[Fwd: Social democracy betrayed -- Le Monde diplomatique]

[Michael Hoover]

> I've been reading a lot of Luxembourg Income Study papers, and
> it's clear that the social democratic countries, esp the Nordic ones, did
> in their heyday partly decommodify economic life in the sense of greatly
> buffering the link between market incomes and material welfare 
> Doug

above was Claus Offe's argument before he went off into new social
movements, 'post-communist' transitions, and 'beyond employment'...

"Under modern capitalist conditions, a supportive framework of non-
commodified institutions is necessary for an economic system that 
utilizies labor power is if it were a commodity." (The Contradictions
of the Welfare State, p. 263)

in other words, the capitalist system of commodified production
(competitive market) requires a certain degree of political
intervention (state regulation) and decommodified provision
(social welfare) to sustain and reproduce itself (capital
accumulation)...

capitalist state has contradictory functions - accumulation &
legitimation...Michael Hoover