Government in the Future (Open Media Series)

Government in the Future (Open Media Series)
by Noam Chomsky

Government in the Future (Open Media Series)
List Price: $9.95
Our Price: $5.29
You Save: $4.66 (47%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $3.85 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions


(Click here)
Buy this book at online book store in your country
Canada | UK | Germany | France

Book Summary Information

Author: Noam Chomsky
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2005-04-05
ISBN: 1583226850
Number of pages: 80
Publisher: Seven Stories Press

Book Reviews of Government in the Future (Open Media Series)

Book Review: Only By Revolution - From Prior Oppression
Summary: 5 Stars

A small book of only 67 pages from a talk given in 1970 and yet valuable, relevant, undated information.

In this book Chomsky goes into four main avenues of government This is not a perfect interpretation.

1. Classic Liberalism - a tamed down version of the dog eat dog, Laissez-Faire economics, which is small government or non-government intervention in a capitalist society, but here minus the rugged individualism and wage slave labor. So it's sort of a combination of the Laissez faire liberty with the civil libertarian of individual social freedoms which are, not obstructed by entrepreneurial capitalist greed of free market fundamentalism.

2. Libertarian Socialism - anarchism, council communism - here the working class becomes the government, but not a dictatorship of the proletariat, but rather a democracy of the proletariat, councils and committees vote on issues, not elected representatives who act as the decision makers. There is no state ownership and authoritarian domination but self governing through democratic means. Some anarchism wants to do away with the political organization of the state, where as here the commune exists All of this is experimental and is believed to be achieved only by revolution and only when the conditions are ripe.Only by active participation of the masses in self-government and social reconstruction could bring about what Rosa Luxemburg described as the complete spiritual transformation in the masses degraded by centuries of bourgeois class rule, just as only their creative experience and spontaneous action could solve the myriad problems created in libertarian socialist society. Here there would be no vanguard party here but equalitarian participation through technology and education.

3. State Socialism And 4. State Capitalism

It is here the range of decisions that are in principle subject to public democratic control are quite narrow, from the political decision makers and central institutions as well as the centers of private power which exert an inordinately heavy influence through media, thought control of political organizations by biased concentrations of private power and autocratic institutions. Democracy is limited mainly to elections which subsequently can by pass public opinion in decision making and use means of control or propaganda to influence public policy. Centralization of power becomes dominant over democratic decision making., from the top down as opposed to the bottom up.

"American society is indeed open and liberal values are preserved. However, as poor people and black people and other ethic minorities know very well, the liberal veneer is pretty thin.. . . . Roughly speaking, I think it's accurate to say that a corporate elite of managers and owners governs the economy and the political systems as well - at least in a very large measure. p. 64 It is here that the deciding of issues by the electorate is secondary to the election of the men who are to do the deciding. where the political parties act in concert in competitive struggle for power. If that weren't so, it would be impossible for different parties to adopt exactly or almost exactly the same program.(Joseph Schumperer).

Summary of Government in the Future (Open Media Series)

In this classic talk delivered at the Poetry Center, New York, on February 16, 1970, Noam Chomsky articulates a clear, uncompromising vision of social change. Chomsky contrasts the classical liberal, libertarian socialist, state socialist, and state capitalist world views and then defends a libertarian socialist vision as "the proper and natural extension . . . of classical liberalism into the era of advanced industrial society."
In his stirring conclusion Chomsky argues, "We have today the technical and material resources to meet man?s animal needs.We have not developed the cultural and moral resources or the democratic forms of social organization that make possible the humane and rational use of our material wealth and power.
Conceivably, the classical liberal ideals as expressed and developed in their libertarian socialist form are achievable. But if so, only by a popular revolutionary movement, rooted in wide strata of the population and committed to the elimination of repressive and authoritarian institutions, state and private. To create such a movement is a challenge we face and must meet if there is to be an escape from contemporary barbarism."

