The Master's Tools: How Finance Wrecked Democracy (And a Radical Plan to Rebuild It)
Finance serves the rich and powerful. We need to democratize it.

Why is democracy so broken and how might it be fixed? In The Master's Tools, award-winning author Michael A. McCarthy argues the answer can be found in the flows of credit and investment bound up with finance capital.

Today, finance guides and constrains our politics, but there is no reason why this must be so. In this groundbreaking work, McCarthy develops a political and social theory of institutional transformation rooted in the interconnectedness of finance and democracy.

Inspired by ancient Athens, where small groups chosen by lottery were used to ensure democratic participation, he shows how democracy and working-class power can be strengthened by introducing new forms of financial governance, focusing on the inclusion of historically excluded groups.

His proposals for democratic financial institutions point the way to imbuing finance with a socio-environmental purpose and the funding of a just green transition, social housing, and other necessary public goods. And these financial institutions might be the first step toward a whole new kind of economy.
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The Master's Tools: How Finance Wrecked Democracy (And a Radical Plan to Rebuild It)
Finance serves the rich and powerful. We need to democratize it.

Why is democracy so broken and how might it be fixed? In The Master's Tools, award-winning author Michael A. McCarthy argues the answer can be found in the flows of credit and investment bound up with finance capital.

Today, finance guides and constrains our politics, but there is no reason why this must be so. In this groundbreaking work, McCarthy develops a political and social theory of institutional transformation rooted in the interconnectedness of finance and democracy.

Inspired by ancient Athens, where small groups chosen by lottery were used to ensure democratic participation, he shows how democracy and working-class power can be strengthened by introducing new forms of financial governance, focusing on the inclusion of historically excluded groups.

His proposals for democratic financial institutions point the way to imbuing finance with a socio-environmental purpose and the funding of a just green transition, social housing, and other necessary public goods. And these financial institutions might be the first step toward a whole new kind of economy.
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The Master's Tools: How Finance Wrecked Democracy (And a Radical Plan to Rebuild It)

The Master's Tools: How Finance Wrecked Democracy (And a Radical Plan to Rebuild It)

by Michael McCarthy
The Master's Tools: How Finance Wrecked Democracy (And a Radical Plan to Rebuild It)

The Master's Tools: How Finance Wrecked Democracy (And a Radical Plan to Rebuild It)

by Michael McCarthy

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Overview

Finance serves the rich and powerful. We need to democratize it.

Why is democracy so broken and how might it be fixed? In The Master's Tools, award-winning author Michael A. McCarthy argues the answer can be found in the flows of credit and investment bound up with finance capital.

Today, finance guides and constrains our politics, but there is no reason why this must be so. In this groundbreaking work, McCarthy develops a political and social theory of institutional transformation rooted in the interconnectedness of finance and democracy.

Inspired by ancient Athens, where small groups chosen by lottery were used to ensure democratic participation, he shows how democracy and working-class power can be strengthened by introducing new forms of financial governance, focusing on the inclusion of historically excluded groups.

His proposals for democratic financial institutions point the way to imbuing finance with a socio-environmental purpose and the funding of a just green transition, social housing, and other necessary public goods. And these financial institutions might be the first step toward a whole new kind of economy.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781788730655
Publisher: Verso Books
Publication date: 01/07/2025
Sold by: Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format: eBook
Pages: 256
File size: 620 KB

About the Author

Michael A. McCarthy is an Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of Community Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. His book Dismantling Solidarity: Capitalist Politics and American Pensions since the New Deal was awarded the Paul Sweezy Book Award as well as an honorable mention for the Labor and Labor Movements Book Award. He has written for the Boston Review, Jacobin, Noema, and the Washington Post.

Table of Contents

Preface: deckard on skid row

Part I – Structure: A Theory of Democratic Rupture
1. Mother of Antagonism
2. The Frankenstein Problem

Part II – Conjuncture: The Political Contradictions of Finance
3. A Primer
4. Political Plunder
5. Mythologies 11

Part III – Rupture: A Plan for Radical Democracy
6. Class Logics of Reform
7. Minipublics
8. Plebeian Recipes
9. Democracy on Fridays

Notes
Index
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