Fernando Alcoforado*
This article complements our articles The signs of the decadence of capitalism in the world and How to build a new society to replace the dying capitalism in the world. In the article The signs of the decadence of capitalism in the world, it was shown that capitalism would end in the middle of the 21st century with a duration of 700 years in the same way as slavery that lasted 1000 years and feudalism that lasted 900 years. In the article How to build a new society to replace the dying capitalism in the world, the need to build, as a post-capitalist society, democratic socialism in the world, passing through the transition as a Welfare State, was presented and demonstrated. Complementing the above-mentioned articles, this article seeks to detail how the post-capitalist society should work in each country, whether in the transition phase with the Welfare State and, also, with the implementation of democratic socialism, as well as what it should be carried out in the world sphere for this new society to be implanted around the world.
In the article The signs of the decadence of capitalism in the world [2], which we recently published, it was demonstrated that the world capitalist system would become unfeasible in the mid-21st century (2037, 2043 or 2053) when the process of capital accumulation with global profit rates will cease and the growth of the world economy will reach zero value. An important sign, too, of capitalism’s decay is the gigantic global debt, which reached US$ 275 trillion in 2020 in government, corporate and domestic debt, about 5.5 times the World Gross Product of US$50 trillion, which constitutes a bomb ready to explode. Other signs of capitalism’s decay reside in the fact that planet Earth is already reaching its limits in the use of its natural resources because the demand for natural resources exceeds the Earth’s replenishment capacity by 41% and, if the escalation of this demand continues at the same pace of today, in 2030, with a planetary population estimated at 10 billion people, it will take two Earths to satisfy it, in addition to the threats of catastrophic global climate change that are already taking place.
In the article How to build a new society to replace the dying capitalism in the world [1], which we recently published, we considered that the construction of a post-capitalist society would initially require the transition stage with the implantation of the Welfare State like the one built in the Scandinavian countries that would prepare the ground for the building of democratic socialism in the future. The construction of a new transition society should consider the realization of political, economic and social changes such as those occurring in Scandinavia from 1930 to the present moment, which meant abandoning the classic model of capitalist development as practiced in all countries in the world at the time with the adoption of a model of society that incorporated the positive aspects of capitalism and socialism, constituting a hybrid system. This model of society contemplates the adoption of economic and social interventions by the State to promote social justice in a capitalist system and a Social Welfare policy in the general interest of the population to promote an equal distribution of income and a commitment to representative democracy.
Regarding the Welfare State, it is important to note that it adopts rigid mechanisms for regulating market forces, capable of placing a country’s economy on a dynamic trajectory, while at the same time seeking to achieve the best welfare indicators Social. The Welfare State consists of a mode of economic, political and social organization in which the State acts as an organizer of the economy and an agent of social promotion. The State acts in order to reconcile the interests of capitalists holding the means of production with those of the population of each country, guaranteeing protection and public services to the people. In other words, it seeks to reconcile the interest of “from above” with those from “below” in the social pyramid. The Scandinavian model of political, economic and social development should serve as a benchmark as a model of society to be pursued by all peoples of the world as a transition from capitalism to the democratic socialism of the future because Scandinavian countries are considered the best governed on the planet, those with the greatest political, economic and social progress and have the happiest people in the world.
The democratic socialism to be implemented in the future in each country must represent a step forward in relation to the Welfare State that must take place in the middle of the 21st century when, in each country, capitalism becomes unviable. Democratic socialism will prevail when capitalists no longer feel motivated to invest in productive activity when profits turn zero or negative in the middle of the 21st century. In these circumstances, the State will have to assume the responsibilities of the productive activity with the socialization of the means of production and can initiate the end of the division of society into social classes and the abolition of labor exploitation. Profit or surplus value, which is the portion of unpaid labor, will no longer be appropriated by capitalists for their benefit, but by society to be shared by the entire population. In democratic socialism, society will be managed fairly and for the benefit of all the people by the state and government, which will exercise the planning and control of social life. In democratic socialism, the government would organize a system of social equality and cooperation among human beings. To carry out the transition from capitalism with the Welfare State to democratic socialism around the world, it is necessary, however, that, in the world sphere, there is a world government and a world parliament democratically elected by the nations and peoples to coordinate the actions of national governments and to promote global economic and environmental ordering at the world level, in addition to creating the conditions to face the great challenges of humanity in the 21st century.
