Recasting Egalitarianism

In Recasting Egailtarianism, part of Verso’s Real Utopias series, economists Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis diagnose the current malaise of the Left as a result of the obsolescence of its traditional economic models. They propose an egalitarian redistribution of assets—land, capital and housing—and draw in novel ways on markets, competition, state regulation and community governance. The lead essay in the book lays out the underlying logic of this proposal in some detail. In the series of critiques which follow it, a range of distinguished thinkers engage in lively polemic concerning the practicality and effectiveness of the authors’ scheme.