Defetishized Society

Having decided that the existing economic and political structures cannot be reformed and must be replaced, Wyatt (politics and sociology, U. of Brighton, Britain) offers the left libertarian scheme originally inspired by English theoretical socialist G.D.H. Cole, New Economic Democracy, as a genuine alternative that combines non-statist socialism with a participatory democratic ethic. He departs from the framework of his earlier work and adopts a new one inspired by the Marxian critique of the fetishism of commodities. His topics include the fetish character of the commodity form and defetishization, superseding alienation, a New Economic Democracy critique of oligarchy, and the theories of transaction costs and membership lethargy. Annotation c2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)