Market Socialism

MARKET SOCIALISM DESCRIBES a range of models of political economy that combine aspects of free markets with elements of socialism. The necessary philosophical and political basis of market socialism is the belief that neither capitalism nor socialism is adequate or viable. While the dignity of human choice and autonomy is inherent in the free market principle, unregulated economies produce unjustifiable inequalities and injustices. Therefore, some collective standard of provision and guaranteed quality of life must modify and limit those very freedoms that permit choice. However, bureaucratic and centralized structures (associated with 20th-century command economies) are too domineering, inefficient, and restrictive of human freedom.

Market socialism is something of a compromise between the authoritarian excesses of a command economy and the cold injustices of an entirely free ...