Utopian Thinking and Practical Leadership Alternatives - Essay Example

Utopian Thinking and Practical Leadership Alternatives Utopian Thinking and Practical Leadership Alternatives According toErik Olin Wright, various changes and developments can be made on the way social businesses. He explains this through a book by the name “Real Utopias project”. Through this book, he gives various suggestions on ways in which different arenas of social institutions can be redesigned to improve their functionality. He shows various shortcomings of capitalist economies and gives possible alternatives to the current economic system. He also shows practical examples where these alternatives have been successful. The aim of this paper is to come up with a critical appraisal of the ideas presented by Erik Olin Wright in this book. According to the book, the new ideas can be effective in the management of resources. For instance, he uses “the participatory city budgeting process in Porto Alegre, Brazil” to show how collective handling of public resources can be both political and economic benefit (Wright, 2010). He uses the success of this case to show how public inclusion in decision-making processes can be used as a tool to bring bureaucracy to an end, thus promotes democracy. The argument in this case is that the involvement of the public in public political and economic issues makes it hard for there to be manipulation of public resources by a few members of the public to serve their own interests. He also argues that when social institutions are communal, the members of the community tend to complement each other instead of competing against each other. This is clearly depicted by the Mondragon Corporation. The cooperation is community based and has its policies based on communism. As much as there has been the dominance of capitalism, this cooperation remains to be one of the largest business organizations in Spain in terms of asset turnover (Abrams, 2008). Most of the resources sure community owned, making it hard for there being influential individuals taking advantage of the less fortunate. The main ideas are that this form of business existence discourages bureaucracy and encourages collective accountability (Semler, 1993). According to Wright, the main reason as to why the current organizational paradigm needs redesigning is the way it has been unsuccessful in meeting its expectations. When capitalism was first introduced in Europe, many people thought that it will lead to an improvement in democracy. It was also expected to trigger faster economic growth. However, a closer look at capitalism, and how it works in the modern world will prove that it only works for those with affluence and influence (Banai, Nirenberg & Menachem, 2000). The book seeks to prove that though the initial desired outcome of capitalism would be ideal for everyone, the actual outcome is not pleasing to a good number of the current population. Looking at incidents where people have tried alternative systems, the Wright seeks to show various actions that would be taken to save the current situation. The strategies that the writer presents for transformation from capitalism are simply convincing. He gives three strategies that can enable the modern society to attain a state of economic, social, and political equality. He takes into consideration the fact that this kind of transformation will come at a price. As much as this is an assumption, it still is true, given that such changes will require allot of sacrifices and losses. By making certain capitalisms institutions weak, there must be some losses that will be incurred in one way or another (Spanno, 2008). This will mean that a drop or worsening of general wellbeing will be inevitable. This will mean that even if these strategies might work; things will not be smooth at the early stages of their introduction. The book illustrates how three main forces control human existence, namely: the social power, the state power, and the economic power. He goes further and explains how each type of power forms the basis for the known types of property: social ownership, private capitalist ownership, and state ownership (Hawken, 2007). He describes the current society as a hybrid of socialism, capitalism, and statism. However, he still accepts the fact that capitalism is still dominant. The major assumption in this case is that the civil society can influence public properties, state properties, and private properties. Due to this capability, there will be likely to be more improvement resulting from their active participation in decision-making processes (Semler, 1989). Despite the fact that the author clearly states how socialism can be seen in the modern world, it is not yet clear how socialism can enhance accountability. At the early stages of capitalism, the main idea was every person was to work hard for his or her economic individual advancement. It was noticed that as an individual earned its own economic advancement he helped the community in advancing too. The economic advancement definitely led to both political and social advancement. However, due to human nature collective decision-making is likely to be tedious and time consuming. Bureaucracy and human greed later destroyed capitalism although it was a very good way of encouraging democracy and accountability. It can also be realized that he chooses to completely ignore the strengths of capitalism, but instead focuses on its shortcomings. The book does not give wider details of how giving civil society the direct power over production is likely to be more economically productive than sticking to capitalism (Anton & Schmitt, 2012). As much as socialism might be good as the book suggests, it is clearly evident that a perfect social, political, and economic system can never be attained. The recommendations made by this book might be viable, but the main question is if the recommendation will be effective for this generation and the successive ones. The suggestions made seem to be aimed at enhancing equality, but will hardly enhance economic growth. As the case of the Mondragon worker-owned cooperative in Spain shows, a blend of both socialism and capitalism might be of benefit. As much as the worker owns the cooperative, it still operates in a capitalist environment competition with other companies. References Abrams, J. (2008). Companies we keep: Employee ownership and the business of community and place. White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green. Anton, A., & Schmitt, R. (2012). Taking socialism seriously. Lanham, Md: Lexington Books. Banai, M., Nirenberg, J., & Menachem, M. (2000). Leadership in self-managing organizations: Orpheus and a date plantation. Journal of Leadership Studies, 7(3), 3–17. Retrieved from SAGE Journals Online. Hawken, P. (2007). Blessed unrest: How the largest social movement in history is restoring grace, justice, and beauty to the world. New York, NY: Penguin Books. Semler, R. (1989). Managing without managers: How one unorthodox company makes money by avoiding decisions, rules, and executive authority. Harvard Business Review, 67(5), 76–84. Retrieved from Business Source Complete. Semler, R. (1993). Maverick: The success story behind the worlds most unusual workplace. New York, NY: Warner Books. Spanno, C. (Ed.). (2008). Real utopia: Participatory society for the 21st century. Oakland, CA: AK Press. Wright, E. O. (2010). Envisioning real utopias. 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