Civilizing the State

John Restakis

Description

• Co-op available
• Galleys available to sales reps, trade publications, and long-lead media
• Digital galleys on Edelweiss
• National advertising
  • The Progressive, Sojourners, Facebook, Google, Amazon
• National print campaign
  • Yes! Magazine, Municipal World, OpenDemocracy, Sojourners, Community Development Journal, Green America, The Progressive, Communities
• Online/social media outreach:
  • Amazon A+ page
  • Livestream event and giveaway with author
  • Outreach to co-operative associations and organizations
  • Promotion on New Society Publishers social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, our blog, Pinterest, Instagram, and YouTube
• Academic mailing to:
  • Economics, Sociology, Political Science, Political Economy, and Philosophy departments
• General eBook marketing plan:
  • eBook will be available at the same time as print publication to maximize sales
  • eBook ISBN will be included on all press materials, author and publisher websites, and whenever print ISBN is listed
  • publisher and author will be promoting both e and p through social media
• Excerpts target for first serial rights: Medium, OpenDemocracy, Yes! Magazine, Municipal World, The Progressive
• Bookseller/library promotions: inclusion at ASSA, APSA, ASA, ISA academic conferences

• Author's previous book, Humanizing the Economy, sold 5000 copies
• He has 25 years experience in the co-op movement both in NA and internationally
• Co-founder of Synergia Co-operative Institute, adjunct professor at Simon Fraser University in BC, research associate for Co-operatives UK
• Travelled extensively researching the regions covered in the book:
  • USA, UK, Spain, Italy, India, Syria and Japan
• Book provides a new vision of the state that reflects the principles and values of co-operative economic democracy in service to the common good
• Provides a response to the growing crisis of liberal democracy
• Offers concrete existing examples of governance systems and political economies
• Provides viable pathways for progressive system change at local, municipal, regional, and global scales
• Central to the vision is a radically realigned relationship between state, market, and capital

International

• Author is particularly well-known in Bologna, Italy; Athens, Greece; London, UK; and Barcelona, Spain.
  
• He has worked in the EU, the Middle East, East Africa, Sri Lanka, South and Central America, Japan, Honduras, and Cuba.
  
• Countries featured in the book:
  • USA
  • UK
  • Barcelona, Spain
  • Bologna, Italy
  • Kerala, India
  • Rojava, Syria
  • Japan

Academic

For Undergrad and post-grad courses in political economy, economics, sociology, community development, economic development, and international relationships levels

Audience

• Readers of Elinor Ostrom and David Bollier
• Activists, practitioners, policymakers, students, researchers, and general readers in the fields of social justice, co-operative economic development, commons, environmental justice, and progressive political economy.

The liberal state is dead, long live the partner state

Across the world, the liberal nation state is on its knees. Rising inequality, deep political polarization, and the pervasive power of corporations are tearing apart the social contract and threatening to crush democracy.

Civilizing the State traces the history and development of the liberal state and its changing role from the enabler of capitalism to protector of citizen welfare, to its hollowing out and capture by corporate and elite interests rendering it unfit to address the compounding crises of inequality, injustice, ecological collapse, and loss of legitimacy.

Author John Restakis explores citizen-powered alternatives and experiments in co-operation, deep democracy, solidarity economics, and commoning from Spain, India, the global peasant movement, and the emerging stateless democracy of Rojava rising from the wreckage of the Syrian civil war.

The final section views the current crisis as an opportunity to reimagine the state not as handmaid to predatory elites but as a partner state that promotes equity, economic democracy, co-operation, and human thriving, driven by deep democracy and a fully sovereign civil society.

Incisive, penetrating, and inspirational, this is essential reading for all engaged citizens with a stake in co-creating a better future for all.

Acknowledgments

Introduction 

1. Treason of the State

2. Civil Power and the New Legitimacy

3. The Commons: Dispossession and Reclamation

4. The Co-operative City

5. The Way of the Peasant

6. Deep Democracy in Kerala

7. Living Without Approval: Stateless Democracy in Rojava

8. The World Unmasked

9. Transformation and Integration

10. From Welfare State to Partner State

11. Civilizing the State: Principles and Policies 

Epilogue

Notes

Index

About the Author

About New Society Publishers

Sujets

• Political Economy
• Political Science
• New Economics
• Civics
• Globalization
• Citizenship
• Corporation

Informations

• Publié par: New Society Publishers
• Date de parution: 02 novembre 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781550927368
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

