I like Le Guin's novels but if they deserve accolades it's not for "details" of an alternate system. This one depicts central planning, syndicalism as the proxy for democracy, and a bureaucracy that "just works".
It doesn't get into the details of the system, but I felt that The Dispossessed was a good look into what it was like to practically live under that sort of a system. Bureaucracy that was clunky, slow, and led to inefficiencies. Poor living standards even for highly educated people. Time spent doing manual labor despite skills that could be better applied to other things. Yet a sense of togetherness due to the relative lack of class differences and a general welcoming of the other rather than the atomization Shevek experienced off-world.
I was especially struck by Shevek noting that Atro was unique for A-Io in that his behaviour was reminiscent of an Anarresti: the same way all the time, whether public or private.
I'm not sure Dispo needed to go into details; we all can think of analogues to the nations of Urras, and Anarres itself mentions many things reminiscent of 1970s kibbutzim. (when I watched «Карьера Димы Горина»* the work camps also reminded me of Shevek's experiences in the Anarres outback)
* 1961. sometime I need to watch it with subtitles to check how it scores on the Bechdel Test. Cameo by Sputnik.
