Dear rn & cj, Thanks to those of you have been following the gri-book series ("Globalization and the Revolutionary Imperative") and sending in comments and critique. As I begin Chapter 4, "Sustainable economics: a realizable necessity", I find I am short of reference material. I've got lots of books that document how globalization makes things worse, but nothing on hand that looks at the quantitative problem of dealing with today's (or tomorrow's) population sizes with sustainable approaches. Surely this topic must have been dealt with -- any leads?? Below is a one-page summary of the book, FYI, with the sentence needing corroboration marked **-> thusly <-**. thanks in advance, rkm ------------------------------------------------------------------------ One page description of contents ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Part I traces the origin of today's global system from the perspectives of national power, political elites, and the evolution of capitalism. The dynamics of capitalism are analyzed, revealing that periods of growth are punctuated by intentional changes in the societal regime, aimed at creating new investment vehicles and a new round of capital growth. The dynamics of capitalism thus lead to the rise of elites who, by necessity, regularly engage in societal engineering and hence drive societal evolution. National rivalries, expressed as competitive imperialism, have served to increase elite wealth while at the same time creating a de facto partnership between capitalism and popular nationalism. Post-1945 decolonization, I argue, was actually the collectivization of Western imperialism under an updated regime protected by the pax-Americana umbrella. This collectivization severed the nation-capital bond, led to the development of TNC's, and established the foundations of globalization. Globalization is shown to be an elite project designed to jettison democracy (limited though it is), disempower Western societies, and consolidate elite power in a global regime dominated by a handful of mega-TNC's. My analysis anticipates that capitalism will be ultimately abandoned by the elite and replaced by a more feudal form of elite tyranny. Part II begins with the premise that capitalism and elite power must be replaced before it is too late, and surveys historically proven alternatives. **-> The myth of global scarcity is debunked and I argue that sustainability and environmental integrity are immanently obtainable <-** -what is needed are economic and political systems which will not degenerate into a rebirth of capitalism. Robust democracy and sustainable economics, I argue, must be based on models of localism, consensus, and collaboration rather than centralization, competition, and factionalism. Contrary to marxism, I argue that different models are appropriate to different societies, and a spectrum of models are recommended. Chapter 6 investigates the question of post-capitalist world order. The origins of international conflict are analyzed historically and aggressive nationalism is shown to arise from non-democratic regimes and non-sustainable economics. International collaboration, I argue, arises naturally from the democratic process within nations, and strong world government is shown to be inherently counter-democratic and prone to giving rise to new forms of elite power. Part III tackles the problem of how to bring about the global transformation of societies. I argue that the transformation must come from within Western societies and that the traditional avenue of party politics is both inaccessible and inappropriate for this purpose. The history of social movements is examined, and factors are identified which determine their success and failure. Resistance to globalization is widespread and these efforts are shown to be a sound basis for building a transformative mass movement. But factionalism must be overcome and the movement must be informed with a deeper understanding of democracy, sustainability, capitalism, and elite stratagems-especially that of cooption. The movement must be based on localism, consensus, and collaboration, and as it develops I argue that it will itself become the basis of a strong civil society and a robust democratic process. Chapter 9 deals with the implementation of societal transformation-making a smooth transition from capitalism to democracy and sustainability. book maintained at: http://cyberjournal.org/cadre/gri/gri.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Create a sane and livable world in vibrant democratic societies. Bring global corporate power under control. 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