JOHN RESTAKIS
th e
Civ ilizi ng s tat e
ECONOMICS / POLITICAL SCIENCE
As the liberal state fghts for its life,
is it time for the partner state?
Shows how we can reclaim democracy and the commons and shape
a future for the common good.
— VANDANA SHIVA, author, Earth Democracy and Oneness Vs. the 1%
Thoughtful, provocative, and hopeful.
— DAVID BOLLIER, co-author, Free, Fair, and Alive
ACROSS THE WORLD, the liberal nation state is on its knees. Rising inequality, deep
political polarization, and the pervasive power of corporations are tearing apart the
social contract and threatening to crush democracy.
Civilizing the State traces the history and development of the liberal state and its
changing role from the enabler of capitalism, to protector of citizen welfare, to its C i v i l i zi n ghollowing out and capture by corporate and elite interests, rendering it unft to
address the compounding crises of inequality, injustice, ecological collapse, and loss
of legitimacy.
Author John Restakis explores citizen-powered alternatives and experiments in
cooperation, deep democracy, solidarity economics, and commoning from Spain, India, t h e s t at ethe global peasant movement, and the emerging stateless democracy of Rojava rising
from the wreckage of the Syrian civil war.
The fnal section views the current crisis as an opportunity to reimagine the state not
as handmaid to predatory elites but as a partner state that promotes equity, economic
democracy, co-operation, and human thriving, driven by deep democracy and a fully
sovereign civil society.
Incisive, penetrating, and inspirational, this is essential reading for all engaged citizens RECLAIMING
with a stake in co-creating a better future for all.
P OLI T ICS
An essential read for everyone concerned about the human future.
— DAVID KORTEN, author, When Corporations Rule the World and The Great Turning FOR THE
In Civilizing the State, readers will fnd both illumination and hope. COMMON GOOD
— NANCY MACLEAN, author, Democracy in Chains
JOHN RESTAKIS is the former executive director of the BC Co-operative Association,
a practitioner, educator, and pioneering researcher in international co-operative
economies, and author of Humanizing the Economy. He lives in Vancouver, Canada.
JOHN RESTAKIS
www.newsociety.comPraise for Civilizing the State
John Restakis confronts one of the most important and neglected
issues of our time. Te nation state as we know it is an obsolete
institution. With compelling and authoritative examples Civilizing
the State lays out the problem and tests the solutions. An essential
read for everyone concerned about the human future.
— David Korten, author, When Corporations Rule the World
and Te Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community
As reactionary forces surge to the fore, John Restakis ofers a bold
vision for reinventing the state as a partner of the social economy,
commons, and grassroots democracy. Toughtful, provocative, and
hopeful.
— David Bollier, commons activist and scholar, co-author, Free, Fair, and Alive
Could a better society be taking shape amidst the shards of our
currently suicidal civilization? John Restakis makes a persuasive case
-that it is. He takes readers back to antiquity and up through in
triguing experiments in our own time to explain that to solve the
global crisis of the liberal state we must broaden, deepen, and enrich
self-government. In Civilizing the State, readers will fnd both illumi -
nation and hope.
— Nancy MacLean, William H. Chafe Distinguished Professor of History
and Public Policy, Duke University, author, Democracy in Chains:
Te Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America
Tese are times of fragmentation and despair, where we sorely need
concrete utopias that can inspire us to construct the successor
civilization. Tis record of our times provides grounds for optimism
as we navigate the meta-crisis of civilization by linking grounded
dreams to practical action. From the radical municipalism of
Barcelona to the stateless democracy of Rojava, John Restakis gives
us a portrait of partner state solutions that make possible the
individual and social autonomy that we need in these critical times.
— Michel Bauwens, director and founder, P2P Foundation,
co-author, Peer to Peer: Te Commons ManifestoJohn Restakis’ Civilizing the State is a timely and necessary book in
these times of corporate hijack of the state through neoliberal
globalization. Tree decades of deregulation have transformed welfare
states “for the people, of the people, by the people” into corporate
states “for the corporations, of the corporations, by the corporations.”
Nation states run by corporations for privatization of the commons
and public goods are now mutating into corporate, surveillance
states. Trough examples of practice of direct democracy and
political philosophies of civic participation, Restakis shows how we can
