Henry Mintzberg replies

Mintzberg may be officially retired but is a very busy man as his website indicates – not least with the energy he has been putting into his Rebalancing Society – radical renewal, beyond left, right and center to wake the world up from its slumbers.

But not so busy as to be unable to reply to my cri-de-coeur. His reply may have been brief – but very clear. He has simply suggested that the Reformation serves as a possible example of what can be achieved and directed me to these remarks of his on the subject which I am reproducing in their entirety -

What is known as the Reformation began with words on a door in Germany and ended with a realignment of power in Europe. In 1517, with widespread outrage over corruption in the dominating religion, an obscure monk named Martin Luther challenged its prevailing authority by nailing a list of 95 theses (really grievances) to the door of one of its churches. His words spread within weeks, carried by the new social medium of the time, the printing press. A groundswell followed, as angry people in communities confronted the corruption. Eventually, new institutions formed and some existing ones reformed. Much of the world changed.

Can our world so change? That was Europe five centuries ago, concerning the corruption of one institution. Today we face corruption in many institutions, worldwide.

Is reformation on a global scale impossible? Well, the devastating effects of climate change are not only possible but existent. Income disparities are on the rise. And another great war is possible—and would be the last—with several loose cannons elected by people fed up with these income disparities. When disaster looms, the impossible can become possible, indeed necessary. 

STARTING ON THE GROUND, NOT AT THE “TOP”

Where, then, to begin?

·       At the top? The Reformation did not begin at any top, yet today that is where the preferred solutions focus: the established authorities are supposed to fix the establishment. Elect heroic leaders. Hold lofty conferences. Make 30-year plans. Pretend to fix capitalism. All to no avail. The record of heroic leadership is hardly stellar. Much of it has proved to be impotent when not autocratic. Have we not had enough of the leadership fix?

·       The lofty conferences on global warming seem to generate more of it, thanks to all the travel, let alone the talk (not to mention the swarms of private jets that descend on Davos every year to bemoan the warming). At home, politicians with four-year mandates proclaim 30-year plans. Why do we tolerate such nonsense?

·       Then there are the adjectival capitalism fixes—Progressive Capitalism, Caring Capitalism, Inclusive Capitalism, Sustainable Capitalism, even Democratic Capitalism (democracy being the adjective). Capitalism certainly needs fixing, but that will not fix societies broken by its own power. It is these societies that need fixing, by restoring balance across their sectors.

·       The change we require will have to begin on the ground, as it did in the Reformation. Franklin Delano Roosevelt caught the spirit of this when he was asked by an activist to champion a particular change. He replied: “I agree with you. I want to do it. Now go out and make me do it.” The message is clear: reforming established institutions may be the last step in reformation. The first ones have to be taken on the ground. 

PATHWAY TO REFORMATION

Consider these steps to reformation

Declaration of common cause => Reframing beliefs => Reversing wrongs and Renewing rights => Consolidating this activity => Reforming institutions 

The path to reformation is opened by a compelling statement of common cause that reframes what we believe, or have been made to believe, so that we can understand what is wrong and take action to make it right. If we believe that change must come from the top, then most of us will sit around waiting for it to happen. If we believe that the wealth of globalization trickles down to everyone, then we will take what we get. If we believe that democracy is about swinging between left and right, then we will not see the plural sector for the role it must play in buttressing the power of the public and private sectors.

It is the reframing of beliefs that galvanizes action. 

CONSOLIDATING ACTIVITIES

This table outlines a variety of actions that can be taken to address our problems.

We are, in fact, getting a great deal of it, more than ever before. “Blessed Unrest” by Paul Hawken estimated the number of social initiatives for such activities to exceed one million, on a wide variety of fronts: for social justice, sustainable environment, world peace, reformed education, and much more.

That book was published in 2007, yet consider what has been happening to the imbalance ever since. The more constructive activity we get, the worse the imbalance becomes. That is because, while the efforts for reformative change are scattered, the forces that exacerbate the imbalance work in concert, for self-interest—as when they promote conspicuous consumption. 

These efforts will have to consolidate, around a common cause, which I believe will have to be the restoration of balance. A clear focus of attention (such The Declaration of our Interdependence) is required to fuse a myriad of activities into a movement for regeneration. But this consolidation cannot center on any institution or plan; it has to happen as a groundswell of community activity, as in the Reformation, but this time networked worldwide. 

