Michael Albert, co-founder of Z Magazine and author of several books on participatory economics, spoke to 60 students Wednesday night in Harris 107.

Albert spoke about the terrorist attacks of Sept 11, the U.S. response, liberal politics in America and his proposal for an alternative economic system.

Albert advocates increased social involvement, saying the only way to create change is “to raise social costs high enough that those who don’t want to implement those changes will have no choice.”

The reason the liberal movement has been ineffective, he said, is because many liberals are opposed to the current system. But they cannot “answer in a compelling fashion the simple question, ‘What do you want?'” Albert said.

Instead of capitalist, communist and socialist systems, Albert offers an alternative called participatory economics. His system is based on “rewarding effort and sacrifice” as opposed to rewarding people based on the amount of power they have, Albert said.

In a participatory economy, work would be divided so that each person could have a set of responsibilities with a comparable amount of empowerment and quality of life, Albert said.

Many audience members stayed until 11:30 p.m. to hear the entire three-and-a-half-hour lecture.

“He said a lot of interesting things I agree with, but I think people are beginning to move away from ideological zealousness and more toward a pragmatic mode of operation,” Weinberg sophomore Jamar Campbell said.

Albert’s lecture was sponsored by Peace Project, an umbrella organization that includes Northwestern Students Against Sweatshops and the publication The Protest.

“He presents radically different views of economic possibilities,” said Medill senior Mischa Gaus. “His views on including participatory economics as part of our institutions is something Peace Project is very interested in.”