The Commons Capitalism research papers develop the legal, economic, and institutional architecture of the Commons Capitalism Entity in a series of focused studies. Rather than attempt to present the entire system in a single work, the papers isolate its principal concepts and mechanisms so that each can be examined on its own terms.
The series is planned as eight papers. Together, they move from definition and conceptual clarification to the worker-capital relationship, organizational formation and governance, and finally the financial viability of the CCE and its Four Funds.
Paper No. 1 — Commons Capitalism: A Terminological and Conceptual Framework for Understanding the Commons Capitalism Entity
Defines the CCE and establishes the terminology necessary for discussing Commons Capitalism as a distinct institutional system.
Paper No. 2 — Commons Capitalism and the Discourse of Enterprise
Examines ten conventional assumptions about ownership, nonprofit corporations, workers, surplus, fiduciary duty, and enterprise that can obscure the structure of the CCE.
Paper No. 3 — Commons Capitalism and the Institutional Economics of Worker Well-Being
Examines how a CCE can use its accumulated institutional wealth to provide economic security beyond wages and conventional benefits, including assistance to workers and their families facing personal adversity, while extending these protections to future generations and additional workers.
Paper No. 4 — Commons Capitalism and the Worker-Capital Chasm
Examines the separation between workers and productive capital and the economic consequences of that separation, including worker precarity and the allocation of enterprise risk and surplus.
Paper No. 5 — Forming a Foundational Commons Capitalism Entity: The Legal and Organizational Architecture of the FCCE
Explains how a Foundational Commons Capitalism Entity can be created using existing corporate law and develops the simplified architecture intended for the first generation of CCEs.
Paper No. 6 — MCCE Governance and Institutional Architecture
Develops the fuller Model Commons Capitalism Entity and examines the governance mechanisms needed for a mature CCE.
Paper No. 7 — Financial Viability of CCE Acquisition of Subsidiaries
Examines whether a CCE can acquire and finance operating businesses while preserving financial stability and continuing to accumulate productive capital.
Paper No. 8 — Financial Viability of the Four Funds
Examines whether the CCE’s system for allocating surplus among the Reinvestment, Social Benefits, Education, and Reserve Funds can operate on a financially sustainable basis.
The purpose of the series is not merely to describe Commons Capitalism as an alternative economic idea. It is to determine whether the CCE can be defined coherently, formed under existing law, governed without private residual owners, financed, expanded, and sustained over time.