Chapter 1: Subjective Figures of the Crisis ... - Negri in English

control to democratic self-management. The first is modeled on
the "difference principle" that John Rawls proposes in his theory
of justice. According to this principle, inequalities in the
distribution of goods should be permitted only if they benefit the
least advantaged members of society. In every social decision,
other factors being equal, preference should be given to benefit
the poor. This principle is intended to set up a dynamic that
gradually but consistently tends toward the equal distribution of
wealth. A difference principle for the common would work in
parallel fashion: every social function regulated by the state that
could be equally well managed in common should be transferred
to common hands. Proposals for the self-management of aspects
of educational life, for instance, such as individual classes or
study programs, should be given preference over state
management. Similarly, the common, democratic management
of natural resources should always take priority when it is at least
equally effective and efficient. This kind of difference principle
seems to us useful as a theoretical guide but not effective enough
to guarantee a real social transformation.
The second path for ensuring a steady movement from the
public to the common, which is more active and practical than
the first, involves a double combat. Many social movements for
the common and against neoliberalism struggle for the public to
overthrow the rule of private property' and, at the same time or
sequentially, militate against that public power in the interests of
the common and mechanisms of self-management. These two
paths are not exclusive, of course. They can be combined
together and with other strategies. The point is that we do not
need to reject all strategies that affirm public control, but neither
can we be satisfied with them. We must find the means to set in
motion a dynamic that ensures a movement toward the common.
There are many contemporary' examples of double struggle,
for and against the public. Student movements against the
privatization of education often take this character, as do many
environmental movements. The paradigmatic example of this
double movement in our view involves the dynamic between
social movements and progressive governments in Latin
America, which is worth analyzing more closely.
Progressive governments and social movements in