Gramsci and the Labor-Managed Firm

Abstract

According to Antonio Gramsci, workers' councils were transitional institutions expected to carry on business in a market economy and thereby prepare the ground for the revolution. However, upon seizing power, workers were expected to establish a centrally planned system and, hence, to renounce autonomous firm management. Finding fault with this approach, the author upholds modern labor management theory, in which Vanek's LMF-type firms are looked upon as socialist firms operating in a market economy.