Before explaining how the transition from capitalism to democratic socialism will take place with the Welfare State and how democratic socialism will operate, it is important to analyze the changes that will occur in the participation of actors in the political, economic, social and environmental scene of a country, that is, the government, the companies/banks and the population. In a capitalist society, the government, in its relationship with companies/banks, collects taxes and purchases products and services from companies and collects taxes and obtains financing from banks and , on the other hand, drafts laws and offers tax and financial incentives to companies and banks. The government in its relationship with the population uses the workforce and collects taxes, as well as pays salaries, makes laws, makes public investments and offers fiscal and financial incentives to the population. Companies in their relationship with the population, use the workforce in productive activity, pay salaries and sell products and services to the population, which, in turn, purchases products and services from companies. Banks in their relationship with the population, use the workforce in productive activity, pay salaries and provide financing. Companies in their relationship with banks sell products and services and receive financing from banks for their operations. In capitalist society, none of these actors operate in pursuit of a common goal. Each of the actors pursues their own goals. The government is under pressure from the population and from companies/banks that seek to achieve their specific goals. Generally speaking, the government in a capitalist society acts for the benefit of companies/banks and makes concessions, as far as possible, to the population. This situation changes with the Welfare State because all actors (government, business/banks and population) will act in pursuit of common goals and, mainly, with democratic socialism when only the interests of the entire population will prevail to whom the government must serve.
The transition from capitalism to democratic socialism with the Welfare State in each country
In the transition from capitalism to democratic socialism with the Welfare State, each country must have a social contract, that is, a democratic constitution, based on which the economic, social and environmental policies to be adopted are established aiming at the well-being of the entire population and the end of human aggression against nature, a social contract that can undergo adaptations over time. The Welfare State must create the conditions to progressively eliminate the barbarism that has occurred throughout history and promote the construction of a new civilized world order that would be built with democratic socialism. With the Welfare State, a democratic Republic would be implemented in each country whose Constitution would be based on the motto “Freedom, Equality, Fraternity” through which all citizens would be guaranteed civil rights, including property rights and rights of workers’ strike and the central government to be elected by the people would act in the sense of managing the economic, social and environmental systems to promote the well-being of the population exercising democratic governance together with a parliament elected by the people. With the Welfare State, the State would act as an organizer of the economy and an agent of social promotion, guaranteeing protection and public services to the people.
In the transition from capitalism to democratic socialism with the Welfare State, it would be up to the central government of each country to coordinate the nation’s economic, social and environmental planning process with the involvement of representatives of regional and municipal governments and civil society to establish national goals to be shared with a parliament elected by the people and with the population through a plebiscite and/or referendum. National economic, social and environmental development goals would be established for a given planning horizon by the central government based on extensive debate with the national parliament and representatives of private and public companies, regional and municipal governments, and civil society. The final decision on the national objectives to be pursued would be up to the population through a plebiscite or referendum. The planning and control in democratic socialism to be adopted involves the participation of nine actors (central government, national parliament, regional governments, regional parliaments, municipal governments, municipal parliaments, private companies, public companies and population).
Once the national objectives of economic, social and environmental development to be pursued have been defined, it will be up to regional and municipal governments, as well as managers of private and public companies responsible for agricultural, industrial and service activities to propose what to do (goals), how to do it and when to contribute to national economic, social and environmental development objectives with the estimation of costs and sources of resources associated with them. Regional and municipal governments must coordinate the economic, social and environmental planning process of their regions and municipalities with the involvement of representatives of private and public companies and civil society to establish regional and municipal objectives to be shared with the respective regional parliaments and municipal elected by the people. The final decision on the regional and municipal objectives to be pursued would be up to the respective populations through a plebiscit or referendum. Managers of public companies must coordinate the planning process of their organizations with the involvement of workers’ representatives to establish the business objectives to be pursued. The final decision on the objectives of public companies would rest with all company workers.
