David Schweickart

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David Schweickart is an American mathematician and philosopher. He holds a BS in Mathematics from University of Dayton, a PhD in Mathematics from University of Virginia, and a PhD in Philosophy from Ohio State University. He currently is Professor of Philosophy at Loyola University Chicago.

He has taught at Loyola since 1975. He was a Visiting Professor of Mathematics at the University of Kentucky from 1969 to 1970, and a Visiting Professor of Philosophy at the University of New Hampshire from 1986 to 1987. He has also lectured in Spain, Cuba, El Salvador, Italy, and the Czech Republic, as well as throughout the United States.

He is an editor and contributing writer to SolidarityEconomy.net, an online journal dedicated to Economic Democracy.

In 1999 Schweickart was named Faculty Member of the Year at Loyola University Chicago.

[edit] Economic Democracy

For more information about "Economic Democracy", see Schweickart's "Economic Democracy: A Worthy Socialism That Would Really Work"

In After Capitalism and other works Schweickart has developed the model of market socialism he refers to as Economic Democracy. It embodies several key ideas:

  • Workplace self-management, including election of supervisors
  • Democratic management of capital investment by a form of public banking
  • A (mostly) free market for goods, raw materials, instruments of production, etc.
  • Socialist protectionism to enforce trade equality between nations

The firms and factories are owned by society and managed by the workers. These enterprises, so managed, compete in markets to sell their goods. Profit is shared by the workers. Each enterprise is taxed for the capital they employ, and that tax is distributed to public banks, who fund expansion of existing and new industry.

[edit] Published Works

  • After Capitalism (Rowman and Littlefield, 2002) - ISBN 0-7425-1300-9
  • Market Socialism: The Debate Among Socialists, coauthored with Bertell Ollman, Hillel Ticktin and James Lawler (Routledge, 1998)
  • Against Capitalism (Cambridge University Press, 1993) [Spanish translation, 1997; Chinese translation, 2003])
  • Capitalism or Worker Control? An Ethical and Economic Appraisal (Praeger, 1980)

[edit] External links

  • SolidarityEconomy.net An online journal of radical social change that features David Schweickart's works and other writings on Economic Democracy and left politics.
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