Takis Fotopoulos

Infobox_Philosopher
region = Political Philosophy
era = 20th / 21st-century philosophy
color = #B0C4DE

image_size = 180px
image_caption =
name = Takis Fotopoulos
birth = October 14, 1940 (Chios, Greece)
school_tradition = Founder of the Inclusive Democracy project.
main_interests = Political philosophy, Political Economy, Philosophy of Social Science, International Political Economy, International Relations, Social Movements.
notable_ideas = Inclusive Democracy, the present multi-dimensional crisis, the transnational elite and its wars on terrorism, critique of Left-wing politics.
influences = Aristotle, Karl Marx, Mikhail Bakunin, Hannah Arendt, Cornelius Castoriadis, Murray Bookchin.

Takis Fotopoulos (Τάκης Φωτόπουλος), born birth date and age|1940|10|14, is a Greek-Londoner political philosopher, economist, editor of Democracy & Nature and The International Journal of Inclusive Democracy (see external links) and former academic. Author of Towards An Inclusive Democracy and founder of the Inclusive Democracy movement. He is noted for his synthesis of the classical democracy tradition with the libertarian socialism tradition and the radical currents in the New Social Movements. He is the author of numerous books and over 600 articles which have been published in various languages.

Early life

He was born in Chios and his family moved to Athens soon afterwards. After earning degrees in Economics & Political Science, as well as in Law from the University of Athens, he moved to London in 1966 for postgraduate study at the London School of Economics, on a scholarship from Athens University. He was a student syndicalist and activist in Athens and then a political activist in London, taking an active part in the 1968 student movement in London, as well as in organisations of the revolutionary Greek Left during the struggle against the military junta in Greece (1967-74).

Academia and afterwards

He was Senior Lecturer in Economics at the Polytechnic of North London for over twenty years until he started editing the journal "Society & Nature", later "Democracy & Nature" and subsequently the online "International Journal of Inclusive Democracy". He is also a columnist of "Eleftherotypia", one of the most widely-circulated newspapers in Greece.

Inclusive Democracy

Takis Fotopoulos developed the political project of Inclusive Democracy in 1997 (an exposition can be found in "Towards An Inclusive Democracy"). The first issue of "Society & Nature" declared in the editorial that

:"our ambition is to initiate an urgently needed dialogue on the crucial question of developing a new liberatory social project, at a moment in History when the Left has abandoned this traditional role."

The same editorial specified that the new project should be seen as the outcome of a synthesis of the democratic, libertarian socialist and radical Green traditions. Since then, a dialogue has followed in the pages of the journal, in which libertarian socialists like Cornelius Castoriadis, Social ecologists like Murray Bookchin, and Green activists and academics like Steven Best have taken part.

The starting point for Fotopoulos's work is that the world faces a multi-dimensional crisis (economic, ecological, social, cultural and political) which is caused by the concentration of power in elites, as a result of the market economy, representative democracy and related forms of hierarchical structure. An inclusive democracy, which involves the equal distribution of power at all levels, is seen not as a utopia (in the negative sense of the word) or a "vision" but as perhaps the only way out of the present crisis, with trends towards its creation manifesting themselves today in many parts of the world. Fotopoulos is in favor of market abolitionism, although he would not identify himself as a market abolitionist as such because he considers market abolition as one aspect of an Inclusive Democracy which refers only to the Economic Democracy component of it. He proposes a model of economic democracy for a stateless, marketless and moneyless economy but he considers that the economic democracy component is equally significant to the other components of ID, i.e. Political or direct democracy, Ecological Democracy and Democracy in the Social Realm.

Major works

* " [http://www.inclusivedemocracy.org/fotopoulos/english/brbooks/brtid/brtid.htm Towards An Inclusive Democracy] ", Cassell/Continuum, London/New York, 1997, 401 pp. ISBN 0-304-33627-0 and 0-304-33628-9.

* " [http://www.inclusivedemocracy.org/fotopoulos/other_languages/fren/frentid.htm Vers Une Démocratie Générale] ", Seuil, Paris, 2002, 250 pp. ISBN 2-02-052846-0

* " [http://www.inclusivedemocracy.org/fotopoulos/other_languages/germ/germtid.htm Umfassende Demokratie] ", Die Antwort auf die Krise der Wachstums-und Marktwirtschaft, Trotzdem Verlag, Grafenau, 2003, 445 pp. ISBN 3-931786-23-4

* " [http://www.inclusivedemocracy.org/fotopoulos/other_languages/span/spantid.htm Hacia Una Democracia Inclusiva] ", Un nuevo proyecto liberador, Nordan, Montevideo, 2002, 325 pp. ISBN 9974-42-098-9

* " [http://www.inclusivedemocracy.org/fotopoulos/other_languages/ital/italtid.htm Per Una Democrazia Globale] ", Eleuthera, Milano, 1999, 254 pp. ISBN 88-85060-37-4

*" [http://www.inclusivedemocracy.org/fotopoulos/greek/grbookstid_2/grbookstid_2.htm Περιεκτική Δημοκρατία - 10 Χρόνια Μετά] ", Eleftheros Typos, Athens 2008, 591 p.

