Jacques Bidet a Stathis Kouvelakis

Analytical Marxism • 139
This ‘socialist’ economy is very different from anything that has hitherto
borne the label. 39 Roemer accepts the view that an ef� cient and dynamic economy
requires a combination of free markets and political democracy. Despite
a commitment to egalitarianism, he also sees little hope in the foreseeable
future for the redistribution of incomes derived from the labour market. He
also rejects the idea of public ownership of industry, and is rather agnostic on
the question of worker-ownership of � rms. What, then, is ‘socialist’ about his
scheme? He would focus on two things: ownership of capital and government
direction of investment.
Roemer argues that there is great scope for the institutional separation of
markets for stock from markets for labour and consumer goods. He envisages
a scheme where capital ownership is held by all the population via coupons
which they can use to buy and sell shares on the stock market. An equal number
of coupons would be issued to each adult and would revert to the public
treasury on the death of the holder. These coupons would be non-convertible
into cash and people would be unable to give them away or trade them for
any other consideration. So there would be no possibility of workers and the
poor trading-in their capital assets in a way leading to a concentration of ownership
in the hands of a few capitalists. All would have an equal expectation
of bene� ting from the pro� ts accruing to capital. In addition to this parallel
currency for stock, Roemer proposes the use by the state of differential interest
rates to encourage investment in sectors where it is socially desirable that
investment be increased but where normal incentives to do so are poor.
Roemer’s proposals are certainly not to be dismissed out of hand. Roemer
is engaging in the kind of creative thinking about the institutions of a socialist
society that must be done if the project of an egalitarian and democratic
society is to regain momentum. From the point of view of egalitarian justice,
a proposal that permits substantial inequalities arising from the people’s possession
of scarce skills and abilities in the labour market, is clearly imperfect.
But Roemer does, at least suggest a way beyond a society in which the
means of production are in the hands of a tiny capitalist class. Nevertheless,
his scheme does have many defects. First, it is far from clear how the coupon-holders
are to be motivated to gather the necessary information and then
39 The proposal is advanced in Roemer 1994 and debated in the collection Roemer
1996. See also Bardhan and Roemer (eds.) 1993.