Seminar

Past

For Competition-based Social Democracy and Capitalism

Marcel Boyer

  • Date14 March 2024
  • Time 17h00 - 18h00
  • Room Auditorium 3 JJ Laffont

Abstract

There is a fundamental complementarity between social democracy and competition. A true social democracy is based on a clear definition of the respective roles of the public (governmental) and competitive (private) sectors in the provision of public and social goods and services (PSGS), such as education, health care, social security, and infrastructure. The main roles of the public or government sector are to define the basket of PSGS in quantity and quality and to manage performance incentive contracts with the (competitive) private sector responsible for producing and distributing these PSGS. Companies (capitalist, cooperative, NFP, social economy, etc.) then compete to obtain PSGS supply contracts and the public sector no longer needs to directly manage schools, hospitals and numerous other institutions serving the citizens.

Other proposed reforms include: the abolition or auctioning of subsidies and aid programs for businesses; the strengthening of pro-competition control of anti-competitive practices as well as business mergers and acquisitions; the determination of a significant and universal carbon price to encourage individuals and companies to internalize the environmental impacts of their strategies; the development of extended liability rules aimed at increasing the incentives of companies and their partners to prevent industrial and environmental accidents and to protect collateral victims; the elimination of taxes on corporate profits in order to thwart tax competition between states and to encourage companies to focus on their essential missions of wealth creation and investment in R&D and productivity. In fine, the proposed models of social democracy and capitalism arise from a conception of social sciences and economics in particular as the study of mechanisms of coordination, motivation, specialization, regulation and rules of exchange that conditions the development of collective intelligence, through the interconnexion of brains, in human society, of which the ability to exchange, particularly with strangers and across time, is a distinctive characteristic.

Other seminars

Past

Business Talk with Xavier Debrun, Chief Economist and Director General at the Banque de France

  • Seminar

  • TSE Campus talk

  • Date 7 October 2026

  • Place Amphi MI-V Isaac (Manufacture des Tabacs)

  • Speaker or organiser Xavier Debrun (Chief Economist and Director General from the Banque de France)

Details

Past

The Role of Energy & Climate Scenarios in Aviation Decarbonization

  • Seminar

  • TSE Campus talk

  • Date 5 February 2026

  • Place Auditorium 3 Jean-Jacques Laffont

  • Speaker or organiser Lionel Cousseins

Details

Past

The role of start-ups in the economy: scaling, rising superstar firms and entrepreneurial ecosystems

  • Seminar

  • TSE Campus talk

  • Date 22 January 2026

  • Place Auditorium 3 JJ Laffont

Details