Economist Thomas Piketty warns that when the return on capital outpaces the growth of the economy (r > g), wealth concentrates in elitist centres over time, threatening social stability and legitimacy in the wider economy. Meanwhile, Kate Raworth’s Doughnut Economics frames clear boundaries for economic activity: we must stay between a social floor, ensuring everyone has access to essentials, and an ecological ceiling, protecting the planet’s life-support systems.
John Maynard Keynes reminds that aggregate demand drives economic stability, and governments can manage demand to prevent crises and maintain cohesion. Joseph Schumpeter highlights the role of innovation and creative destruction in driving progress, showing that even in a post-growth society, technological and organizational change can renew economic capabilities without expanding scale.
Depth Over Growth
In a post-growth, depth-oriented economy, the goal isn’t to make the economy bigger, but to make it resilient, fair, and sustainable. Prosperity is measured by depth and a stable root system— the ability to maintain and distribute essential resources, social security, and ecological integrity — rather than by output alone.
Key insights:
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Financial stability: Align debt and fiscal interventions to societal and ecological capacity¹.
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Redistribution: Maintain social floors and eradicate inequality².
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Innovation: Renew sectors within ecological and social boundaries⁴.
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Governance: Embed polycentric, participatory systems that enhance legitimacy⁸.
Finance and Debt
Debt and financial instruments are no longer about extracting future growth. Instead, obligations-flex based on what society can sustainably support. Investments prioritize public infrastructure, renewable energy, and projects that strengthen social and ecological resilience. Wealth accumulation is tolerated only if it reinforces stability and equity. Keynesian tools stabilize demand while respecting ecological limits¹.
Taxation and Redistribution
Taxes maintain fairness and guarantee access to essentials. Progressive taxation, inheritance moderation, and public ownership stakes prevent wealth from undermining social and ecological stability. Tax receipts are channeled into housing, healthcare, education, energy, and digital access².
Social Provisioning
Guaranteed access to life’s essentials forms the foundation of legitimacy. Inequality ceilings prevent disparities, while collective management ensures ecological limits are regulated and respected. Keynesian demand management maintains full employment or fair universal wage.³
Innovation and Technology
Innovation is mission-driven, focused on resilience, accessibility, and ecological impact, rather than market expansion. AI, automation, and scientific research support circular economies, sustainable energy, and climate adaptation. Schumpeterian creative destruction allows sectors to renew within ecological and social boundaries.
Governance of innovation follows Ostrom-inspired principles:
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Participatory decision-making
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Distributed accountability
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Polycentric coordination
This ensures technological advances reinforce societal resilience and equitable access⁴.
Business and Industrial Design in a Circular Economy
Business and industrial systems are redesigned to minimize waste, maximize resource efficiency, and extend product lifecycles. Products and industrial processes follow circular economy principles: materials are reused, remanufactured, or recycled, and systems are designed to remain within ecological limits.
Key elements:
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Closed-loop production systems
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Resource recovery and reuse
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Integration with renewable energy and sustainable supply chains
This aligns industrial strategy with ecological primacy and social goals, while allowing Schumpeterian innovation and worker participation to thrive. Circular design also supports demilitarization efforts, as industrial capacity is redirected toward sustainable production⁶.
Employment, AI, and Worker Governance
AI and automation alter not only how goods and services are produced, but how economic participation itself is organized. As productive capacity becomes increasingly decoupled from human labor input, the linkage between employment and livelihood weakens structurally rather than cyclically. A depth-oriented economy responds by securing material security as a social guarantee rather than a by-product of expansion. Universal basic income, guaranteed wages, or equivalent provisioning mechanisms maintain the social floor, while polycentric worker governance directs technological capability toward shared resilience, ecological compliance, and equitable distribution⁵.
New industrial and worker governance models, guided by Ostrom principles, implement:
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Participatory councils
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Cooperative decision-making
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Shared accountability mechanisms
This ensures creative destruction benefits society as a whole rather than concentrating power. Schumpeterian innovation continues, but directed toward resilience, sustainability, and social legitimacy. AI and automation enhance collective well-being while reinforcing ecological limits and social equity⁵.
Demilitarization and Green Industry
A deep economy transforms the military-industrial complex into a driver of green infrastructure and climate resilience. Defense industries and global military investments are redirected toward renewable energy, sustainable infrastructure, and climate adaptation projects. Polycentric governance ensures that these resources are repurposed collaboratively.