In the transition from capitalism to democratic socialism with the Welfare State, the proposals of what to do (goals), how to do it, when to do it and the cost estimates with the sources of resources proposed by regional and municipal governments and private and public business managers would be subject to analysis by the central government to assess compatibility with the proposed national objectives, as well as to compare the demand for resources to implement the objectives with the available resources. At this stage, the regional, municipal and business objectives, as well as the demand for resources for their execution, would have to be revised to make them compatible with the national objectives. If certain regional, municipal and business objectives have to be carried out necessarily, even if the available resources are insufficient, it is up to private and public companies and the central government to get the necessary resources. Otherwise, the central government must reduce the scope of specific regional and municipal objectives and of private and public companies responsible for agricultural, industrial and lower priority services activities, based on a broad debate with the national parliament. Society should be informed about this joint decision between the central government and the national parliament.
In the transition from capitalism to democratic socialism with the Welfare State, all actors, that is, private and public companies, workers and government, must be remunerated according to their contribution to the total economic result obtained. Every economic activity can generate profit or loss, with the profit or surplus of economic activity being considered as the surplus value, that is, the part of unpaid work to the worker according to the conception of Karl Marx, exposed in Capital. In the transition from capitalism to democratic socialism with the Welfare State, private and public companies must be remunerated with part of the profit obtained by them (surplus value) because they invested in its implementation and contributed to its production, workers must be remunerated with salaries because they contributed their workforce to its production and the government for its contribution to the provision of public services and the management of society. The country’s wage policy must be based on social justice criteria, that is, workers must be paid above the minimum necessary to meet their basic needs and those of their family (food, health, education, housing, etc.). Workers with the same qualifications and proven experience must have the same standard salary according to their qualifications and, added to this, a premium based on their productivity.
In the transition from capitalism to democratic socialism with the Welfare State, after accounting for the results obtained by each private and public company (profit), a part of the profit will be allocated to the owners of private and public companies and the rest should go for a social welfare fund to be used for the development of society to be managed by the government to cover public spending and make investments in infrastructure, state productive activity and public services. The profit shares (in %) to be allocated to the owners of each private and public company and to the social development fund will be determined annually based on the consensus between government, national parliament and representatives of private and public companies and civil society. Whereas workers would have an interest in raising their wages, entrepreneurs in raising their share of the profit earned and both in reducing the government’s share of the profit earned to be used to cover public spending and to make investments in infrastructure, in the activity productive state and in public services, the government would have to mediate this conflict taking into account the interests of the whole society. The population should manifest itself on the result of government mediation through a plebiscite or referendum after a broad debate.
It is worth noting that part of the profit obtained by private and public companies would be distributed among their shareholders, while the other part would be allocated to investments in the modernization of their productive activity and in the increase of their production capacity and the part of the profit destined to the government would be used in the spending on public administration, while the other part would be allocated to investments in the modernization of the country’s infrastructure and existing state productive activity and in making new investments in infrastructure, in the state productive activity and in public services. Both private and public companies and the government should present their investment proposals for a given planning horizon with the sources of funds to carry them out. Feedback and control mechanisms of national, regional, municipal and companies plans should be used to assess their execution and correct deviations that occurred by quarter.
This planning and control process will exist until the middle of the 21st century when the capitalists’ profit reaches zero and the capital holders would no longer be motivated to invest in productive activities. From this moment on, capitalists will initially tend to allocate their resources to financial speculation, especially in countries that operate as tax havens, and the central government of all countries would have to progressively take over the productive activities abandoned by the capitalists. Democratic socialism will exist from this moment on.
