Worker control of production proved viable in socialist experiments.
Evidence
Why, then, has a democratic organization of work not emerged in the existing socialist countries? If not a proof that technology requires hier archical authority, does this fact not at least suggest the inevitable tendency for bureaucracies to come to control people’s lives in modern society? We believe not. First, numerous plants in China, Cuba, and Chile (during the Allende period) exhibited a substantial degree of worker control of pro duction with positive results. Second, the state socialist countries of Eastern Europe were never democratic. Rather, the ruling elites have al ways maintained their power through top-down control of production, a centralized party structure, and the military. — Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis, Schooling in Capitalist America, 789
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Factory production emerged as a means of controlling workers, not technical superiority — Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis, Schooling in Capitalist America:…, 748; Factory councils aimed to merge economics and politics through workers’ control — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 581; Wartime state mobilization proved production relations were changeable, emboldening workers — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism: An Intervention, 174 (+1 more)
Broader Connections
- Factory councils aimed to merge economics and politics through workers’ control
#expands(0.75) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 581 - Wartime state mobilization proved production relations were changeable, emboldening workers
#corroborates(0.72) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 174 - State socialist economies outperformed comparable non-capitalist and regional peers
#corroborates(0.72) — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 44