1.  Polyarchy--mean plural authorities, each with functional jurisdiction & specialization, operating parallel to each other, under a coordinated structure.  This in opposition to a pyramidal structure of planning and authority.

2.  Decentralization, with levels of authority devolving to the level of the workplace cooperative, or to state and local levels of federated authority, such as the syndicals.

3.  Incrementalism-- there is constant data feedback in the system, so that mid-course corrections are possible.  In fact, there are no "five year plans," but rather short and long range projections and decisions that are constantly being revised and revisted.

4.  Stability-- a logical corollary to the stable population, which underlies all planning assumption, namely that economic stability is more important than economic growth.  This understanding is completely contrary to the reality of capitalism, where the only stability possible is in growth.  Without growth, capitalism falters and crashes.  That is the ultimate environment-destroying truth about capitalism.

Practicality, unlike ideology, does not favor a "one-size-fits-all" mentality as to economic organization. The Soviets were wrong in their time, and the radical free-marketers are wrong today.

In fact different economic sectors require different degrees of coordinating authority, different command, information & exchange structures, different degrees of workforce heterogeneity, and different public interests at stake.  Thus, each sector is said to have its own "constitutional formation," and each bears examination in turn.

Each sector has unique requirements as to: 

a)  The degree of socialization, meaning whether compensation for labor comes from direct sale of goods or services or by social assignment of resources through the particular mediums of taxation and "funding."

b)  The degree of decentralization, meaning whether the local collective has great discretion in the nature, discipline and direction of its work, or whether it is bureaucratized or "militarized" (as the Bergonians say) in nature, due to (i) the "urgent" nature of the work, which recognizes the speed in conjunction with the complexity of the work (e.g. running an airline) and (ii) the social reliance upon the work (e.g. electrical power generation).

The Planners & Organizers:

National Legislative Councils,

Ministries, 

State Planning Councils, 

Local Development Councils & Banks, 

The Syndicates.

The Sectors:

Healthcare   

Electricity and Coal  

Television

Automotive, Appliances & Big Retail Manufacturing

Insurance and Disability

Pharmaceutical & Med-Tech

Timbering and Fishing

Farming

Wine and Produce

Weaponry and Defense

Transportation

Construction, Urban Development and the Building Trades

Communication  

Books, Magazines and Newspapers

National Legislative Councils:  The Bushenre (Min.) is the name given to the national legislative councils, created by and subordinate to Congress.  They promulgate the essential regulations for all spheres of economic activity.  Syndicates submit proposed regulations to the bushenre.  The Bushenre, generally authorized under Art. 6, Sect. 5 of the Constitution, usually include reps from the pertinent syndicates and interest groups and professions.  One quarter of the members of each Bushenre are Congressional delegates chosen by the Congress, with individual members usually selected by the parties in negotiations.  

The Environmental Council

Established in 1973 the Environmental Council includes reps from all manufacturers and the energy producers, and delegates chosen by a congress of environmental advocacy groups.  It has statutory power to regulate air and water emissions.  It also develops a set of national land-use guidelines, primarily as to set-asides for wilderness and animal habitat.  It also exercises certain veto prerogatives over the activities of other councils to preserve animal habitats and to limit carbon emissions.  I

The Commerce Council

The Commerce Council has supervision over a number of other councils.  The Commerce Council itself includes reps from the national bank, the development banks, the nat'l association of retailers and proprietors, the nat'l association of manufacturers (consisting of syndicates & cooperatives). 

Jurisdiction over currency matters has been assigned to the powerful Monetary Council, which operates under the Commerce Council and supervises the operations of the Commonwealth Bank and the Commonwealth Mint that administer the currency. 

Also under the Commerce Council's supervision is the the Industry and Technology Council, consists of manufacturers' syndical representatives, plus a few reps from the scientific academies.  This council has specialized groups on metals and raw materials, information and communications technologies, basic manufacturing. 

Usually these councils won't do much more than monitor, intervening only if a problem breaks out, and they do have the power to impose price controls under certain circumstances.