How will democratic socialism operate in each country
At this stage, a new social contract should be signed in countries where capitalism becomes unfeasible, that is, a socialist constitution that would guarantee all citizens civil rights, including individual property rights and workers strike rights and government central to be elected by the people would exercise governance democratically in conjunction with a parliament elected by the people and would act to manage the economic, social and environmental systems to promote the end of human exploitation by man and the end of human aggression against nature, a social contract that can undergo adaptations over time. With the end of capitalism, all means of production would be under the responsibility of the State and all profit or surplus from economic activity would be destined for the social development fund to be managed by the government for the benefit of the entire population. In democratic socialism, society will be managed fairly and on behalf of all with the government exercising the planning and control of social life. In democratic socialism, the government would organize a system in search of social equality and cooperation among human beings.
In democratic socialism, it would be up to the central government to coordinate the nation’s economic, social and environmental planning process with the involvement of representatives of regional and municipal governments and civil society to establish national goals to be shared with a parliament elected by the people and with the population deciding through a plebiscite and/or referendum. National economic, social and environmental development goals would be established for a given planning horizon by the central government based on extensive debate with the national parliament and representatives of regional and municipal governments and civil society. The final decision on the national objectives to be pursued would be up to the population through a plebiscite or referendum. Once the national economic, social and environmental development objectives to be pursued have been defined, it will be up to regional and municipal governments, as well as managers of public companies responsible for agricultural, industrial and service activities to propose what to do (goals), how to do it and when to contribute to the national economic, social and environmental development objectives with the estimation of costs and the sources of resources associated with them. The planning and control in democratic socialism to be adopted involves the participation of eight actors (central government, national parliament, regional governments, regional parliaments, municipal governments, municipal parliaments, public companies and population).
In democratic socialism, it will be up to regional and municipal governments, as well as managers of public companies responsible for agricultural, industrial and service activities to propose what to do (goals), how to do it and when to do it to contribute to the national objectives of economic development, social and environmental with the estimation of costs and the sources of resources associated with them. Regional and municipal governments must coordinate the economic, social and environmental planning process of their regions and municipalities with the involvement of representatives of public companies and civil society to establish regional and municipal objectives to be shared with the respective regional and municipal parliaments elected by the people. The final decision on the regional and municipal objectives to be pursued would be up to the respective populations through a plebiscite or referendum. Managers of public companies must coordinate the planning process of their organizations with the involvement of workers’ representatives to establish the business objectives to be pursued. The final decision on the objectives of public companies would rest with all company workers.
In democratic socialism, the proposals of what to do (goals), how to do it, when to do it and the estimates of costs and sources of resources proposed by regional and municipal governments and managers of public companies would be analyzed by the central government to assess compatibility with the proposed national objectives, as well as comparing the demand for resources to implement the objectives with the resources available. At this stage, the regional, municipal and business objectives, as well as the demand for resources for their execution, would have to be revised to make them compatible with the national objectives. If certain regional, municipal and business objectives have to be carried out necessarily, even if the available resources are insufficient, it is up to the central government to get the necessary resources. Otherwise, the central government must reduce the scope of specific regional and municipal objectives and of public companies responsible for agricultural, industrial and lower priority services activities, based on a broad debate with the national parliament. Society should be informed about this joint decision between the central government and the national parliament. Feedback and control mechanisms from national, regional, municipal and company plans must be used to continuously assess their execution and correct any deviations that have occurred.
Conclusions
From the above, it can be concluded that, both in the transition stage with the Welfare State, and during democratic socialism, there would be in each country the effective exercise of democracy with the population electing its governors and representatives in parliament, in addition to participate in decisions regarding the objectives to be pursued at national, regional and municipal levels, as well as workers with their participation in decisions to be taken by public companies. In addition to the exercise of democracy, the coordinated planning at the national, regional, municipal and public and private companies levels is highlighted, the latter being in the transition stage with the Welfare State. There would also be an integrated planning process at the national, regional, municipal and public company levels that will contribute to eliminating the chaos that characterizes capitalist society. The integrated planning process will be put into practice in each country using modern information technology that will process data quickly, thus facilitating decision-making by all actors involved. Feedback and control mechanisms from national, regional, municipal and company plans must be used to continuously assess their execution and correct any deviations that have occurred.
