Peak Hierarchy is a phrase (and a nod to “Peak
Oil”) referencing a tipping point in the balance between
hierarchical relations, decentralized relations (including
representative democracy), and distributed ‘peer to peer’
relations. Michel Bauwens: “This is the meaning of Peak
Hierarchy: horizontality is starting to trump verticality, it is
becoming more competitive to be distributed, than to be
(de)centralized. The two combined forces of Peak Oil and Peak
Hierarchy are going to dramatically change the world we will
live in. It’s time to prepare ourselves (for) the new logic of
our coming political economy and civilization.”
Historically, commons have had a problematic relationship with
conventional law, which generally reflects the mindset and
priorities of the sovereign (monarch, nation-state, corporation)
and not the lived experiences and practices of commoners. Still,
in grappling with political, economic and legal realities,
commoners often find ways to secure control over their common
wealth, livelihoods and modes of commoning. It is also what is
spurring many commoners today to invent creative new types of
policy and law – formal, social, technological – to protect
their shared interests, assets and social relationships.
A term coined by Yale political scientist Jacob Hacker,
pre-distribution focuses on market reforms to
stimulate a more democratic distribution of economic power
before government enforces redistributional strategies through
taxes or benefits. While capitalism takes inequality as the cost
of doing business and leaves its mitigation to an inefficient
state, a commons approach builds in fairness from the start. The
aim is to incorporate distributive actions in the generative
enterprises and through their direct relation to the commons.
Prefigurative politics describe modes of social
organization and actions coherent with the political goals of a
group. This means “building the new world in the shell of the
old”, as famously expressed by the constitution of the
Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). It rejects vanguard,
hierarchical politics in favour of self-organization, direct
action, counter-institutions and participatory democracy. Many
P2P and Commons project can be considered prefigurative of a
better, post-capitalist future society.
Transvestment, describes the transfer of value
from one mode of production to another. In the case of P2P
systems, this means from capitalism to the commons.
Transvestment strategies such as capped returns, contributory
accounting and co-budgeting can help commoners become
financially sustainable and independent by creating economic
“membranes” for value sovereignty. These are being developed and
implemented by commons-oriented entrepreneurial networks such as
Enspiral, Sensorica or L’Atelier Paysan.