Numerous other councils function under its purview, such as the Workplace Safety Council and the Product Safety Council, which enjoys independent discretion,

The Labor Council

This is a very big council, so big in fact that it has to function with an executive committee.  It includes reps from all parts of society.  It supervise the minimum income program and the national pension fund.

The Judicial Council

The Judicial Council generally vets amendments to the Commonwealth's criminal code.  It supervises and insures funding for the national system of prisons and rehabilitative programs for criminal offenders.  It includes representatives from the national and state bar associations, elected directly by the nation's lawyers.

The Agriculture and Food Council

This council has jurisdiction over food safety regulation.  It includes reps from the peasants & farmers associations, the food industry (consisting of coops), the medical community, and the retailers.

The Health and Human Services Council

This body includes representatives from the professions (e.g. physicians, nurses, technicians, therapists), and delegates chosen by a congress of health advocacy groups. It supervises the national health service.

The Energy Council

This body includes reps from the producers and the consumers. This group maintains a national energy plan, adopted and constantly revisted after receiving data and recommendations from (a) the relevant ministry, (b) the representatives themselves and their syndicates and (c) the state authorities.

The Ministries: Congress creates the national ministries. 

They enforce Congress's laws and the Bushenre's regulations, and even state regulations.  To do this each ministry deploys a force of inspectors and marshals who enforce the regulations.  These are the guys who are supposed to keep everyone honest.

Parallel to the structure of each ministry exists a structure of specialist administrative courts, which hear the charges of rule violations as  well as serving as civil courts or arbitrators for disputes within an economic sector. 

The ministries contain departments that collect comprehensive economic data and coordinate scientific research.  The ministries do not issue orders or quotas to the economic enterprises, although they do make projections and recommendations. 

The ministries also supervise the distribution of treasury money as allocated by Congress to the various recipients, usually to the states or subdivisions for them to administer the targeted program or service.  A perfect example is Congress's Capital Budget which contains all money for public works-- the money is given to the states who then undertake the actual construction and management of the process.

The lesre/state governments have parallel ministries that often do the heavy lifting in providing services to the people. 

The Lesre/State Planning Councils: 

Each of the 31 states sponsor the creation of new cooperatives to spur economic development, working in conjunction with the development councils & banks.  They do so through State Planning Councils, which are actually clusters of specialized councils that unite into a general council.  They take the lead in promoting new economic sectors, such as information technology, internet development and genetics.  They also take the lead in locating big new enterprises (e.g. power plants, biotechnology, information and communication technology, wind power).  They do their work in conjunction with the commonwealth level planning authorities. 

The Local Development Councils:  

Every county and autonomous county has a development council   They identify specific enterprises that need development or expansion, then sponsor the establishment of new cooperatives & federated-co-ops, recruit the workers and help them organize.  They also provide services to protect the existing cooperatives.

The Development Banks: 

Whenever a Development Council sponsors new cooperative enterprises the Development Banks offer the loans necessary for capitalization.  They also make and extend loans to existing cooperatives.  Each county and autonomous county has at least one development bank.  Each state has several state-level development banks as well, each usually with a specialization.  The purpose of this redundancy is to prevent capital from accumulating in a single set of hands, and to offer alternatives to collectives and individuals. 

The other type of bank in this socialist economy is the Cooperative Bank, which is a local or state-based credit union operated by a council elected by members that contracts with a 'bank services cooperative."  Many of these are sponsored by the syndicates for their members. 

The Syndicates: 

These are federations of workers and collectives, within a particular occupation, industry or profession.  The syndicate for each craft, occupation and industry is structured according to the particular sector's needs, but for each such sector there is generally either powerful county syndicates (e.g. taxi drivers, bakeries) or powerful lesre/state syndicates (e.g. coal mining, grain farmers).  The syndicates perform a variety of functions, varying from sector to sector, but usually including these:

Most syndicates have responsibility for determining demand and planning capacity, under the supervision of the

They provide economic data to the national ministries entities, the state planning councils and the development councils. 

