The scandals of Northern Rock, Royal Bank of Scotland, British Home Stores, Carillion and many other corporate failings highlight what can go wrong, given the largely undemocratic and unaccountable nature of our economy. Without any serious checks and balances, bad decisions in the boardroom pass unchallenged, often with dire consequences for hundreds of thousands employees and consumers.

Britain is, in effect, an economic dictatorship, with an extraordinary concentration of economic power and wealth. At the level of individual enterprises, a small elite of directors, managers and major shareholders decide everything, to the exclusion of employees, consumers and the wider public.

It is, in part, this lack of economic democracy and accountability that brought Britain to the brink of catastrophe in 2008 and has left the country vulnerable ever since.

SUGGESTED READING The Universal Basic Income: For the Sceptics By Guy Standing  To help prevent a repeat of the economic disaster of a decade ago, we urgently need greater economic democracy, participation, diversity, transparency, decentralisation and accountability. There are five ways we could move in this direction:

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"These five reforms are the embryo of a new democratic, cooperative, accountable and socialised economy that would significantly reduce the chances of a re-run of the 2008 financial crisis"

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These five reforms are the embryo of a new democratic, cooperative, accountable and socialised economy that would significantly reduce the chances of a re-run of the 2008 financial crisis and the subsequent near-failure of the whole economy. They would achieve this goal by a combination of opening up and decentralising economic power, incentivising wiser economic decision-making, improving corporate social responsibility and strengthening the accountability of private and public enterprises to their staff and the wider public. In the process, they’d also improve productivity and industrial relations - and consequently boost the enterprise and the whole economy. It’s a win-win for everyone.

For more information about Peter Tatchell’s human rights and social justice campaigns: www.petertatchell.net