We shall have to recognize that imbalance in society is a root cause of the major problems we face—the social injustices, income disparities, decline of democracy, even much of climate change. How, for example, are we to reverse climate change as long as private power drives so much conspicuous consumption? In other words, if you are concerned about the climate, you had better put the rebalancing of society front and center.

The corruption of established institutions is far more widespread than at the time of Luther, and the dangers we face are far more alarming. We have glorified greed and excess long enough; it is time to value balance and benevolence. Our choice comes down to this: grounded reformation or global devastation. We can continue to plunder this planet, and each other, or we can make our way to reformation.

The clear implication is that the social media are the modern equivalent of the Gutenberg printing press. And we have noone to blame but ourselves - if we fail to seize the opportunity to bring down the systemic corruption of our existing institutions.

As the last post indicated, his table is indeed an extraordinarily useful tool.

In a future post I will perhaps explore how we can activate it and use it in our daily lives…..

An Open Letter to Henry Mintzberg

I have ambivalent feelings about management writers as a breed - but make exceptions for people such as Charles Handy, Henry Mintzberg, Gareth Morgan and Chris Grey.

Mintzberg and Morgan are the best known - Canadians and therefore less inclined to the fanciful nonsense that US proponents of the craft inflict on us – the other two are Brits. One of Mintzberg’s highly readable books was “Strategy Safari – a guided tour through the wilds of strategic management”

Some years ago I wrote to him about an early draft of his very accessible booklet “Rebalancing Society – radical renewal, beyond left, right and center” (2015) and he was kind enough to respond and to refer to my comment in a following draft. 

He actively blogs and maintains an excellent website which continues to update the text of “Rebalancing Society”.

In the light of the series of posts I’ve been doing, I thought it would be useful to drop him another note and indeed to reproduce its content as an Open Letter. After the initial reference to our previous exchange the note went as follows - 

You rightly remind us that there are three sectors – private, public and social – and that it is the last that really matters. The actions that each and every one of us take are indeed of central importance - and the table you included in the 2015 version is an excellent tool for exploring the options open to us in all sectors.

However I’m not sure if your text properly takes on board the structure of power which, of all people, you so well understand has elements of “hegemony” (I hate the word but it can be a useful shorthand).

Trade unions, the working class, social democracy are, sadly, not the force they once were. 

As political parties lose their functions – and governments their usefulness to citizens – all that is left is the (withering) power of social movements and social enterprise to challenge the increasingly stronger power of monopolies and oligopolies. We are – in the dreadful language of the sociologists – losing our power of “agency”

In my youth, I was a very active (Regional) politician who helped set up community structures and businesses as part of a positive discrimination strategy which the Scottish government continues to honour – but I have lost my faith in political parties.

My question is – how do you persuade someone like me that there is a future in social movements – let alone in political parties or government?

I have to say that I don’t see enough recognition in the general literature of the importance of this issue of the structure of power and the need for an effective system of “countervailing power”.

Useful Reading

Reclaiming the State – a progressive vision of sovereignty in a post neo-liberal world Bill Mitchell (2017)

The Argument so far – part IV

 The last post indicated the reading I hope to do to stimulate the grey cells as I try to draft the concluding chapter of my little book about our current malaise. It made the important point that, before we start even flicking a book, we need to have some questions in mind. This will help us quickly identify where (if at all) the text actually tries to develop answers…..   

I confessed that I don’t find it easy to articulate such questions – and, typically, I found my exercise producing a list of statements viz  

·       Western liberal capitalism has legitimacy as long as its political and economic systems work

·       The economic system (capitalism) has always had its critics – but the global financial crash of 2008; climate change; and Artificial Intelligence have made the case for radical change unassailable

·       For the second half of the 20^th century, the political system (democracy) seemed free from such challenges - but has recently come under fire for its failure to make its citizens feel that it represents any more their interests

·       Political parties have indeed surrendered almost all of their functions – which I once described as representation, manifesto implementation, extension of public insight and protection – and are left only with the selection of elites.