To promote the transition from capitalism to democratic socialism around the world, there is an urgent need for a world government and a world parliament to coordinate the actions of national governments to achieve these goals. It is important to note that a democratically elected world government and world parliament would promote not only the construction of a new society across the planet, but also the global economic and environmental ordering and international relations in defense of world peace, creating the conditions to face the great challenges of humanity in the 21st century which consist of: 1) Economic and financial crises in a chain; 2) Social revolutions and counter-revolutions across the globe; 3) Cascade wars; 4) World overpopulation; 5) Deadly pandemics; 6) Extreme climate change; 7) Organized crime; and, 8) Threats from space, whose actions of a global nature to neutralize them are impossible to be carried forward by individual national states and by current international institutions. In order to make a world government viable, it is necessary that, from the beginning, a World Forum for Peace and the Progress of Humanity is constituted, with the participation of representatives of governments and civil society organizations from all the countries of the world [3]. In this Forum, objectives and strategies would be debated and established aiming at the constitution of a world government, a world parliament and the construction of a new society that is structured based on the principles of the Enlightenment, that is, on freedom, equality and fraternity.
REFERENCES
1. ALCOFORADO, Fernando. How to build a new society to replace the dying capitalism in the world. Available on the website <https://www.academia.edu/51784619/HOW_TO_BUILD_A_NEW_SOCIETY_TO_REPLACE_THE_DYING_CAPITALISM_IN_THE_WORLD>.
2. ALCOFORADO, Fernando. The signs of the decadence of capitalism in the world. Available on the website <https://www.academia.edu/56335359/THE_SIGNS_OF_THE_DECAY_OF_CAPITALISM_IN_THE_WORLD>.
3. ALCOFORADO, Fernando. Como inventar o futuro para mudar o mundo. Curitiba: Editora CRV, 2019.
* Fernando Alcoforado, 81, awarded the medal of Engineering Merit of the CONFEA / CREA System, member of the Bahia Academy of Education, engineer and doctor in Territorial Planning and Regional Development by the University of Barcelona, university professor and consultant in the areas of strategic planning, business planning, regional planning and planning of energy systems, is author of the books Globalização (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1997), De Collor a FHC- O Brasil e a Nova (Des)ordem Mundial (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1998), Um Projeto para o Brasil (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2000), Os condicionantes do desenvolvimento do Estado da Bahia (Tese de doutorado. Universidade de Barcelona,http://www.tesisenred.net/handle/10803/1944, 2003), Globalização e Desenvolvimento (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2006), Bahia- Desenvolvimento do Século XVI ao Século XX e Objetivos Estratégicos na Era Contemporânea (EGBA, Salvador, 2008), The Necessary Conditions of the Economic and Social Development- The Case of the State of Bahia (VDM Verlag Dr. Müller Aktiengesellschaft & Co. KG, Saarbrücken, Germany, 2010), Aquecimento Global e Catástrofe Planetária (Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2010), Amazônia Sustentável- Para o progresso do Brasil e combate ao aquecimento global (Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2011), Os Fatores Condicionantes do Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2012), Energia no Mundo e no Brasil- Energia e Mudança Climática Catastrófica no Século XXI (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2015), As Grandes Revoluções Científicas, Econômicas e Sociais que Mudaram o Mundo (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2016), A Invenção de um novo Brasil (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2017), Esquerda x Direita e a sua convergência (Associação Baiana de Imprensa, Salvador, 2018), Como inventar o futuro para mudar o mundo (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2019) and A humanidade ameaçada e as estratégias para sua sobrevivência (Editora Dialética, São Paulo, 2021) .
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