They often times coordinate the work of member collectives, when necessary, sometimes issuing advisory quotas, sometimes allocating available work among member individuals or collectives. For example the trucking syndicates rotate loads among its member drivers.

They often take the lead in promoting standards for work safety and product quality, although here their self-interest often needs checking. 

The syndicates send representatives to attend bushenre / legislative councils meetings and advise the bushenre in rule-making.

It cannot be emphasized enough that the syndicates are, in every instance, voluntary associations, with no requirements for organizations or individuals within a sector to belong.

Individual Economic Sectors:

Sector:  Healthcare

Summary:  In  1937 Congress created a national health system.  It has gone through several contentious permutations, and health care remains as much a contentious issue in Bergonia as it is in any other country.  While all funding of health care is centralized, the overall scheme of providing medical services has decentralized.  

The constellation of National Health Funds pays for all medical services for all people in all situations-- without qualification.  Everyone, from the President to prison inmates and street people, has the same card and is entitled to the same bundle of services.  Every economic enterprise (in theory) pays into the National Health Funds, and everyone get equal medical care from them. 

The NHF, predictably, has generated the largest single bureaucracy in the country, with a branch office in every city and county, all enforcing and following the same set of regulations.  This localization of bureaucracy allows the local processing of claims for payment by physicians and hospitals and the localization of disability determinations.

Organization of Sector:   

a) Physicians and other specialists in private practice

Doctors and nurses working in the "clinic" or "practice" setting, nearly always organized as small proprietorships, deliver most primary and specialist care.  They sometimes have their own free-standing offices, or they have contracts with clinics and hospitals to work in those premises.  Some physicians in small practices directly employ nurses and other staffers as proprietorships are allowed, but many instead have contracts with nurse cooperatives and medical clerical cooperatives.  Many physicians locate their offices or clinics at or near big factories, banks and offices to treat the workers and their families.  Often the physicians will have a contract with a clerical cooperative, a nursing cooperative and maybe with med-tech collectives (e.g. radiology).   

All physicians depend upon the single-payer National Health Funds for reimbursement at rates set by committees of doctors and fund managers.  But they do get money from the "office visit fee."

This sector includes dentists, wet nurses, nurse practitioners, physical therapists and masseuses, and psychotherapists.

b)  Hospitals and Other Health Institutions

Cities and counties have over the years set up and licensed hospitals, clinics, sanitariums, hospices, nursing homes, other specialized long-term care facilities, and mental health facilities. But each such facility, once established, becomes a self-governing cooperative. 

Many of the large universities maintain teaching hospitals where research  is performed.  Many religious and other private facilities also exist, though all of them must  have  a charter approved by the Health Council.  

Hospitals function as "federated co-ops," meaning that each section within the hospital is run by its own co-op.  Reps from all the co-ops sit together around a table to run the hospital.  More specifically, a hospital commonly consists of these cooperatives:  physicians, nurses, therapists, med-techs, clerical, financial services, dietary/food, laundry and hygiene, maintenance.  In many cases the hospital / clinic workers vote directly to elect the governing councils, and sometimes they undertake to decide matters directly in a big assembly.  Many such councils & assemblies are bicameral, with the doctors meeting separately, and the staff in another body, so that proposals require the approval of both groups.

c)  Syndicates:   

Every health profession has its own syndicate, including the physicians.  The syndicates are organized on the local level and the state level, and have national congresses.  The professional syndicates set professional standards, including acceptable protocols and standards of care for use in malpractice inquries.  There are local and regional bodies, as well as practice specialization groups (e.g. Nat'l College of Cardiac Surgeons, Nat'l Assoc. of Hosp. Social Wkrs.), that conduct continuing education programs for doctors and nurses, publish journals and set standards for professional education. 

