Since Karl Marx derided the design of detailed blueprints for a postcapitalist future, socialists have been reluctant to describe their vision of an ideal society.¹ For much of the twentieth century, they could point to self-described socialist states in the Soviet Union, China, and elsewhere as potential models or proofs of concept; for democratic socialists today, this position is no longer credible.

Thankfully, the past few decades have seen several serious proposals for what a feasible and morally attractive socialist society might look like. These have included different models of market socialism as well as Michael Albert and Robin Hahnel’s vision of a democratically planned economy.²

To their credit, these discussions have taken up difficult questions about the design of a socialist society. Those issues include, for example, the form of ownership of productive assets, including the size of the state-owned or public sector versus that of other enterprises; how, and to what extent, worker management of firms might be implemented; how decisions about investment would be made, including how to balance economic efficiency and competing values; how individual consumers could express and satisfy their preferences for goods and services; and how income would be distributed, including, crucially, how to ensure people’s basic needs are met.