Well, delegative democracy is quite different then the western liberal democracies. Delegates have the same amount of power as the next one, and are tied directly to the workers councils, who can recall him or her at any time if they do not represent their interests.
thanks for the advice. I agree with the idea of worker's councils, but I probably have a bit of an anarchist streak in wanting everyone to represent themselves. I'm a bit unsure whether delegates will ever 'represent' the workers (given the experience in liberal 'representative' democracies).
I haven't read any left communist critique's as of late, but you could check the website for the International Communist Current and the International Communist Tendency, they have a lot of articles on the USSR. Also, I should mention that left communism isn't necessarily for worker's councils. It simply applies to communists who hold that existing "socialist" states are state capitalist, and that the only way society can be changed is through revolution, and rejecting parliamentary elections. For example, the Bordigists support a highly restrictive vanguard party and a one-party state. Personally, I like the vanguard party, but I think that government should be managed on a model of worker's councils electing delegates, which can be recalled at any time.
So you became a radical and then your brother caved? that sucks! Do you know of any decent left communist critiques of the USSR? I think I'm probably in similar territory as I like Soviets and Worker's Councils as democratic institutions, but don't like having a one-party state (and all it abuses that come from defending the power structure that follow).
Well, it started out with my brother becoming a libertarian socialist. At the time, I was a liberal, and he would tell me about these hopes of a classless society and liberty for all people. I became an anarcho-communist for some time, and. I began reading Peter Kropotkin and Mikhail Bakunin. However, my brother had begun looking into John Maynard Keynes and social democracy, and next thing I know, he starts saying that capitalism is more humane than socialism. I caved in for some time, although I couldn't stop looking at the radical left. For some time, I became a "federalist" a term used by Proudhon when referring to his change from anarchism to his theory of government. I supported a self-regulating market managed by the workers themselves. However,after reading "The Communist Manifesto", and some of Marx's early economic writings, I became a left communist.
Ok. how is you and he have different opinions by the way? (admittedly a question an only child would ask I wouldn't know). how did he become a liberal and you a socialist?
On your first question, he's a liberal who continues to insist that socialism is unrealistic and anti-individualistic. Says the capitalist.
Somewhat. He continues to try to make me a social democrat, talking about Norway and Lester Pearson. Hasn't worked yet.
ps. I'm an only child, so I think it's kind of cool to have a brother.
Is your brother's Keynsianism a Socialism of sorts or more a form of liberalism trying to cover it's ass?