Impacts:
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Reduces global tensions and armed conflict⁶
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Channels industrial capacity toward ecological and social priorities
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Aligns technological, labor, and innovation capabilities with societal needs
Ecological Primacy
The natural world is the primary societal asset. Soil, water, biodiversity, and climate are foundational capital. Financial, technological, and social systems are organized to maintain ecological ceilings, ensuring all activities respect planetary limits⁷.
Classical Socialist Insights: Marx, Engels, and Lenin
Classical socialist theory enriches the depth economy framework by highlighting labor, industrial, and global power dynamics:
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Marx: Concerned with labor exploitation and alienation; addressed here through universal basic income, worker councils, and polycentric governance⁵.
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Engels: Focused on industrialisation’s social consequences; addressed through social provisioning, redistribution, and circular industrial design²³.
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Lenin: Critiqued imperialism and militarised production; addressed through demilitaridation, global cooperation, and green industrial repurposing⁶.
These insights are updated for a post-growth, ecological context, balancing worker control, innovation, and planetary stewardship while preserving social and ecological legitimacy.
Legitimacy and Governance
Authority is earned through stewardship, fairness, and continuity. Governance is:
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Transparent, participatory, and polycentric
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Nested across local, regional, and global levels
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Measured by wellbeing, equity, ecological stability, and accountability⁸
Citizens consent to collective governance because it:
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Protects the natural world
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Ensures fair access to essentials
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Embeds Ostrom-style accountability
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Redirects militarized power toward constructive societal ends
Integrated Depth Economy Governance
In a post-growth society, we see:
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Financial obligations aligned with social and ecological capacity¹
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Redistribution maintaining social floors²
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Social provisioning guaranteeing essential access³
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Innovation strengthening resilience and renewing sectors⁴
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Circular business and industrial design minimizing waste and aligning with ecological limits
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AI and automation enhancing collective well-being⁵
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Worker and industrial governance embedded in polycentric, participatory structures⁵
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Military-industrial resources redirected to green infrastructure⁶
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Ecological primacy recognized as the foundation of societal wealth⁷
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Classical socialist insights informing labor, industrial, and global power structures
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Legitimacy derived from sustaining depth rather than growth⁸
Prosperity is measured by how well society stays within the doughnut, balancing ecological ceilings and social floors to ensure continuity, equity, and resilience for future generations.
References
Costanza, R., et al. (1997). The value of the world’s ecosystem services and natural capital. Nature, 387(6630), 253–260.
Jackson, T. (2017). Prosperity without Growth. 2nd edition. Routledge.
Keynes, J.M. (1936). The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money. Macmillan.
Marx, K. (1867). Capital: A Critique of Political Economy. Vol. I. Penguin Classics.
Engels, F. (1845). The Condition of the Working Class in England. Penguin Classics.
Lenin, V.I. (1917). Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism. Progress Publishers.
Ostrom, E. (1990). Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action. Cambridge University Press.
Piketty, T. (2014). Capital in the Twenty-First Century. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press.
Raworth, K. (2017). Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist. Chelsea Green.
Schumpeter, J.A. (1942). Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy. Harper & Brothers.
Wilkinson, R., & Pickett, K. (2009). The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better. Allen Lane.
Footnotes
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Debt is capacity-aligned, ensuring obligations do not compromise social or ecological limits, with Keynesian fiscal tools supporting stability.
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Redistribution funds essentials to maintain the social floor.
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Social provisioning balances inequality ceilings and ecological limits, supported by demand management principles.
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Innovation is mission-driven and doughnut-compliant, with creative destruction renewing economic sectors within ecological boundaries, governed by participatory, polycentric structures.
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Employment models and AI integration follow Ostrom-inspired polycentric governance, ensuring equitable distribution of labor, participation in decision-making, and societal benefit from technological change; this also addresses Marxian concerns about labor exploitation.
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Military-industrial capacity is redirected toward green industry and climate infrastructure, reducing global conflict potential and aligning industrial resources with ecological and social priorities; this incorporates Leninian critique of imperialism.
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Ecological primacy treats nature as foundational capital, enforcing the doughnut ceiling.
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Governance metrics reflect wellbeing, resilience, ecological compliance, and polycentric accountability rather than GDP.
Social outcomes of inequality
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