Civilizing the State: Reclaiming Politics for the Common Good - Paperback

by John Restakis (Author)

The liberal state is dead, long live the partner state

Across the world, the liberal nation state is on its knees. Rising inequality, deep political polarization, and the pervasive power of corporations are tearing apart the social contract and threatening to crush democracy.

Civilizing the State traces the history and development of the liberal state and its changing role from the enabler of capitalism to protector of citizen welfare, to its hollowing out and capture by corporate and elite interests rendering it unfit to address the compounding crises of inequality, injustice, ecological collapse, and loss of legitimacy.

Author John Restakis explores citizen-powered alternatives and experiments in co-operation, deep democracy, solidarity economics, and commoning from Spain, India, the global peasant movement, and the emerging stateless democracy of Rojava rising from the wreckage of the Syrian civil war.

The final section views the current crisis as an opportunity to reimagine the state not as handmaid to predatory elites but as a partner state that promotes equity, economic democracy, co-operation, and human thriving, driven by deep democracy and a fully sovereign civil society.

Incisive, penetrating, and inspirational, this is essential reading for all engaged citizens with a stake in co-creating a better future for all.

Back Jacket

As the liberal state fights for its life, is it time for the partner state?

Shows how we can reclaim democracy and the commons and shape a future for the common good.
-- VANDANA SHIVA, author, Earth Democracy and Oneness Vs. the 1%

Thoughtful, provocative, and hopeful.
-- DAVID BOLLIER, co-author, Free, Fair, and Alive

ACROSS THE WORLD, the liberal nation state is on its knees. Rising inequality, deep political polarization, and the pervasive power of corporations are tearing apart the social contract and threatening to crush democracy.

Civilizing the State traces the history and development of the liberal state and its changing role from the enabler of capitalism, to protector of citizen welfare, to its hollowing out and capture by corporate and elite interests, rendering it unfit to address the compounding crises of inequality, injustice, ecological collapse, and loss of legitimacy.

Author John Restakis explores citizen-powered alternatives and experiments in co-operation, deep democracy, solidarity economics, and commoning from Spain, India, the global peasant movement, and the emerging stateless democracy of Rojava rising from the wreckage of the Syrian civil war.

The final section views the current crisis as an opportunity to reimagine the state not as handmaid to predatory elites but as a partner state that promotes equity, economic democracy, co-operation, and human thriving, driven by deep democracy and a fully sovereign civil society.

Incisive, penetrating, and inspirational, this is essential reading for all engaged citizens with a stake in co-creating a better future for all.

An essential read for everyone concerned about the human future.
-- DAVID KORTEN, author, When Corporations Rule the World and The Great Turning

In Civilizing the State, readers will find both illumination and hope.
-- NANCY MACLEAN, author, Democracy in Chains

JOHN RESTAKIS is the former executive director of the BC Co-operative Association, a practitioner, educator, and pioneering researcher in international co-operative economies, and author of Humanizing the Economy. He lives in Vancouver, Canada.

Author Biography

John Restakis has been active in the co-op movement for 25 years. He is the former Executive Director of Community Evolution Foundation and the BC Co-operative Association. John is Co-founder of Synergia Co-operative Institute. A practitioner and pioneering researcher into international co-operative economies, he writes and lectures on economic democracy and the role of co-operatives in humanizing economies. He is the author of Humanizing the Economy: Co-operatives in the Age of Capital and lives in Vancouver, BC.