnick D, Koivukoski T (eds) On oligarchy: ancient lessons for global politics. University of Toronto Press, Toronto, pp 24–46
Newell J (2011) Oligarchy and Oikonomia: Aristotle’s ambivalent assessment of private property. In: Tabachnick D, Koivukoski T (eds) On oligarchy: ancient lessons for global politics. University of Toronto Press, Toronto, pp 3–23
Piketty T (2014) Capital in the twenty first century. English Translation by Arthur Goldhammer. The Bellknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge
Simpson P (2011) A corruption of oligarchs. In: Tabachnick D, Koivukoski T (eds) On oligarchy: ancient lessons for global politics. University of Toronto Press, Toronto, pp 70–89
Skultety S (2011) The threat of misguided elites: Aristotle and oligarchy. In: Tabachnick D, Koivukoski T (eds) On oligarchy: ancient lessons for global politics. University of Toronto Press, Toronto, pp 90–109
Stiglitz J (2019) An icon of the left tells democrats: don’t go socialist. Foreign Policy.Com interview of Joseph Stiglitz May 20, 2019. http://foreignpolicy.com/2019/05/20/an-icon-of-the-left-tells-democrats-dont-go-socialist/. Accessed 15 June 2019
Venton P (2015) Radical changes in Canadian democracy: for ecology and the ‘public good’. In: Westra L, Gray J, Karageorgou V (eds) Ecological systems integrity: governance, law and human rights. Routledge, New York, pp 201–219
Venton P (2016) Democratic capitalism for realizing the Earth Charter Vision. In: Westra L, Gray J, D’Aloia A (eds) The common good and ecological integrity: human rights and the support of life. Routledge, New York, pp 192–210
Venton P (2017) Pope Francis’s ethics for democratic capitalism and the common good. In: Westra L, Gray J, Gottwald F-J (eds) The role of integrity in the governance of the commons: governance, ecology, law, ethics. Springer Publishing AG, New York, pp 237–253
Victor P (2008) Managing without growth: slower by design, not disaster. Edward Elgar Publishing, Northampton
Wikipedia, Political Economy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PoliticalEonomy. Accessed 12 June 2019
Wikipedia, Public Choice. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_choice. Accessed 27 Apr 2014
Wikipedia, Social Choice. https://en.wikipedia.org/Social-choic-theory. Accessed 16 Oct 2019
Wikipedia, Sociology. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociology. Accessed 11 Oct 2019
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Venton, P. (2020). The Political Economy of Managing Without Growth. In: Westra, L., Bosselmann, K., Fermeglia, M. (eds) Ecological Integrity in Science and Law. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-46259-8_18
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-46259-8_18
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-46258-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-46259-8
eBook Packages: Law and CriminologyLaw and Criminology (R0)