An international interface: Democratic planning in a global context

Abstract

There has been a renewal of discussions about alternative economic systems in recent years. Democratic planning has received a lot of attention, especially in view of the way it could help address social and ecological challenges. However, little has been written about how a democratically planned economy could relate to other economies through trade or financial flows. This lack of interest is surprising, considering that any country aspiring to plan its economy democratically would have to take into consideration its integration in global value chains and that few would likely aim for complete autarky once fully democratized. In this article, we address this issue by delineating five principles that an institution responsible for international economic relations should follow in a democratically planned economy and giving an example of how it could function in practice.