·       Most of the terms used in discussions – such as neoliberalism, inequality, populism, identity – are useless slogans which don’t contribute to anyone’s understanding of what’s at stake

·       The present situation suits “Individualists” down to the ground

·       It was 1979 when Christopher Lasch produced his “Culture of Narcissism” which anticipated the present focus on self

·       “Egalitarians” are at a loss – having lost their capacity to believe in solidarity and the engines of union pressure and of social democracy

·       The rest of us are utterly confused

·       The structure of power is basically out of balance – as Henry Mintzberg’s Rebalancing  Society – radical renewal beyond left, right and center so clearly sets out

·       But argument alone will not bring down the walls of privilege

·       The lesson of history is that force (or its threat) is needed to effect social change

·       Although history also tells us that it has to be non-violent

·       Where do we find and harness such force?    

Querying the texts – part III of the current series

It’s taken a few days to gather together and skim some of the more recent books which might be useful as I try to draft the concluding chapter to the book I’ve been working on for the past decade – the one in which I try to understand the sense of crisis which has overtaken the West. The last two posts tried to give a sense of the book’s basic arguments.

I’m one of these people who tend to read everything I can lay my hands on – imagining that it will somehow give me the clarity my confusion requires.

Somehow I never learn that I need to start with questions – against which I can query the text. I have to discipline myself to articulate these questions

POWER is the big problematic for me at the moment. How – given the selfish individualism which has invaded our modern souls – is it possible for people to come together to force the system to change for the better. It was trade unions and the working class who for that brief period after the war forced a certain balance of power. The growth of the service sector and globalisation have undermined that.  

And what about a programme which would actually attract votes? That’s why I’ve included the books on socialism, social democracy and communitarianism.

The first column gives the book titles – in chronological order – starting with the earliest. The second column explains why I think they could be useful 

Title	First Impressions
Why the Third Way Failed – economics, morality and the origins of ”the big society”; Bill Jordan (2010)	This, for a social democrat, is one of the most important questions – why did a consensual approach which rebuffs both left and right idelogies fail? Was it the absense of a serious approach? Or are we doomed to be tribal?
Unaccountable – how the elite brokers corrupt; Janine Wedel (2014)	Wedel is an anthropologist – and applies those skills to the contemporary political system of the USA
Rebalancing  Society – radical renewal beyond left, right and center Henry Mintzberg (2015)	One of my favourite little books which I’ve brought in as a measure for the other books. He’s basically got it all – strong analysis of what’s wrong; recognition of the importance of worker coops and social enterprise; and of the need for a shift in power
Back to the future of Socialism Peter Hain (2015)	Most of the books in the table are by academics but this one is by that rarity – a thinking and caring politician. The title is a reference to the classic 1956 “Future of Socialism” and is a useful update
Reclaiming the State – a progressive vision of sovereignty in a post neo-liberal world Bill Mitchell (2017)	I like the look of this book – written by an Australian - which, unusually, argues for a more activist role for the state
Wrong Turnings – how the left got lost; Geoff Hodgson (2018)	Hodgson is both a political economist and social democrat and has a strong analysis here
Why the Left Loses – the decline of the centre left; R Manwaring and P Kennedy (2018)	The classic book on social democracy (Berman) was published 15 years ago. This is a more recent assessment from Australians which looks at the lessons from recent experience. See reading list here
Is Socialism Feasible? Geoffrey Hodgson (2019)	Hodgson is a political economist and social democrat who writes clearly and is prepared to face hard truths
From What Is to What If – unleashing the power of imagination to create the world we want Rob Hopkins (2019).	Hopkins is an environmental activist who founded the Resilient Towns movement.
The Demons of Liberal Democracy; Adrian Pabst (2019)	Pabst is a Third Way man who abhors left and right. I felt this would provide a challenging read
Winners take all – the elite charade of changing the world; A Girdiharadas (2019)	One of the problems progressives have is that the devil has stolen a lot of his tunes.
Goliath – the 100-year war between monopoly power and democracy; Matt Stoller (2019)	very important review suggests the author has swallowed the liberal competition ideas of economists too literally; and has underestimated the power of class struggle in the post-war US achievements
The Free Society in Crisis; David Starkey (2019)	Have included this curious book largely from admiration of the author’s courage in limiting his reading list to books that are more than 50 years old
The evolution of communitarian ideas – history, theory and practice Henry Tam (2019)	Communitarianism is an important strand of progressive thought Tam is a very thoughtful and excellent writer who blogs here
The Third Pillar – how the market and the state leave the community behind Raghuram Rajan (2019)	an overdue analysis of the huge role which communiity bodies have to play in the future which was all too easily dismissed by the loose talk of ”The Third Way” and the ”Big Society”.  Although we do have to ask why it is that ideas apparently attractive to mainstream opinion were never taken seriously....
The New Class War – saving democracy from the new managerial elite; Michael Lind (2020)	I want to like this book – but feel the argument that managerial power needs taking down is hardly likely in itself to lead to the rebalance of power we need
Twenty-First Century Socialism; Jeremy Gilbert (2020)	This is a short and very readable book. Gilbert is the author of Common Ground – democracy and collectivity in an age of individualism (2013)
Unrigged – how Americans are battling back to save democracy; David Daley (2020)	The book may have a focus on the US but the move to discredit democracy and disenfranchise voters is widespread (eg contemporary UK) as is evident from books with titles such as “Against Democracy” (2016)
Rentier Capitalism – who owns the economy? Brett Christophers (2020)	A British economist gives us a good sense of the curious direction the British economy has taken. Strongly influenced by the work of US economist Michael Hudson, famous for his “Killing the Host” and “J is for Junk Economics”
Authoritarianism and how to counter it; Bill Jordan (2020)	The sociology author of ”Why the Third Way failed” takes on the question of why voters have turner again to ”the hard men” and what we can do about it...
Share the Wealth – how to end rentier capitalism; Philippe Askenazy (2021)	Too many anglo-saxon economists dominate this field – so it’s good to get a French view (a translation of a 2016 book)
Mission Economy – a moonshot guide to changing capitalism; Mariana Mazzucato (2021)	This Italian economist now based in Britain is one of the few economists who has been prepared to argue strongly for public investment and an activist role for government – see also Bill Mitchell (below) and Andrew Cumbers
Consequences of Capitalism; Noam Chomsky and Mary Waterstone (2021)	Very disappointing book – based on recent lectures delivered by Chomsky. And it shows….with the narrative often jumping into distracting stories.
Post Growth – life after capitalism ; Tim Jackson (2021)	The elephant in the room….a suitable note on which to finish