The syndicates have independent tribunals for administering professional discipline for incompetence and misfeasance.  These exists on the state level.  Typically professional discipline for neglect & misfeasance is confidential, but if a professional is disciplined a third time, then the whole history becomes public.  If a physician is disciplined for a willful violation of professional standards (e.g. prescribing himself drugs, prescribing pain killers as part of a racket, having sex with a patient) the violation is made public.

d)  Local Health Councils

Every local government has a Health Council which monitors all the physicians and the use of medical facilities and plans for improvements.  The County Health Council parallels the local NHF bureaucracy.  They vote to initiate the construction of new facilities.  They generally provide for the bricks and mortar of the health system.  Sometimes the Health Councils of rural counties have to recruit needed specialists to come and open up practices.  If necessary the Council can institute actions against hospitals and health facilities, as well as doctors, for waste and misuse of funds and insolvency.   

e)  State Health Councils

The Lesre/States operate state health commissions that aid the local governments in expanding present services and creating new services. This councils are powerful vehicles for the bricks and mortar construction and expansion of medical facilities (e.g. upgraded cardiac unit, new nursing homes).  If a state health board identifies an unmet need (e.g. not enough doctors in a locality, not enough mental health in-patient capacity, slow epidemic response capacity), the board will work with the local health council to create the service, arrange loans from development banks to get it started, and then hire the initial organizers.  After its establishment the entity is on its own.  The Lesre health commissions also supervise certain special state institutions, like correctional and forensic hospitals, and secure public mental health institutions to which individuals would occasionally be committed.

f)  The National Health Council:  

Congress has created a Health Council (Bushenre), as has every state and subdivision.  It has the primary responsibility for writing binding laws and regulations for the entire health care sector.  It oversees and audits the NHF.  It requires all health care providers to maintain and submit records records necessary for statistical research.  It also has primary responsibility for planning and promoting medical research.   The national & state councils measure need and demand for health services.  

Income Sources:  

This an utterly socialized sector.  Nearly all reimbursement for services come from the National Health Funds, a series of funds set up by Congress in the 1940s.  For their operating budgets, all doctors and medical facilities depend completely upon fees paid by the Health Funds for services actually rendered.  But the medical institutions can look to the local government for capital improvements and new programs.  

The National Health Funds have created rate boards to set fair maximum rates for all services.  Specialized medical boards review and assess the mortality, morbidity  and standards for use, and also calculate the costs of each procedure and inventories of medications and equipment necessary.  They then calculate demand for medication and equipment, and thus can advise those cooperatives how much to plan to produce.  The medical review boards of course have physician and nurse representatives at the table, along with representatives from the med-techs, patient advocacy groups, and also specialists from inside the fund appointed by National Health Council. 

The medical proprietorships (the physicians) and collectives (the hospitals and clinics) all get income from the "office visit fee."   The patient must pay this fee," usually the equivalent of $22.50, at any physician's office, at any clinic and upon all "planned" hospital admissions.  It is meant to be remitted to the NHF by the proprietorship or collective that collects it, but in practice the proprietorship / collective simply debits the fees collected against their bills to the NHF.  Thus the "office visit fees" serve as a slush fund for the proprietorships & collectives, to protect them against any possibility of delayed payments by the NHF.  The medical syndicates therefore all like this fee requirement and support it.  

Free Health Care for All:

Nearly all health care is free to the individual patient.  There is however the one significant exception, namely the unpopular "office visit fee," usually the equivalent of $17.50, which adult patients below the age of 70 must pay at a physician's office, at any clinic, and upon "planned" hospital admissions (mentioned above).  The fee is frankly intended to discourage use of the health care system. It does not apply to return visits ordered by the physician, nor to annual physicals.

There have been a number of proposals to reward people who refrain from using the health care system, such as paying small annual bonuses, or allowing people small rebates on amounts withheld from salaries in exchange for not using the system.  But many see these schemes as direct rewards for health, something that has been controversial.  Their advocates claim that they would pays to live a healthy life, while its distracters claim that it punishes disabled people and people sick with unavoidable illnesses. A number of refinements to the proposals would allow

The National Health Funds -- the NHF

The Funds largely depend on a "payroll tax" that all coops, proprietorships and other worksites-- including government ministries and even the armed forces-- collect and remit to the funds.  It is not "deducted" from the worker's pay, but rather a tax upon the enterprise itself, based per head on the number of its workers.  It is calculated on the principle that the entire national expenditure on basic health care is divided by the total number of workers in the country (i.e. the total number of contributors), with no gradations as to individual income or any other differential. Here we see the fundamental implementation of the policy that the people who work will pay for the care of those who don't. 

