Democratic Markets?

Andy wrote: "On markets. I am not sure that markets have always been a part 
of
human existence, but I did not think we were talking about markets in the
abstract, transhistorically. I thought we were talking about *capitalist*
markets. Moreover, it seems reasonable to characterize markets as 
inventions in
the sense that they are the products of organized human activity. To deny 
this
elevates markets to a suprahistorical status."

Andy, I agree markets are not suprahistorical, but they do go farther back 
than
previously supposed. One result of World Systems Theory's letting go of a
dogmatic Marxist philosophy of history is the development of the view that
markets exist long before capitalism. Markets don't need much in terms of
invention--they spring up spontaneously. But the virtue of markets--that 
they
are highly productive, is also its vice since high production in a system of
private property leads to a concentration of power that can then deform the
democratic process. (We see this clearly in the way Bush's backers are 
basically
buying the presidential election.)

 How can we invent a democratic market, one responsive to political concerns
without losing too much of its productive and distributory power? In my 
view,
the key political problem is how to integrate these two basic conceptual
institutions: democracy and markets.

Randy Groves