* " [http://www.inclusivedemocracy.org/fotopoulos/greek/grbookstid/grbookstid.htm Περιεκτική Δημοκρατία] ", Kastaniotis, Athens, 1999, 656 pp. ISBN 960-03-2416-6

* [http://www.inclusivedemocracy.org/journal/ss/ss.htm "The Multidimensional Crisis and Inclusive Democracy"] (Entire English E-book publication [2005] of the book with the same title published in Athens, 2005 by Gordios, 334 pp. ISBN 960-7083-69-5. Published in [http://www.inclusivedemocracy.org/fotopoulos/other_languages/chinese/contents_multi_chinese.htm Chinese 2008 ISBN 978-7-5607-3533-7] )

Books published in Greece

* [http://www.inclusivedemocracy.org/fotopoulos/greek/grbooksexartimeni/grbooksexartimeni.htm "Dependent Development: The Case of Greece"] , Exantas, Athens, 1985&1987.

* [http://www.inclusivedemocracy.org/fotopoulos/greek/grbooksgulf/grbooksgulf.htm "The Gulf War: The First Battle in the North-South Conflict"] , Exantas, Athens, 1991.

* [http://www.inclusivedemocracy.org/fotopoulos/greek/grbooksconsensus/grbooksconsensus.htm "The Neo-Liberal Consensus"] , Gordios, Athens, 1993.

* [http://www.inclusivedemocracy.org/fotopoulos/greek/grbooksneworder/grbooksneworder.htm "The New World Order and Greece"] , Kastaniotis, Athens, 1997.

*" [http://www.inclusivedemocracy.org/fotopoulos/greek/grbookstid/grbookstid.htm Inclusive Democracy] ", Kastaniotis, Athens, 1999.

* [http://www.inclusivedemocracy.org/fotopoulos/greek/grbooksdrugs/grbooksdrugs.htm "Drugs: Beyond the Demonology of Penalisation and the 'Progressive' Mythology of Liberalisation"] , Eleftheros Typos, Athens, 1999.

* [http://www.inclusivedemocracy.org/fotopoulos/greek/grbooksbalkans/grbooksbalkans.htm "The New Order in the Balkans and the First War of the Internationalised Market Economy"] , Staxy, Athens, 1999.

* [http://www.inclusivedemocracy.org/fotopoulos/greek/grbooksreligion/grbooksreligion.htm "Religion, Autonomy and Democracy"] , Eleftheros Typos, Athens, 2000.

* [http://www.inclusivedemocracy.org/fotopoulos/greek/grbooksglobal/grbooksglobal.htm "Globalisation, the Left and Inclusive Democracy"] , Ellinika Grammata, Athens, 2002.

* [http://www.inclusivedemocracy.org/fotopoulos/greek/grbooksdemocracy/grbooksdemocracy.htm "From the Athenian Democracy to Inclusive Democracy"] , Eleftheros Typos, Athens, 2002.

* [http://www.inclusivedemocracy.org/fotopoulos/greek/grbooksterror/grbooksterror.htm "The War against 'Terrorism': the Elites Generalised Attack"] , Gordios, Athens, 2003.

* [http://www.inclusivedemocracy.org/fotopoulos/greek/grbookschomsky/grbookschomsky.htm "Chomsky's capitalism, Albert's post-capitalism and Inclusive Democracy"] , Gordios, Athens, 2004.

* [http://www.inclusivedemocracy.org/fotopoulos/greek/grbookPD/grbookPD.htm "The Multidimensional Crisis and Inclusive Democracy"] , Gordios, Athens, 2005.

* [http://www.inclusivedemocracy.org/fotopoulos/greek/grbookstid_2/grbookstid_2.htm "Inclusive Democracy - 10 Years Afterwards"] , Eleftheros Typos, Athens 2008.

Contributions to other books

*"Studies on the contemporary Greek Economy" (ed.by S.Papaspiliopoulos), Papazisis, 1978.

