ECONOMIC DEVOLUTION
" Property is theft " - Joseph Proudhon
Devolve! now argues that all attempts at empowering people through regional, democratic, and cultural devolution are likely to fail while they (we) have almost no control over economic realities and while the enormous range of wealth and poverty divides us from each other. As Maurice Reckitt wrote in his 'Industry and Democracy' over fifty years ago:
" Democracy is maimed, and may even be undermined, while it is confined to the political and social organisation of a nation's life. It is men's relation to their work, and their relations with one another in the performance of it, which perhaps more than any other external social factor determines the character of a culture. If they do not find responsibility there it will remain unnaturally difficult for most of them to recognise, welcome and accept it in other aspects of their life, whether personal and domestic, or civic and social . "
For this reason our movement has adopted economic devolution (economic empowerment) as its fourth tenet . This new step opens up many theoretical and practical issues, leading on to questions of finance (money), resources (ecology) and a whole range of social policies.
Devolution, seen as the organisation of society on a territorial and a cultural basis, a pyramid of responsible power starting from the neighbourhood and culminating in the ordering of the affairs of a people - or indeed in a system of global co-operation - is clearly unattainable when control of resources of mind and matter rests with elites at every tier of political and social organisation. There can be no equality of decision-making between the inhabitants of cardboard city and those of millionaire mansions.
ECONOMIC DEVOLUTION: A DEFINITION
The term Economic Devolution refers to a system under which both economic aims and the institutions used to advance them are determined and administered in the first instance by local economic communities, with wider agreements negotiated - only where necessary - at regional, continental and global forums.
For a brief description of the social meaning of the various orthodox and unorthodox economic systems and also a review of the key concepts of economic discourse, see 'About Economics' page.
For a deeper exploration of largely unrecognised or taken for granted assumptions, which are 'offstage' to economic theory and practice, see 'Behind Economics' page.
For an exploration of proposals and practical schemes which are claimed to be possible now, inside and alongside the competitive economy, see 'Making a Start' page.