Bernie Sanders announced this week that his campaign is working on a new policy proposal that might, in his words, “move to an economy where workers feel that they’re not just a cog in the machine — one where they have power over their jobs and can make decisions.” According to Jeff Stein in the Washington Post, the policy will have large firms issue a portion of their stocks to an employee-owned fund. This fund would issue dividends to the workers and might also give them a say in the firm’s governance through their positions as shareholders.

This is a bold and exciting plan, one that fits together with a host of policy ideas we can broadly term “investment fund socialism.” Bernie’s ideas have already been compared to the Meidner Plan in Sweden and Matt Bruenig’s proposal for an “American solidarity fund.” But with respect to its technical design, what he has alluded to is quite different from these plans — and is much more similar to the inclusive ownership fund plan currently being debated and developed in the United Kingdom.

Yet by challenging capital’s basic control over the investment function and instead aiming to socialize it, something that would be crucial for a transformative program of democratic socialism, they each confront a similar set of political obstacles. To be successful, the question of the political viability of these plans needs just as clear-eyed an assessment as our consideration of their economic feasibility and desirability.