Listen free for 30 days

  • Rebalancing Society

  • Radical Renewal Beyond Left, Right, and Center
  • Written by: Henry Mintzberg
  • Narrated by: Dana Hickox
  • Length: 2 hrs and 13 mins
  • 3.7 out of 5 stars (3 ratings)

Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo + applicable taxes after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
Rebalancing Society cover art

Rebalancing Society

Written by: Henry Mintzberg
Narrated by: Dana Hickox
Try for $0.00

$14.95 per month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $13.00

Buy Now for $13.00

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Tax where applicable.

Publisher's Summary

Enough of the imbalance that is causing the degradation of our environment, the demise of our democracies, and the denigration of ourselves. Enough of the pendulum politics of left and right and paralysis in the political center. We require an unprecedented form of radical renewal. In this book Henry Mintzberg offers a new understanding of the root of our current crisis and a strategy for restoring the balance so vital to the survival of our progeny and our planet.

With the collapse of the communist regimes of Eastern Europe, Western pundits declared that capitalism had triumphed. They were wrong - balance triumphed. A healthy society balances a public sector of respected governments, a private sector of responsible businesses, and a plural sector of robust communities. Communism collapsed under the weight of its overbearing public sector. Now the "liberal democracies" are threatened - socially, politically, even economically - by the unchecked excesses of the private sector.

Radical renewal will have to begin in the plural sector, which alone has the inclination and the independence to challenge unacceptable practices and develop better ones. Too many governments have been co-opted by the private sector. And corporate social responsibility can't compensate for the corporate social irresponsibility we see around us "They" won't do it. We shall have to do it, each of us and all of us, not as passive "human resources," but as resourceful human beings.Tom Paine wrote in 1776, "We have it in our power to begin the world over again." He was right then. Can we be right again now? Can we afford not to be?

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

©2015 Henry Mintzberg (P)2015 Gildan Media LLC

What listeners say about Rebalancing Society

Average Customer Ratings
Overall
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

The fight between public and private ignoring the plural sector

I have read Henry Mintzberg since the early 1990s. This succinct overview of what ails our increasingly divided society is a refreshing take away from the usual dichotomy of left and right. It is a good jumping off point of what we as individuals and as community groups can do by increasing the impact of the forgotten plural sector in these important discussions

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

A wet firecracker

The book starts by establishing a left/right divide and projecting it'll propose another solution, without ever defining it's terms. That's already suspicious in and of itself for doing so makes people think you're taking about the same thing when you might not be. And lo and behold, by the middle of the book it becomes obvious the author has no idea what the left really is/represents. No surprise there, for someone fundamentally influenced by the USA, where what people call the left is center right at best.
Consequence: the author presents ideas that have been and still are debated in leftist circles for ages, as if he just created them, or stumbled upon them by himself. Except he's so biased by his "moderate" understanding of politics he manages to make them look nonsensical.
Plurality is literally what socialists and communists are all about. What do you think is a cooperative?! A capitalist enterprise?! 🤦🏿‍♂️
Those things have been happening, all around the world, and people from the left have been shouting their mind out about the sacrifice of community on the altar of corporations and neoliberalism. Especially black and bipoc leftist authors/thinkers. They are myriads. The fact that the author just figured it out says more about him than about any possible issue in the left (and there obviously are, since it's a human enterprise).

Also, this idea of finding a way to make public, private and plural interests work together is ridiculous because it's presented as if the left was all about the public while the right is all about the private. That's the kind of simplification of a complex issue that helps write books sounding smart, without doing anything to make clarify the real issues. Being on the left does not mean being Anti-Business or anti private enterprise. It literally implies wanting those to serve the people and not the opposite.

Finally, the presentation of this working together is biased for it does not take into consideration situations where your opponent is wrong as a matter of principle, or worst, situations where your opponent literally wants to kill you. It's been said that if Gandhi had convinced the world to try the non-violence opposition against the Nazi, the world would look very different indeed, mainly because the winning position of that war would have been reversed. Just saying let's find another way doesn't address situations where one camp is simply mathematically right. When the right wants to ban abortion, criminalize homosexuality and eradicate transgender people, there no "other" way to find with them: they have to be beaten on the market of ideology AND in the management of the city (politics), no question about it.

So... yeah! This was quite lackluster. A wet firecracker, by lack of reading out of his comfort zone, I'm afraid.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!