Peace and Environment News* October 1999
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Peace and Environment News * October 1999 |
Eco-socialism or Eco-capitalism: A Critical Analysis of Humanity's Fundamental Choices
By Saral Sarkar
Zed Books, 1999, London, England
$25 US
Reviewed by Mike Kaulbars
Eco-socialism or Eco-capitalism takes it as given that we face an environmental crisis of epic proportions and that the need for immediate and far-reaching action is dire. Given all that is happening, I also feel that this premise is a given. Indeed anyone suggesting that we are not in deep trouble should have to justify that rather fanciful notion.
Given the global environmental crisis, this book seeks to examine humanity's options for long-term survival. The title is most accurate in describing Sarkar's position: that we need to make fundamental choices, and one of the most fundamental tangible choices is that of economic system. Our economic systems largely determine most of our interactions with one another, as well as the production and movement of materials.
Sarkar is a scholar who has been active with the European Greens for almost 20 years. He has published numerous books and articles on alternative politics and social policy, and this work seems to be an attempt to draw it all together in a comprehensive vision. He acknowledges that the vision is incomplete, but feels that we no longer have time to work for perfect visions.
Sarkar analyses the two competing economic ideologies that vie for our support, socialism and capitalism. As the title suggests, either in its current form is inadequate. Whichever we choose, it will have to be ecologically based.
Resource overexploitation
The collapse of the Soviet Union has discredited communism and socialism in many people's eyes, so the book begins with an analysis of why the USSR failed. Sarkar's central thesis is that the economic collapse was due to environmental factors related to resource overexploitation and attendant diminishing economies of scale. Thus the economic collapse was not because of anything inherent to socialism alone, but rather inherent to industrialized economies that ignore ecological realities (hint: what does capitalism do?). This analysis takes almost a third of the book.
The next section seeks to demonstrate that any economy rests on a natural resource base. Here Sarkar explores the implications of how an economy uses resources, and what the economic consequences of the inherent assumptions are in real systems. The fact is that growth-based economic models assume infinite resources. But resources aren't infinite, and so sooner or later the economy will collapse.
The author's sympathies and politics are clearly socialist, so the conclusions of the "Eco-capitalism, can it work?" section are no great surprise. However, the analysis is detailed, incisive and illuminating. He uses both logical argument and a wealth of data to critique many different shades of eco-capitalism, from eco-taxation to "Eco-Keynesianism."
Growth-based is doomed
The book then presents "The alternative—eco-socialism." As he did for eco-capitalism, Sarkar discusses just what the term means, and what it does not mean. His central point is that an industrialized, growth-based economy is inherently doomed, regardless of whether it is socialist or capitalist.
He suggests that a capitalist economy is necessarily growth based, and hence there is no variation that offers any hope for humanity's survival. However, he also notes the traditional socialist models are equally untenable. What Sarkar offers is a third alternative, a radically altered socialist economy.
I cannot begin to do justice to the depth and detail of Sarkar's analysis, or his vision. Mapping out a new economic vision in just over a hundred pages would seem hopelessly ambitious. Nonetheless he not only manages to give the basic framework for such an economy, he also addresses many of the areas of potential criticism or problems.
What Sarkar ambitiously tries to do in a single book, I will not attempt in a few paragraphs. What he proposes is predictably a decentralized, egalitarian economy, but not an industrialized one. He also carefully distinguishes eco-socialism from many of the retrogressive movements that advocate reviving past economic and cultural models of human society. He is advocating non- industrialized, not pre-, or post-industrial.
What is progress?
The last section looks at the question "What about progress?" Sarkar correctly asks "What is progress?" It is easy to reject the current definition of "more and neater stuff," but is that to reject progress entirely? Sarkar examines a number of different attempts to redefine progress and critiques them. He is saying that in essence we need to be talking about development, a process of maturation, rather than accumulation. One could make the argument that in our age of accumulation, progress has stagnated.
Sarkar ends the book by looking at what our prospects are if we do not make the right choices soon. The USSR has already collapsed, and the prospects for the rest of the world economy get grimmer by the day. Sarkar states that the choice is not really between capitalism and socialism, but rather eco-socialism or barbarism.
In some ways this is one of my favourite kinds of books. First, I found myself learning a great deal. Sarkar did not merely present me with new facts and information, he more importantly showed me many new ways of looking at familiar things. By this I mean whole social structures or historical phenomena as well as aspects of them. Time and again I found myself thinking "I hadn't thought of that, how interesting."
Secondly, even when I did not agree with his conclusions or perspective, I found I had to think about it for a while. Sakar's approach, reasoning, and perspective is such a departure from what we usually see that I found it intellectually invigorating and exciting. I did not accept all of Sarkar's conclusions or assumptions, but they were all worth reading. For me he has raised a number of issues that I am going to be thinking about for quite a while. To me, that's high praise.
Mike Kaulbars is a long-time environmental activist.
Converted March 5, 2000 - Lg
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