Connecting the dots: the search for an ideology of complementary currency systems (original) (raw)

2018

Designations like ‘alternative’, ‘complementary’ and ‘community’ are often loosely associated with reform movements that seek to alter the use and production of money in modern economic systems. These movements emanate from experiments conducted during the Great Depression and a resurgence in the 1980s and 1990s. Early experiments were responding to instances of monetary and economic crisis, while modern versions were reactive, emanating from public mistrust of the governing institutions responsible for monetary regulation. Resultantly, a great deal of literature has been devoted to studying the many disparate ‘alternative’ or ‘complementary’ currency systems globally, focusing on their systematic architecture, implementation, costs, benefits, production, regulation and socio-economic impacts. But little scholarly attention has focused on the ideology behind these monetary paradigms, other than passing references to the founding reformers. This article seeks to trace the ideology underlying these monetary alternatives to governmental fiat, by uncovering the features that unite the majority of ‘alternative’ currencies and speak to their shared, implicit, ideological standing. A literature review on often-overlooked complementary monetary systems attempts to display their significance as viable monetary systems for future economic organisation. In doing so, the article will place the reforms firmly within the pursuit of an ideological “third way” that can better interpret and analyse the global financial structures. Such reform attempts and the theories that underlie them could provide a far more secure, equitable and sustainable architecture for global economic governance in the face of large scale financial, economic, social and political threats to ordered, civilized human agency.