Jose Luis Coraggio: Another Economy is Happening


The socioeconomic philosophy of Jose Luis Coraggio invites analysis of the concepts of social structure and structural change.  Such an analysis is not merely a matter of quibbling about words.  It is a matter of death and life.  Phrases with the word “structure” in them appear when change is serious.  On the negative side, for example, the structural adjustment programs imposed by the International Monetary Fund on third world countries left millions of children dead. (1) An example on the positive side is Jose Luis Coraggio’s proposed strategy for constructive structural change.  Many believe that without constructive changes of social structures there can be no real solutions to social and environmental problems, and that there must necessarily be continuing avoidable misery, violence, and degradation. (2)
            Corragio’s proposal is to work at all levels to build on the raw material provided by existing constructive responses to mass unemployment and mass poverty. (3)  Starting from the alternative institutions that already exist, he proposes the collective creation of a people’s economy, sometimes also known as an economy of solidarity, or as a labor economy.  He does not call for a frontal attack on large-scale capitalism, which he refers to as the entrepreneurial economy, while he regards the storefront family businesses of the poor, and even most small firms, as already being parts of the people’s economy. (4) He does not call for the wholesale nationalization of the major means of production.  He does call for permanently evaluating and revising the laws that govern big business, and indeed all laws.  He does call for a strong public sector.  The three parts of his proposed new economy, the people’s economy, the entrepreneurial sector, and the public sector, are to be coordinated through the agency of deeper and more participatory democratic decision making processes, so that all three will work together for the common good.  (5) Building up the first of these three, the people’s economy, is the key to opening the doors to work and dignity for the millions who have no realistic hope of finding good jobs in the entrepreneurial economy or in the public sector.  It is also the key to generating the political muscle needed to discipline big business.