A POSTCAPITALIST PARADIGM: THE COMMON GOOD OF ...

Chapter IV
CONCLUSIONS AND TRANSITIONS
FRANÇOIS HOUTART
The general picture around the world is very disturbing. It is not only a
question of the financial crisis, for which medium-term solutions can be
found within the logic of capitalism. A combination between neo-liberal
measures and a hardening of the class struggle on the part of the dominant
forces would enable them to make the subordinate and middle
classes pay for the crisis.Then capitalism could emerge triumphant,
demonstrating its capacity to overcome medium-term crises, outmanoeuvring
the protests of the workers and the ‘indignés’. On the other
hand, it is likely that if the recommendations of the Stiglitz Commission
181 on the international financial and monetary crisis had been accepted,
the situation in 2011 would not have worsened.
There have however been various analyses of the evolution of the world
economy that stress a gradual erosion of the model of capitalist development.
They state that capitalism has ended its historic role of developing
productive forces, creating such contradictions that they are
heading for a “death foretold” (Samir Amin, Jorge Beinstein, Immanuel
Wallerstein and others).
It is in fact important to look at the general reality from a holistic perspective,
as opposed to the capitalistic vision that concentrates on accumulation.
According to Karl Polanyi, capitalism disembedded the eco nomy from
society and then imposed its own logic of value, with mercantilism as the
universal perspective. But the only way of resolving the contradictions
is to reintegrate the economy into society. What we want to emphasize
is Marx’s concept of the value of use and the need to give it priority over
the value of exchange.
181 The Stiglitz Report, The New Press, New York/ London, 2010
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