Chris - thanks for mentioning Wallerstein... I wrote an essay - partly on Wallerstein's 'Age of Transition' - in order to cement my place in the Honours intake... Having lost the essay and notes I forgot over time the basics of his analysis... But with your having awakened my interest - I may try and find time to familarise myself with the basics again..

I agree, also, that there are democratic alternatives to neo-liberal capitalism... And definitions of 'capitalism' are numerous...

Personally, I aim to broaden the ownership of the means of prodcution so much - that there cannot be seen to be a bourgeois ruling class...

Already power is more broadly based than some Marxists suppose... (take the Weberian definition - and consider the different aspects of power, wealth etc)

A democratic mixed economy - which promotes demcoratic forms of ownership - co-operativism, Government Business Enterprises, public pension funds - can nonetheless be mixed with freedom of investment by ordinary workers.

Private investment and markets could endure - but wealth ownership and political power broadened such that citizens collectively could be seen as having sovereignty ahead of any organised economic class...

Power would increasingly be political - with economic power so broadly based...

And there would have to be a balance between responsive and innovative markets (for practical reasons, and for the sake of liberty) - and public planning...

Some forms of infrastructure, in particular, should compromse public monopoly...

Other areas - eg: banking - could be balanced amongst different democratic forms of ownership (including credit unions) - so financial/economic power is not too concentrated...)

And there are areas which would not benefit from competition - where increased cost structures of competition are dire - could comprise public monopoly...(eg: communications, welfare, transport,power and water)

Public shopping precints (including malls) - could also open up a new horizon of social life and active citizenry)

Areas such as mining - which compete internationally - could be socialised without comprising a monopoly... (in the worlds market)