*Show to repeat in full on December 28, 2008. Please find audio there.
Read Transcript Here!
Over the last year or so, among other Freethought programming, Equal Time for Freethought has asked of several political analysts, scientists and economists to talk about what sociopolitical model or set of ideals would best lead humanity toward a future exhibiting some or all of the principles and affirmations of humanism as we’ve described this philosophy over the last six years on these airways. We’ve critiqued capitalism and its many forms with economists Michael Perelman and Robin Hahnel. We’ve talked about alternative economics such as Parecon with Hahnel and activist Michael Albert. We’ve addressed markets, religion and human nature questions with Noam Chomsky and a host of scientists such as Douglas Fry, Judith Hand, David Sloan Wilson, and Harold Barclay. And we as hosts talked about a possible return to a socialist ethic with revolutionary communism, democratic socialism, libertarian-socialism and eco-socialism; the latter in specific with political scientist Joel Kovel.
To wrap up these various threads, we present this final show for 2007 with political philosopher Takis Fotopoulos, who has presented an alternative libratory model for reaching a healthier, happier, freer and more humanistic future society. Fotopoulos’ model is called Inclusive Democracy, which according to him, “is derived from a synthesis of two major historical traditions: the classical democratic, and the socialist. It also encompasses radical green, feminist, indigenous and liberation movements in the South.”
The crux of Fotopoulos’ ideas amount to, “communities run on the basis of direct political democracy, as well as economic democracy (beyond the confines of the market economy and statist planning), democracy in the social realm, and ecological democracy.” Accordingly, in an inclusive democracy, “politics is no longer a technique for holding and exercising power, but the self-management of society by its members.”
Takis Fotopoulos is a political philosopher, writer, editor, ex-academic and activist. After studying Politics, Economics and Law at the University of Athens in Greece, he moved to London for postgraduate study at the London School of Economics, on a scholarship from Athens University. Fotopoulos was a Senior Lecturer in Economics at the University of North London for over 20 years until he started editing the journal Society & Nature now online and called the International Journal of Inclusive Democracy. He developed the project of Inclusive Democracy in 1997, a full exposition of which can be found in his book Towards An Inclusive Democracy, which has been translated in French, German, Spanish, Italian, Greek and Chinese.