The book you're thinking of is LA REVOLUTION SOCIALISTE by Serge-Christophe
Kolm. I read the first half of it back when it came out. He felt that
revolutionizing production (via self-management) was more appropriate than
revolutionizing consumption (via expansion of the welfare state) -- better both
economically (for Bradish reasons) and political-economically. It had a
transitory impact on the French left and was never translated into English, as
far as I know. Kolm himself is a very interesting, highly unorthodox economist
who has done work on nonconvexity similar to mine (that makes him good), and has
thought a lot about consumption and happiness (but, IMO, this part of his work
has been superceded by Bruno Frey and the Zurich crowd). S-C is no longer a
socialist, as far as I can tell, but I haven't really kept up with him.
Peter
Eric Nilsson wrote:
> A book by a leftist appeared in the 1980s, I think, making this exact same
> point: that progressive governments often think that the laws of capitalism
> have been repealed because they are in power. As a result, these governments
> often act in a way that leads to high inflation and other destabilizing
> things. They do themselves in as a result. I think the examples given came
> from South America.
>
> But, for the life of me, I can't remember the name of the book or the author
> (except that is was by a women, I think).
>
> Eric