Individual Funds take in  money from specialized sales taxes on discretionary items which cause illness-- liquor and tobacco-- and which cause injury-- skis and motorcycles.  This is a way of generally forcing  those who incur personal risks of injury to bear a primary responsibility to defray the costs of their injuries.   

The Environmental Health Fund takes in money from taxes on the gross income of certain industries condemned as big polluters, which is basically adjusted so that all the producers within each such industry can put the same surcharge per unit in order to insure equity in burden-sharing. In some industries if an individual producer gets its pollution under control, that is, if the plant installs specified pollution abatement equipment, it can escape the requirement to pay this tax-- which means a little more money for its workers.  In other industries all the plants are committed to sharing the burden so that all the collectives pay the surcharge into a fund that pays for all their pollution abatement needs.

The Workers Compensation Fund receives funding from a surtax on all enterprises, and is calculated on the same simple form as the basic NHF payroll tax.  Higher rates are charged on industries that generate higher risks of death or injury, such as mining, fishing, timbering, and factory work.  There is no such thing as workers compensation claims by "employees" in Bergonia, since all injuries and illnesses whatever the cause are treated under the socialized health care system.  Some money from this fund transfers into the general payout to physicians, nurses and hospitals, but it also funds institutions and agencies dedicated to increasing worker safety, including clinics, therapy programs and research institutions dedicated to treating common workplace injuries, and Workplace Safety Inspectors, who go after lax enterprises.  This presents the ironic scene where the agents of the state s essentially exists as a way

The fund also finances the Workplace Safety Commissions, which develops rules and standards for each type of work in the country, and also safety standards for the design of all kinds of equipment, tools, and machinery.  The various guilds have automatic representation on the pertinent commission in its particular sector.  Obviously the Miners Syndicate would have a seat on the Mine Safety Standards Commission.   These commissions set up research facilities in conjunction with universities and the syndicates, which often design equipment improvements.  It is common for industries to submit their own product designs to the appropriate commission to get them pre-approved-- the Bergonian equivalent of the old "UL" (Underwriters Laboratories) approval tags.

Sector:  Electricity and Coal  

Organization of Sector   Fushamir, the national electric generation authority, named after an ancient lightening god, buys coal from the coal miners syndicates.  It operates power plants, hydroelectric dams and a few nuclear plants built in the 1970s.  It sells the electricity to several regional distribution authorities, who in turn sell it to local power authorities generally associated with states or subdivisions.

Basic Unit of Production:  the coal mine, the power plant, the transmission crews, each organized as cooperatives..

Syndicals   The miners have a strong national syndicate, comprised of representatives of all the individual mine co-ops.  The strong electrical plant and transmission workers also have national syndicates.

Income Sources   Everyone pays for their electric consumption.  The rates are approved by Public Service Commission style bodies.  Calculation of rates includes a figure for the actual cost of production and a figure for paying off bonds.

Role of the State:  The state is usually pretty passive about this sector unless there is a massive black-out.  

Social (State) Regulation:  Every state and county has an organization with powers similar to a US State's Public Service Commission, which sets rates and approves major expansion and maintenance projects. 

Role of Small Co-ops & Proprietorships 

Sector:  Television and Movies

Basic Unit of Production:   The studios make the "product," and the local stations, networks and cinemas handle "distribution."  Studios, networks and stations are all organized as cooperatives.  

Organization of Sector   

Syndicates:  Everyone in this field has a professional association or syndicate, including the actors, the writers, and all the technical people.  Together they agree to uniform working conditions and methods of collective and share-based compensation..  

