Central Planning

## **Centralized Economic Planning is a built-in failure**

* “Social-Anarchism and Parallel Economic Computation” by Emmi Bevensee https://c4ss.org/content/52963 [EN]; "Anarquismo Social y Computación Económica Paralela" por Emmi Bevensee https://c4ss.org/content/54658 [ES]
* (left-market anarchist publication, decentralized planning and computation)
* “Maximum Viable Economic Planning” by Emmi Bevensee https://c4ss.org/content/53166 [EN] (left-market anarchist publication, decentralized planning and computation)
* “In Soviet Union, Optimization Problem Solves You!” by Cosma Shalizi https://crookedtimber.org/2012/05/30/in-soviet-union-optimization-problem-solves-you/ [EN]
* “For Your Eyes Only: Soviet Union and the Photocopier” by Dan Motta https://discover.cobbtechnologies.com/blog/the-soviet-union-and-the-photocopier [EN]
* “The Agrarian Question in the Russian Revolution: From Material Community to Productivism, and Back” by Loren Goldner http://breaktheirhaughtypower.org/the-agrarian-question-in-the-russian-revolution-from-material-community-to-productivism-and-back/ [EN]
* “The Implications of Institutional Limits in a Complex World” by Frank Miroslav https://c4ss.org/content/53039 [EN] (left-market anarchist publication)
* “Economic Calculation in the Corporate Commonwealth” by Kevin A. Carson https://fee.org/articles/economic-calculation-in-the-corporate-commonwealth/ [EN]

### **Research Articles**

* "Hierarchy is Detrimental for Human Cooperation" by Katherine A. Cronin, Daniel J. Acheson, Penélope Hernández and Angel Sánchez https://www.nature.com/articles/srep18634.pdf [PDF, 1.59MB, EN]

### **News Articles**

* "Beijing says there’s plenty of food, but people fear the reasons behind ‘clean plate’ campaign" by Jiayun Feng https://supchina.com/2020/08/26/beijing-says-theres-plenty-of-food-as-extreme-methods-to-curb-food-waste-spark-backlash/ [EN]
* “Society Is Too Complicated to Have a President, Complex Mathematics Suggest” by Jason Koebler https://www.vice.com/amp/en/article/wnxbm5/society-is-too-complicated-to-have-a-president-complex-mathematics-suggest [EN] (prone to gonzo journalism)
* “Meet the Anarchists Making Their Own Medicine” by Daniel Oberhaus https://www.vice.com/amp/en/article/43pngb/how-to-make-your-own-medicine-four-thieves-vinegar-collective [EN] (prone to gonzo journalism)

### **Magazine Articles**

* “The Cybersyn Revolution” by Eden Medina https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/04/allende-chile-beer-medina-cybersyn/ [EN]
* “Digital warfare will erode the distinction between the state and civil society” by Paul Mason https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/economy/2020/11/digital-warfare-will-erode-distinction-between-state-and-civil-society [EN]

### **Encyclopedia**

* “Suppressed research in the Soviet Union” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suppressed\_research\_in\_the\_Soviet\_Union [EN]

### **Books**

* “Markets in the Name of Socialism: The Left Wing Origins of Neoliberalism” by Johanna Bockman https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=21002 [EN], https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=5CC9FB22B514A08DC9CE20ADF2F31B29 [PDF, 6MB, EN], https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=08716AF994AE1966E2C494BCFE6CDF84 [EPUB, 1MB, EN] (contains good history on how the USSR suppressed economic research and how interconnected capitalist/socialist economics were throughout the 20th century)
* “Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed” by James C. Scott https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=C637CED5262AF7B8D640895491625C97 [EPUB, 4MB, EN], https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=92CC5E1480134CE12CE8D08C554A98E9 [PDF, 24MB, EN]
* “The Desktop Regulatory State The Countervailing Power of Individuals and Networks“ by Kevin A. Carson https://kevinacarson.org/pdf/drs.pdf [PDF, 3.25MB, EN]
* “The Contradictions of Real Socialism- The Conductor and the Conducted” by Michael Lebowitz https://b-ok.asia/book/1317416/b41d6c [PDF, 5.23 MB, EN] (details how vanguard relations of production are inevitably bound to fail and how the Soviet model was patently un-marxist. Note- for the uninitiated, ‘vanguard relations of production’ roughly means the control of the economy by a centralized Communist party, often called the vanguard)
* "Capital as Power: A Study of Order and Creorder" by Jonathan Nitzan and Shimshon Bichler https://bnarchives.yorku.ca/259/2/20090522\_nb\_casp\_full\_indexed.pdf [PDF, 2MB, EN] (Provides a theory of capital as power, contrary to Marxist and Liberal theories, that suggests a need to end dependency on capital rather than seize it)

### **Audiobooks**

* “The Use of Knowledge in Society (by F.A. Hayek)” uploaded by Man Against The State https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KUds6DDPb4 [40:34, EN] (WARNING!- bourgeoisie economics)

### **Podcast Episodes**

* "Emmi Bevensee on Decentralization and Economic Coordination" uploaded by C4SS Feed 44 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwj\_fy8zmj4 [1:07:10, EN]

### **Videos**

* “How does a VCR threaten the USSR? - KGB Quotes” uploaded by KGB Files https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEzFkDolXdw [1:34, EN SUB, RU SUB, UK SUB, EN]

### **Websites**

* “Adapting to Transform Networked Conflict: How complexity is our biggest asset” by emmi bevensee and frank miroslav http://theplausiblepossible.com/networked-conflict/ [EN]

### **Archived**

* https://archive.vn/IXIZC [EN] - separating what Marx wrote from what Lenin and Stalin wrote
* https://archive.vn/cyCIo [EN], https://archive.vn/bGcYq [EN], https://archive.vn/0663R [EN] - why centrally planned economies plateaued

### **Notes**

* Success of open source projects (arguably the most successful examples of working communism at scale in history) rely on free association and distributed projects
* Elinor Ostrom’s work on common pool resources show thoroughly that bottom-up approaches of consensus and agreement are what allow such approaches to work. While not explicitly socialist, her work does show people overcoming the tragedy of the commons (which is a common argument against socialism) for a long time, sometimes *hundreds* of years.
* USSR was playing catch-up utilizing technology developed under capitalism. Growth rates tapered off as its industry matured. Failed to develop an internet because of infighting.
* Censorship of science under the USSR: most obvious fields that were suppressed were genetics, cybernetics and physics. USSR also censored photocopier which made communication difficult because they feared uprising
* Stafford Beer’s Cybersyn was built using cybernetic principles and rejected centralized planning so the system could be more adaptive
* 20th century "communist" regimes all failed miserably and at best, were little better than colonial capitalism. In their wake they left deeply reactionary societies and their ruling elites flipped to fascists almost overnight
* Nation-states’ military doctrines, often based on vertical command structure, are slow to respond to decentralised warfare by non-state actors