The "expandable" book

One of my favourite television watching is Seinfeld which ran for almost a decade from its 1989 start and has 180 episodes. One of them has Kramer, the goofy neighbour, sell the idea of a coffee book with a small nestling table attached - duly appearing on a television talk-show to explain the idea. And, in that same spirit, I offer you the concept of the “expandable book”

As the guy who has actually argued that non-fiction books should be rationed, you might well ask what on earth I think I’m up to - that I am actually thinking of inflicting yet another book on readers. My response is that this is a short book which can expand into larger sizes! 

At the moment my book is just over a hundred pages – although it has hyperlinks to the larger book on which it is based (whose links in turn lead to what must be several thousands of pages of reading). So it’s a huge resource. The latest version is here 

It lists and comments briefly on the hundreds of books which have been written in recent decades about “the crisis”. In that sense, it has something in common with the “50 Classic” series by Tom Butler-Bowen although I can give only a tantalising sense of the worth of the books I reference - compared to the 5 or so pages which Butler-Bowen’s books average for each of his 50. 

But it lacked, as it still does, a conclusion….So I’ve selected a dozen or so useful-looking recent books to see if they will help me clarify things for the missing text – including the latest writing of people such as Noam Chomsky, Geoff Hodgson, Mariana Mazzucato and Jeremy Gilbert.

