Struggles against chauvinist consciousness may be waged even while patriarchal divisions of labor are being recreated in the economy. Experiments in cultural diversity might coexist with efforts to impose artistic or literary uniformity. Transition could conceivably occur without too great disruption, as compared to the situation for established coordinator and capitalist economies, if working class forces gained strength in the state and economy simultaneously. But whatever other factors might influence the balance of forces between those favoring liberating outcomes and those favoring new hierarchies, in any such situation, in all existing economies, one disadvantage progressives face is that, to date, the only well-established models for revolutionary social transformation have emphasized nonliberating forms. When the dust of battle settles and the time for construction arrives, the only textbooks and blueprints available deny the possibility of egalitarian and participatory outcomes.
Struggle always seems to pit pragmatists with answers against activists with hopes.
We hope our attempt to flesh out the participatory vision will give substance to libertarian hopes.