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Symposium on Socialism and Degrowth

Socialism Without Growth

Pages 189-206
Received 12 Sep 2016
Accepted 12 Jul 2017
Published online: 17 Oct 2017
 

ABSTRACT

In this article, I take issue with (eco-)socialists who embrace an ecological critique of growth under capitalism, but remain supportive or agnostic of the prospects for socialist growth. First, I argue that economic growth is ecologically unsustainable—whether it is capitalist or socialist does not make a difference. Second, I claim that economic growth rests to a large extent on exploitation. While it is logically possible to have non-exploitative socialist growth, in practice it is unlikely. Third, socialist policies are likely to have a negative effect on growth. A transition to socialism is a transition beyond growth.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported from the “María de Maeztu” Unit of Excellence (MDM-2015-0552) grant from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) and the SINALECO grant CSO2014-54513-R SINALECO.

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