Income Sources:    This is a socialized sector, meaning that money is socially channeled to the sector.  Money does come from sold advertising, which law limits to ten minutes an hour, and this is not enough to sustain the industry (thank God).  Other needed money comes from the tax imposed on the sale of all televisions, and also from monthly cable fees.  A great many individual organizations, like the Catholic Church, the Red Artists Union and the political parties, underwrite production of shows, and also make regular grants to studios.  Actors often turn their fortunes back into the industry by way of grants or loans to the studios.

Role of the State:  Congress maintains an arts fund, financed in part by (a) duties paid on importation of foreign media products, and (b) the public's share of residual copyrights.  The Arts Council allocates money out of this fund to studios for projects.  It also funds the purses for the various national competitions.  When someone gets nominated for the Berg version of the Golden Globes or the Oscars, they get a nice little cash prize.  

National and state law forbids any elected or appointed officer from trying to influence content in any way.

Social (State) Regulation:  The national Communications Council allocates frequencies and determines technical standards for the television industry, including the standards for signal digitalization.  Once the Com-Council makes the allocation, the state and zhubo governments issue the licenses for individual stations.  The Com-Council also regulates content of all electronic media for obscene and anti-child content, fraudulent advertising, and racist and pro-capitalist propaganda

Role of Small Co-ops & Proprietorships

Sector:   Automotive, Appliances & Big Retail

Basic Unit of Production:  Three large federated cooperatives.

Organization of Sector   there are four national brands of cars and trucks, each with its family of models.  

(a)  Banken Motors, retaining the name of Arein Banken, the capitalist who founded the corporation in 1910.  Banken has a contract with Toyota to build Toyota nameplates in Bergonia.  Of  course Toyota produces the car design and specifications and does quality reviews of all work, but the car is actually produced by collectives in the Bergonian manner.

(b)  Seprei (Reliable) Motors.  ("seh'-pray")  The most popular car in Bergonia is the Lightray.  Four plants assemble Lightrays. 

(c)  Landauer Motors, originally organized by militant anarcho-syndicalists.  (In 1934 the syndicalists chose the name to honor the great German anarchist Gustav Landauer who in the abortive German revolution of 1919 was murdered by the military with the connivance of the Marxist Social Democrats.  Adopting this name was intended as a slap at the communists.   Landauer produces luxury cars, sports cars and limousines, as well as a line of buses.

(d)  Volland Chariot, the big truck and equipment manufacturer. 

Each of the four has an executive council, consisting of representatives from the factories, the design and engineering groups, the distributors and other work groups.   The council meets monthly.  It appoints a management collective, commonly called "the umbrella," that "coordinates"-- as the Bergonians put it-- the work of the other collectives, and supervises the formation of contracts between the engineering cooperatives who design the cars, the production collectives who make the parts and assemble the car, and the distribution collectives who market and sell the cars.

Each of the three corporations has assembly plants, and each has stamping plants and plants to and manufacture components and parts.   The parts plants sell their products (axles, wiring harnesses, spark plugs, seats, hoses, windshield glass) to the assembly plants.  The engineering collectives sell their designs and services to the manufacturing cooperatives.  The assembly plants in turn sell the finish units to the distributors by means of orders taken and processed by the management cooperative.  Each of these collectives form bonds with clerical and maintenance collectives, and computer and information-technology collectives, a collective of market researchers, several cooperatives who handle product testing, a workplace safety collective, a risk management collective, and a collective of procurement specialists.  There is even a collective that manages the unified phone system for the other groups.

On behalf of the other collectives, the management collective contracts with a multitude of independent cooperatives -- for printing forms, publications and advertising, to design logos and advertising images, to provide audits of all the other groups, to run the computer services, to conduct polling and project sales, to market the cars to dealerships, to provide legal services, to run restaurants, commissaries and daycare services  to the other groups and all the workers, to manage the big cluster of buildings where all these groups worked.  

All these groups sell their services to the federated cooperative or to each other, all according to agreed upon prices endorsed by the executive committee.  Of course the workers in each group received a base pay that depended on the contract it had with the others, and then a proportional share in the profits of the federated cooperative.