John AsimakopoulosSocial Structures of Direct Democracy
On the Political Economy of Equality
John Asimakopoulos, Ph.D., is Full Professor of Sociology at the City University of New York and executive director of the Transformative Studies Institute (TSI), an educational think tank. He has advanced degrees in and has taught sociology, political science, and economics resulting in a unique interdisciplinary perspective. Asimakopoulos is author of Revolt! and The Accumulation of Freedom. He has published many journal articles, book chapters, and is editor in chief of Theory in Action, an interdisciplinary peer-reviewed journal focusing on scholar-activism.
Foreword by Mark Zepezauer
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Theory, Praxis, and Change
The Ragged Edge of Anarchy: Direct Democracy
Mutualism
Collectivism
Communist Anarchism
Conflict Theory
Why Capitalism Must Always Collapse
The Relationship between Change and Radicalism
Structural Limitations to Change
Insurrection versus Revolution
Does Direct Democracy Require Small-scale Societies
McDonald's Iron Cage
2. Relations of Authority
The Fraud of Representative Democracy
The Best Democracy Money Can Buy
Stealing Democracy Old School
Political Parties
A Path to Direct Democracy
Economic Authority
Political Authority
Constitution
3. Material Relations
Economic Utilities of Direct Democracy
Relations of Consumption
Resource Use
What to Produce
How to Produce
Can the System Adapt?
4. Social Structure
Culture and Social Integration
Organizing Principles of Social Structure
Institutions and Socialization
Compulsion and Discipline
Journalism
The Social Network: The Future that Can be Now
Conclusion: No Islands of Egalitarianism in a Sea of Inequality
Afterword by Richard Gilman-Opalsky: What Can Grow in the Graveyard for
Orthodoxies?
Bibliography
Index
