Economy for and Against Democracy

Political constitutions alone do not guarantee democracy; a degree of economic equality is also essential. Yet contemporary economies, dominated as they are by global finance and political rent-seekers, often block the realization of democracy. The comparative essays and case studies of this volume examine the contradictory relationship between the economy and democracy and highlight the struggles and visions needed to make things more equitable. They explore how our collective aspirations for greater democracy might be informed by serious empirical research on the human economy today. If we want a better world, we must act on existing social realities.

Political constitutions alone do not guarantee democracy; a degree of economic equality is also essential. Yet contemporary economies, dominated as they are by global finance and political rent-seekers, often block the realization of democracy. The comparative essays and case studies of this volume examine the contradictory relationship between the economy and democracy and highlight the struggles and visions needed to make things more equitable. They explore how our collective aspirations for greater democracy might be informed by serious empirical research on the human economy today. If we want a better world, we must act on existing social realities.

Introduction
Keith Hart

PART I: ECONOMY VERSUS DEMOCRACY

Chapter 1. Habits of austerity: financialization and new ways of dealing with money
Jürgen Schraten

Chapter 2. What financial crisis? The global politics of finance: distributional consequences and legitimizing narratives
Horacio Ortiz

Chapter 3. Party funding for and against democracy in Zimbabwe and South Africa
Booker Magure

PART II: THE STRUGGLE FOR ECONOMIC DEMOCRACY

Chapter 4. Women as mediators in post-war Mozambique: pushing lobolo from price to propriety
Albert Farré

Chapter 5. Negotiating state and market: the South African HIV/AIDS movement and social change
Theodore Powers

Chapter 6. Beyond the market: the case of white workers in Pretoria
John Sharp & Stephan Van Wyk

Chapter 7. Waves of unrest: wildcat strikes and possible democratic change in Swaziland
Vito Laterza

PART III: VISIONS OF HUMAN ECONOMY AND DEMOCRACY

Chapter 8. Solidarity economy in contemporary Greece: ‘movementality’, economic democracy and social reproduction
Theodoros Rakopoulos

Chapter 9. Money for a human economy: a reflection from Argentina
Hadrien Saiag

Chapter 10. Human economy: the revolutionary struggle for happiness
Keith Hart

Chapter 11. Building a human economy movement: the precedent of transnational feminism
Camille Sutton-Brown

Notes on authors
References
Index