Reply #22: Other [View All]

Socialism and communism have always failed when tried because they contradict human nature (which let's face it has some pretty crappy sides to it); the free market does provide a quick and efficient allocation of resources, yet at the same time capitalism places money on the same level as humanity.

I'm not sure how possible it would be, but a system which had active markets - yet the primacy of humanity was always recognised. Not necessarily only through state action, but also by various other groups arising from the community.

The priciple of subsidiarity taking a very high place, decisions made as closely to people as possible.

Part of me yearns for the Greek polis - a small state (was it Plato who said that everybody should be able to know everybody else), but which recognises that it exists within a greater community. Therein quite an Aristotlelian constitution - what he called polity (unhelpfully he doesn't really tell us what this entails).