*"Education, Culture and Modernization", (ed. by Peter Alheit), Roskide University, 1995. (Takis Fotopoulos contribution: [http://www.inclusivedemocracy.org/fotopoulos/english/brbooks/contribution_1_roskide.htm "The crisis of the growth economy, the withering away of the nation-state and the community-based society"] )

*"Complessità sistemica e svillupo eco-sostenibile" (ed. by I.Spano & D.Padovan), Sapere 2001.(Takis Fotopoulos contribution: [http://www.inclusivedemocracy.org/fotopoulos/other_languages/ital/la_crisi_Dario.htm "La crisi dell 'economia di crescita. Societa ecologica e democrazia"] )

*"Defending Public Schools" (ed. by David A. Gabbard & E. Wayne Ross), Praeger, 2004. (Takis Fotopoulos contribution: [http://www.inclusivedemocracy.org/fotopoulos/english/brbooks/state_market_miseducation.htm "The State, the Market and (Mis-)education"] )

*"Globalisation, Technology and Paideia in the New Cosmopolis", Atrapos, 2004.

*"Critical Perspectives on Globalisation" (ed. by Edward Elgar Wade), Chelthenham, UK & Norrhampton, MA USA: 2006. (Takis Fotopoulos contribution: [http://www.inclusivedemocracy.org/dn/vol8/takis_globalwar.htm "The global 'war' of the transnational elite"] )

* [http://www.inclusivedemocracy.org/fotopoulos/greek/grbooks_koukida/grbook_koukida.htm "Globalised Capitalism, The Eclipse of the Left and Inclusive Democracy"] , (ed. by Steven Best), Koukkida, Athens 2008. (with a contribution by Takis Fotopoulos).

Further reading

*Takis Fotopoulos, [http://www.inclusivedemocracy.org/fotopoulos/english/brbooks/video_interview_book_edition.htm "Inclusive Democracy"] in [http://www.wyspa.art.pl/index.php?parent_id=121&menu_id=1 "Alternative Economies, Alternative Societies"] ed. by Oliver Ressler & Aneta Szylak, 240 pages (20 pages in color), languages: English and Polish, ISBN 978-83-924665-0-5 (Gdansk: Wyspa Institute of Art, Poland, 2007)
* [http://www.democracynature.org/dn/vol9/vol9.htm “The Inclusive Democracy project – six years on“] , essays on the ID project by Michael Levin, Arran Gare, David Freeman, Serge Latouche, Jean-Claude Richard , Takis Nikolopoulos, Rafael Sposito, Guido Galafassi, Takis Fotopoulos and others (Democracy & Nature, Volume 9 Number 3, November 2003).
* [http://www.inclusivedemocracy.org/journal/vol1/vol1.htm “Debate on the Inclusive Democracy project (Parts I & II)“] , "The International Journal of INCLUSIVE DEMOCRACY", vol. 1, no. 2 (January 2005) and vol. 1, no. 3 (May 2005).
*See also [http://www.inclusivedemocracy.org/fotopoulos/english/brvarious/inclusive_entry.htm the "Inclusive Democracy" entry in the "Routledge Encyclopedia of International Political Economy"] , (ed. by Barry Jones), 2001; (vol 2, pp. 732-740)

ee also

*Democracy & Nature Journal
*Inclusive Democracy project

External links

* [http://www.inclusivedemocracy.org/fotopoulos/ Takis Fotopoulos' Archive]
* [http://www.democracynature.org/ Democracy & Nature]
* [http://www.inclusivedemocracy.org/journal/ The International Journal of Inclusive Democracy] - ISSN 1753-240X.
* [http://www.ressler.at/content/view/66/lang,en_GB/ Inclusive Democracy - A transcript of a video interview given by Takis Fotopoulos to Oliver Ressler for the project "Alternative Economics, Alternative Societies"]
* [http://hungary.indymedia.org/cikk.shtml?x=21661 An Interview with T.Fotopoulos by Indymedia Hungary, April 2005]
*Interview for [http://www.equaltimeforfreethought.org/ Equal Time for Freethought] radio show - [show 247: Takis Fotopoulos, Dec 30th 2007] - WBAI 99.5 FM New York City, 1] [http://www.inclusivedemocracy.org/fotopoulos/english/brinterviews/seidman_interview.htm read the transcript] , 2] [http://www.inclusivedemocracy.org/fotopoulos/english/brinterviews/Takis_Barry_interview_for_Web_(costas_3_2_2008).mp3 listen to the audio] mp3 -- 72 Mb