20th Century Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in 20th Century Books
Route 66: The Mother Road ImageRoute 66: The Mother Road
by Michael Wallis
St. Martin's Griffin; Published: 1992-09-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $24.86
Sweet and Low: A Family Story ImageSweet and Low: A Family Story
by Rich Cohen
Picador; Published: 2007-03-20; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.09
Price in other shops: $15.00
When We Get to Surf City: A Journey Through America in Pursuit of Rock and Roll, Friendship, and Dreams ImageWhen We Get to Surf City: A Journey Through America in Pursuit of Rock and Roll, Friendship, and Dreams
by Bob Greene
St. Martin's Press; Published: 2008-05-13; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $0.61
Price in other shops: $24.95
Gone to Texas: A History of the Lone Star State ImageGone to Texas: A History of the Lone Star State
by Randolph B. Campbell
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2003-08-07; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $155.33
The Dodgers Move West ImageThe Dodgers Move West
by Neil Sullivan
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 1989-06-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $18.93
Price in other shops: $24.99
American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune, and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush ImageAmerican Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune, and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush
by Kevin Phillips
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2004-09-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.95
Price in other shops: $15.00
Dereliction of Duty: Johnson, McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies That Led to Vietnam ImageDereliction of Duty: Johnson, McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies That Led to Vietnam
by H. R. McMaster
Harper Perennial; Published: 1998-05-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.36
Price in other shops: $16.99
My Father the Spy: An Investigative Memoir ImageMy Father the Spy: An Investigative Memoir
by John H. Richardson
Harper Perennial; Published: 2006-08-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.01
Price in other shops: $14.95
My Father the Spy: An Investigative Memoir ImageMy Father the Spy: An Investigative Memoir
by John H. Richardson
Harper; Published: 2005-08-02; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $1.59
Price in other shops: $24.95
A Crack in the Edge of the World: America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906 ImageA Crack in the Edge of the World: America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906
by Simon Winchester
PBS; Harper; Published: 2005-10-04; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $3.57
Price in other shops: $27.95
Similar Books and other products
Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media ImageManufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media
by Edward S. Herman, Noam Chomsky
Pantheon; Published: 2002-01-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.77
Price in other shops: $19.95
Understanding Power: The Indispensable Chomsky ImageUnderstanding Power: The Indispensable Chomsky
by Noam Chomsky, Peter Mitchell
The New Press; Published: 2002-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.19
Price in other shops: $22.95
New World of Indigenous Resistance (City Lights Open Media) ImageNew World of Indigenous Resistance (City Lights Open Media)
by Noam Chomsky
City Lights Publishers; Published: 2010-05-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.99
Price in other shops: $18.95
Media Control, Second Edition: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda (Open Media Series) ImageMedia Control, Second Edition: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda (Open Media Series)
by Noam Chomsky
Seven Stories Press; Published: 2002-09-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.35
Price in other shops: $9.95
The Chomsky-Foucault Debate: On Human Nature ImageThe Chomsky-Foucault Debate: On Human Nature
by Noam Chomsky, Michel Foucault
New Press, The; Published: 2006-09-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.95
Price in other shops: $15.95
Profit Over People: Neoliberalism & Global Order ImageProfit Over People: Neoliberalism & Global Order
by Noam Chomsky, Robert W. McChesney
Seven Stories Press; Published: 1999; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.00
Price in other shops: $15.95
Hopes and Prospects ImageHopes and Prospects
by Noam Chomsky
Haymarket Books; Published: 2010-06-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.55
Price in other shops: $17.00
Capitalism and Freedom: Fortieth Anniversary Edition ImageCapitalism and Freedom: Fortieth Anniversary Edition
by Milton Friedman
University Of Chicago Press; Published: 2002-11-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.14
Price in other shops: $17.50
Chomsky on Anarchism ImageChomsky on Anarchism
by Noam Chomsky
AK Press; Published: 2005-05-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.79
Price in other shops: $16.95
The Libertarian Reader: Classic and Contemporary Writings from Lao Tzu to Milton Friedman ImageThe Libertarian Reader: Classic and Contemporary Writings from Lao Tzu to Milton Friedman
by David Boaz
Free Press; Published: 1998-02-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $15.86
Price in other shops: $29.95
Book store. Illustrated catalog of books on different categories