Guinevere Liberty Nell studied and published in Austrian economics and Soviet history, and worked as a programmer and as a tax policy analyst at The Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. before earning a Master's Degree in Soviet economic history from the University of Warwick, UK. She is the author of Rediscovering Fire: Basic Economic Lessons from the Soviet Experiment and Spontaneous Order and The Utopian Collective, and editor of three essay collections that push the boundaries of Austrian economics.

Presents the case for a new branch of (post-)Austrian theory

1. Collaborative Discovery and the Conversive Democratic Process: A Post-Austrian Approach2. The Individualist Subjectivism of Austrian Economics3. Subjectivism, Freedom, and Social-Interest4. The Limits of Democracy: The Real and the Imagined5. The Ethics of Competition and Cooperation6. Some Ethical Insights on the Nature of Profits7. Coordination and Collaboration: Agreement as a Criterion for Democratic Goodness8. Reflections on the Misesian Legacy of Hyper-Individualism9. Knowledge and the Austrian Understanding of the Democratic System10. Culture, Hayek, and the idea of Plan-Coordination11. Conversation and the Democratic Process: Some Doctrinal Touchstones12. The Driving Force of the Collective: The Idea of "Conversation" in Contemporary Economic Theory and in the Post-Austrian Theory of the Democratic Process13. Misallocation and/or Misunderstood: A Reconsideration of the Misesian Calculation Problem14. Society, the Collective, and Economic "Imperialism"

This book investigates why Austrian economists fail to apply the spontaneous order framework to cooperative relationships - such as a dynamic and evolving public sector - that might complement a thriving market. In direct response to Israel Kirzner's The Driving Force of the Market , Nell challenges traditional Austrian economics by proposing "democratic process theory" as a parallel to market process theory, highlighting the possibilities for an economic organization that harnesses the power of transparent and effective democracy. Keeping in mind the central problems experienced in socialist and capitalist countries due to self-interested political and economic actors, The Driving Force of the Collective highlights the public sector advantages of allowing culture and institutions to evolve endogenously as a spontaneous public sector order.