But, first, I felt I should remind you of the basic argument of each chapter 

Chapter Title	Thrust of chapter arguments	Supporting arguments
1. Critical junctures identified	History is written by the victors – and the sycophants who surround them. Events were generally much more finely balanced than their versions admit. There’s too much fatalism around	Covid 19 as a Critical Juncture Out of the Belly of Hell
2.Trespassing encouraged	Most leaders of organisations are in the grip of groupthink and need countervailing mechanisms of accountability to help them see new realities	Janis, t’Hart, Syed
3. Economics relegated	This intellectual discipline is deficient and yet has too much power. It needs to be brought down a peg or three	Steve Keen, Brian Davey’s ”Credo”
4. The Blind men probe the Elephant	Talk of capitalism and post-capitalism is too loose and reified. There are various equally legitimate ways of perceiving the “beast”	57 Varieties of Capitalism
5. A new social goal is sought for the commercial company	Shareholder value ignores other dimensions Cooperative and social enterprises employ more people than we think – but have to struggle for legitimacy	Paul Hirst Colin Mayer, Ed Mayo, Paul Collier,
6. Lessons of change explored	So much protest fails and few social enterprises have a multiplier effect. How do we create winnable coalitions?	Robert Quinn
7. Change agents and coalitions sought	Progressives are good at sounding off – and bad at seeking common ground	Common Ground – democracy and collectivity in an age of individualism Jeremy Gilbert
8. Bringing it all together	countervailing power

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We Are on our Own

I need some help in writing the conclusion to my "Dispatches to the Next Generation" which is my attempt to answer some existential questions I posed twenty years ago. It's currently in draft here. A few years ago this was how I tried to sum it all up –

·       The “mixed economy” which existed from 1950-1990 was a healthy and effective system for us in the West

·       It worked because power was diffused. Each type of power – economic (companies/banks etc), political (citizens and workers) and legal/admin/military (the state) – balanced the other. None was dominant.

·       Deindustrialisation and economic globalisation have undermined the power which working class people were able to exercise in that period through votes and union activity

·       Privatisation has been a disaster – inflicting costs on the public and transferring wealth to the few

·       Neo-liberalism has supplied a thought system which justifies corporate greed and the privileging (through tax breaks and favourable legislation) of the large international company

·       All political parties and most media have been captured by that thought system which now rules the world

·       People have, as a result, become cynical and apathetic

·       Two elements of the “balanced system” (Political and legal power) are therefore now supine before the third (corporate and media power). The balance is broken and the dominant power ruthless in its exploitation of its new freedom

·       It is very difficult to see a “countervailing power” which would make these corporate elites pull back from the disasters they are inflicting on us

·       Social protest is marginalised

·       Not least by the combination of the media and an Orwellian “security state” ready to act against “dissidence”

·       But the beliefs which lie at the dark heart of the neo-liberal project do need more detailed exposure

·       as well as its continued efforts to undermine what little is left of state power

·       We need to be willing to express more vehemently the arguments against privatisation - existing and proposed)

·       to feel less ashamed about arguing for “the commons” and for things like cooperatives and social enterprise (inasmuch as such endeavours are allowed) 

We’re now in summer 2021 – with the Covid pandemic still raging. How would I now update that statement??

·       we have consistently underestimated the significance of global warming and what is now called the anthropogenic era – indeed there is now open talk of “facing extinction”

·       Globalisation is in shreds

·       Not least through the Covid19 pandemic of 2020

·       Societies are polarised

·       Thrust into narrow and selfish “bubbles”

·       Artificial intelligence threatens what we used to refer to as “employment prospects”    

                How, in such conditions, might social forces come together with a programme which stands a good chance of reforming the political and state systems of power - so that the wings of corporate power can be properly clipped??

And make no mistake – power is the central issue here. At the heart of our collective malaise is the imbalance of power. We quantify everything these days – talking for example of the 8 men who control half the planet’s wealth. But somehow this fails to galvanise any sort of collective action – reference to gini-coefficients leaves glazed eyes

The last post suggested that the manifestos of political parties are characterised by total irrelevance. Totally missing are the commitments to change the power structure eg

-       Break up monopolies

-       Tax the rich – who currently hide in tax havens

-       Reinstate media balance (including a requirement for interviewees to reveal their sources of income)

-       Develop Citizen juries

-       Stop money talking

-       Ensure that civil service advice is neutral

And why are such commitments missing? Because those in charge of political parties know they would then be the subject of highly aggressive attacks by journalists and academics in the pay of corporate power. We can no longer rely on political parties to be agents of change - we seem to be on our own 

I’ve been trying to gather together some key books to skim for my conclusion and felt that Jeremy Gilbert’s Common Ground – democracy and collectivity in an age of individualism (2013) was one of the important texts whose very title recognises the basic problem we face.

A future post will share some of other titles I’ve gathered together for this final push….