reclaim democracy and the commons and shape a future for the
common good.
— Vandana Shiva, ecological scientist, activist, founder, Research Foundation for
Science Technology and Ecology and Navdanya, founding board member ,
International Forum on Globalisation, author, Earth Democracy and Oneness Vs. the 1%
Tis book will transform how you think about politics and power.
Te “partner state” breaks through the tiring squabbles about less or
more government — instead, the question becomes how government
can enable thicker, richer democracy in everyday life. Trough stories
that are both practical and radical, John Restakis introduces us to the
politics we need for the 21st century.
— Nathan Schneider, professor and journalist, author, Everything for Everyone:
Te Radical Tradition that Is Shaping the Next Economy
and Tank You, Anarchy: Notes from the Occupy Apocalypse
John Restakis’ Civilizing the State deserves careful consideration. It is
informative, perceptive, and persuasive. Te book explores the notion
of the common good and critically examines the role of democratic
politics in enhancing cooperative behavior. A thorough expert in
cooperative economics, Restakis gives the reasons why we need to
civilize the state if we want to avert the risks of authoritarian
governments, crony capitalism, and populisms of various sorts that threaten
democracy. Te type of politics which this book proposes is founded
on the refusal of singularism and on the afrmation that rights
cannot be separated from duties. Tis book is a must read for anyone
who desires to think seriously about the future of our societies,
freeing ourselves from some of our principal contemporary illusions.
— Stefano Zamagni, economics professor, University of Bologna,
author, History of Economic Tought and Civil EconomyCivilizing the State Civilizing
the State
RECLAIMING
POLI T ICS
FOR THE
COMMON GOOD
JOHN RESTAKISCopyright © 2022 by John Restakis.
All rights reserved.
Cover design by Diane McIntosh.
Cover image ©iStock
Printed in Canada. First printing November, 2021.
Inquiries regarding requests to reprint all or part of Civilizing the State should be addressed
to New Society Publishers at the address below. To order directly from the publishers,
please call toll-f ree (North America) 1-800-5 67- 6 772, or order online at www.newsociety.com
Any other inquiries can be directed by mail to:
New Society Publishers
P.O. Box 189, Gabriola Island, BC V0R 1X0, Canada
(2 5 0) 2 4 7- 9 7 3 7
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Title: Civilizing the state : reclaiming politics for the common good / John Restakis.
Names: Restakis, John, author.
Description: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifers: Canadiana (print) 20210270136 | Canadiana (ebook) 20210270209 |
isbn 9780865719439 (softcover) | isbn 9781550927368 ( PdF) | isbn 9781771423328 (ePub)
Subjects: lcsh : Cooperation. | lcsh : Democracy. | lcsh : Common good. |
lcsh : State, Te. | lcsh : Civil society.
Classifcation: lcc hd 2963 .r45 2021 | ddc 334—dc23
New Society Publishers’ mission is to publish books that contribute in fundamental ways
to building an ecologically sustainable and just society, and to do so with the least possible
impact on the environment, in a manner that models this vision. Contents
Acknowledgments ................. ix
Introduction .................... 1
1. Treason of the State................. 11
2. Civil Power and the New Legitimacy ......... 29
3. Te Commons: Dispossession and Reclamation .... 47
4. Te Co-o perative City ................ 65
5. Te Way of the Peasant ............... 79
6. Deep Democracy in Kerala .............. 95
7. Living Without Approval: Stateless Democracy in Rojava 111
8. Te World Unmasked . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
9. Transformation and Integration ............ 149
10. From Welfare State to Partner State .......... 163
11. Civilizing the State: Principles and Policies ....... 181
Epilogue ...................... 189
Notes ....................... 195
Index........................ 205
About the Author .................. 213
About New Society Publishers ............ 214
viiAcknowledgments
Over the course of writing this book, I have been assisted by friends
and colleagues whose reading and critical feedback of the early
drafts have helped immeasurably in improving the text. S pecial
thanks are due to Stefano Zamagni, Trebor Scholz, Vasilis Kostakis,
David Korten, Nathan Schneider, Michel Bauwens, Ana Maria
Peredo, Guy Dauncey, Kevin Flanagan, Leman Heseno, Ed Mayo,
and Henry Tam. I am also deeply indebted to my colleagues and
co- conspirators, Mike Lewis, Mike Gismondi, and Pat Conaty at
Synergia Institute whose friendship and collaboration have so
enriched my own analysis and understanding of the patterns that
underlie the converging crises with which human society is confronted.
It is a reminder that the solidarity and friendship of fellow travelers
is as crucial t