Is Direct Democracy Possible on a Large Scale?

At the end of a course I teach, Brainwashing, Propaganda and Rhetoric, and after we have discussed the different forms of capitalist propaganda, I ask the students if they think they could manage their workplaces without their boss. Surprisingly for me, most people say they can. However, when I ask them if they think they could coordinate their self-run workplaces with other workplaces, their social imagination goes silent.

This article first discusses the capitalist ideology that produced the propaganda that large scale direct democracy is not possible. Then the author demonstrates why it is not true, using historical as well as contemporary examples.

Read more in Grassroots Economic Organizing

Painting by Donald Davis for NASA. Public Domain.

About Bruce Lerro

Bruce Lerro has taught for 25 years as an adjunct college professor of psychology at Golden Gate University, Dominican University and Diablo Valley College. He has applied a Vygotskian socio-historical perspective to his five books: "From Earth-Spirits to Sky-Gods: the Socio-ecological Origins of Monotheism, Individualism and Hyper-Abstract Reasoning", "Power in Eden: The Emergence of Gender Hierarchies in the Ancient World" (co-authored with Christopher Chase-Dunn), "Social Change: Globalization from the Stone Age to the Present", "Lucifer's Labyrinth: Individualism, Hyper-Abstract Thinking and the Process of Becoming Civilized", and "The Magickal Enchantment of Materialism: Why Marxists Need Neopaganism". He is also a representational artist specializing in pen-and-ink drawings. Bruce is a libertarian communist and lives in Olympia, WA.

View all posts by Bruce Lerro →

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *