Showing papers on "Capitalism published in 1975"

Equality and efficiency, the big tradeoff

Abstract: Contemporary American society has the look of a split-level structure. Its political and social institutions distribute rights and privileges universally and proclaim the equality of all citizens. Yet economic institutions, with efficiency as their guiding principle, create disparities among citizens in living standards and material welfare. This mixture of equal rights and unequal economic status breeds tensions between the political principles of democracy and the economic principles of capitalism. Whenever the wealthy try for extra helpings of supposedly equal rights, and whenever the workings of the market deny anyone a minimum standard of living, ""dollars transgress on rights""--in the author's phrase. In this revised and expanded version of the Godkin Lectures presented at the John F. Kennedy School at Harvard University in April 1974, Arthur M. Okun explores the conflicts that arise when society's desire to reduce inequality would impair economic efficiency, confronting policymakers with ""the big tradeoff."" Other economic systems have attempted to solve this problem; but the best of socialist experiments have achieved a greater degree of equality than our mixed capitalist democracy only at heavy costs in efficiency, and dictatorial governments have reached heights of efficiency only by rigidly repressing their citizenry. In contrast, our basic system emerges as a viable, if uneasy, compromise in which the market has its place and democratic institutions keep it in check. But within the existing system there are ways to gain more of one good thing at a lower cost in terms of the other. In Okun's view, society's concern for human dignity can be directed at reducing the economic deprivation that stains the record of American democracy--through progressive taxation, transfer payments, job programs, broadening equality of opportunity, eliminating racial and sexual discrimination, and lowering barriers to access to capital.

Classes in Contemporary Capitalism

Abstract: Nicos Poulantzas's third major work is a pioneering survey of some of the most fundamental, yet least studied, aspects of the class structure of advanced capitalist societies today. The book starts with a general theoretical essay that for the first time seriously explores the distinction between the agents and positions of capitalist relations of production, and seeks to avoid the typical errors of either functionalism or historicism. It also provides a polemical reconsideration of the problem of the nation state as a political unit today, and its relationship to the internationalization of capital. Finally, and most originally, Poulantzas develops a long and powerful analysis of the much-abused concept of the petty-bourgeoisie. In this, he scrupulously distinguishes between the traditional categories of petty-bourgeoisie--shopkeepers, artisans, small peasants--and the new categories of clerical workers, supervisors, and salaried personnel in modern industry and commerce. At the same time he demonstrates the reasons why a unitary conceptualization of their class position is possible. The difficult question of the definition of productive and unproductive labor within Marx's own account of the capitalist mode of production is subjected to a novel and radical reinterpretation. The political oscillations peculiar to each form of petty-bourgeoisie and especially their characteristic reactions to the industrial proletariat, are cogently assessed. Poulantzas ends his work with a reminder that the actions and options of the petty-bourgeoisie are critical to any successful struggle by the working class, which must secure the alliance of important sections of the petty-bourgeoisie if the fateful experience of Chile is not to recur elsewhere tomorrow. Combining empirical and theoretical materials throughout, Classes in Contemporary Capitalism represents a notable achievement in the development of Marxist social science and political thought.

The Age of Capital: 1848–1875

Abstract: In "The Age of Revolution", Eric Hobsbawm traced the transformation of European life between 1789 and 1848 by the "Dual Revolution" - the French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution. In the years that followed the values developed which, taken together, made up the age of capital. In this history of the years 1848-1875, he continues his analysis of the rise of industrial capitalism and the consolidation of bougeois culture. The extension of capitalist economy to the four corners of the globe, the mounting concentration of wealth, the migration of men, the domination of Europe and European culture made the third quarter of the 19th century a watershed. This is a history not only of Europe, but of the world. Hobsbawm's intention is not to summarize facts, but to draw facts together into an historical synthesis, to "make sense of" the period, and to trace the roots of the present world back to it.

Marx's Capital

Abstract: This brilliantly concise book has established itself over twenty-five years and five editions as the standard companion to Karl Marx’s most important work, the sprawling Capital . This new edition retains the features that have made it a crucial teaching tool—a clear explanation of the structure of Marx’s analysis, an exploration of his method and terminology, and the significance of his central concepts—while also bringing it fully up to date with the latest scholarship and a clearly written analysis of the continuing relevance of Capital to today’s ongoing discussions of politics, economics, and the struggles of capitalism.

Socialism, Capitalism and Economic Growth

Abstract: These essays were written in 1969 to mark the retirement of Maurice Dobb from the Readership in Economics an Cambridge University. The contributors are economists and historians from many parts of the world. The unifying theme, economic growth and planning under socialism and capitalism, was central to the major part of Maurice Dobb's work.

Socialism: The Active Utopia

Abstract: Arguing that "utopian" is frequently used as a pejorative term used to discredit whatever it describes, Professor Bauman describes the positive contributions of the utopian tradition to theories of society and especially stresses the important contribution of socialism to the history of utopian thought. He asserts that utopian thinkers are particularly able to apply new perspectives to developments in particular societies and to realise the implications of present trends for the future. Applying these arguments to the history of socialist thought as a utopian system, the author maintains that socialism is by no means the discredited theory of society that it is often labelled. Professor Bauman believes that modern socialism now con-centrates on the irrationality of capitalism as a functioning means of organising the political economy of man and contrasts this new focus with an earlier denunciation of the injustice and inequalities of capitalism. In delineating the historical back-ground of these two different approaches to socialism, he argues that Russian social-ism was a distortion of the original socialist ideals which had envisioned the abolition of a hierarchical society. The author especially values Antonio Gramsci's criticisms of the "stateolatry" developed in the Soviet Union and Gramsci's own theories of an "historical bloc" that creates a match between a particular social structure and its cultural and political superstructure.

The destruction of natural economy

Abstract: The necessities of the expanded reproduction of capitalism result in the articulation of the capitalist mode of production with ‘precapitalist’ modes. The nature of this articulation and its consequences for the ‘pre-capitalist’ mode of production is a function, first and predominantly, of the needs of the capitalist mode and second, of the internal structure of the ‘pre-capitalist’ mode. This proposition is demonstrated through an examination and critique of Rosa Luxemburg and of Pierre-Phillipe Rey and is illustrated by two contrasting examples of the articulation of capitalism with two different ‘pre-capitalist’ modes of production in Peru.

Inequality and poverty: a marxist-geographic theory∗

Abstract: Marxists theorize that inequality and poverty are functional components of the capitalist mode of production: capitalism necessarily produces inegalitarian social structures. Inequality is transferred from one generation to another through the environment of services and opportunities which surrounds each individual. The social geography of the city is made up of a hierarchy of community environments reproducing the hierarchical class structure. Change in the system results from change in the demand for labor. Continuing poverty in American cities results from a continued system need to produce and reproduce an industrial reserve army. Inequality and poverty cannot be eradicated without fundamental changes in the mode of production.

Capitalism and Material Life, 1400-1800

Abstract: A great deal has been written lately in academic journals and periodicals about the “Annales school” of historians, and even more about its recognized leader, Fernand Braudel. Braudel's fame derives not so much from his tenure as editor of Annales: economies, societás, civilisations, as from his most significant book, published in two volumes in 1949, The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II (English edition published by Harper and Row: New York, 1972 and 1974). The book under review here was published nearly twenty years later, in 1967, under the title Civilisation Materielle et Capitalisme as the first of a projected two volume work, the second volume of which has not as yet appeared.

State Expenditure in Advanced Capitalism

Abstract: The current stage of ‘neo-capitalism’ or ‘state monopoly capitalism’ is characterized by a qualitatively expanded role of the state in capitalist social formations. [1] One expression of this huge politico-economic weight of the modern state is the prolonged expansion in state expenditures, such that they now exceed one half of gross domestic product in contemporary Britain. [2] Yet despite this, there have been only isolated studies by Marxists which systematically examine the causes and consequences of this unprecedented growth. In the following sections we propose to outline the patterns and trends in state expenditure in the major capitalist economies; briefly to analyse the nature of the modern capitalist state and its socio-economic setting; in the light of this to attempt an explanation of the growth and composition of state expenditures; and finally to consider briefly some of the major economic and political consequences of this phenomenon. Beforehand, however, it is incumbent on us to consider current theories and state why we regard them as unsatisfactory or incomplete. To this end, the recent studies of O’Connor, Yaffe and Barratt Brown will be singled out for attention.

Petty producers and capitalism

Abstract: This article offers a preliminary theoretical framework for an analysis of labour in urban Senegal. The writers' studies of petty commodity and commodity production in Dakar—arising from which they propose to analyse the process of class formation and the class position of various sections of the urban labour force—require at the outset an analysis of the dialectical relationship between the dominant capitalist mode of production and the subordinate formsof production in underdeveloped countries. The term formof production is deliberate. Modeof production seems to the writers inappropriate, since it refers essentially to a totality which is self‐sufficient at both the superstructural level and at the economic base. Forms of production exist at the margins of the capitalist mode of production, but are nevertheless integrated into and subordinate to it. This article sets out to examine the processes and relations of production which characterise certain subordinate forms of production.

State expenditure in advanced capitalism

Abstract: The current stage of ‘neo-capitalism’ or ‘state monopoly capitalism’ is characterized by a qualitatively expanded role of the state in capitalist social formations. [1] One expression of this huge politico-economic weight of the modern state is the prolonged expansion in state expenditures, such that they now exceed one half of gross domestic product in contemporary Britain. [2] Yet despite this, there have been only isolated studies by Marxists which systematically examine the causes and consequences of this unprecedented growth. In the following sections we propose to outline the patterns and trends in state expenditure in the major capitalist economies; briefly to analyse the nature of the modern capitalist state and its socio-economic setting; in the light of this to attempt an explanation of the growth and composition of state expenditures; and finally to consider briefly some of the major economic and political consequences of this phenomenon. Beforehand, however, it is incumbent on us to consider current theories and state why we regard them as unsatisfactory or incomplete. To this end, the recent studies of O’Connor, Yaffe and Barratt Brown will be singled out for attention.

Education and the Industrial Revolution

Abstract: Since the inadequacies of the Industrial Revolution remain a key factor in most critiques of capitalism and individual liberty, Education and the Industrial Revolution makes an important contribution to a better understanding of the period. The book provides a challenge to the educational establishment because it contradicts the long-held view that the Industrial Revolution was a disaster and that only government intervention and 'compulsion' brought the joys of education to people. West's investigations unearthed a large and growing market for education going hand in hand with the rise of industrialism and occurring prior to government intervention. By taking on such issues as supposed educational deficiency, market provision, actual literacy rates, theories of educational reform in the nineteenth century, and the realities of educational intervention, West helps us come to a richer understanding of liberty -- one that is little-known today but every bit as relevant as the day it was written.

Reproduction of social classes at the level of production relations

Abstract: This article starts with a discussion of the capitalist production relations which are defined as the relations binding two types of agents of production and the means of production. These relations are considered from the point of view of ownership, expropriation of value, and function performed. The ownership element is given the determinant role in the sense that the owner of the means of production is also the expropriator of surplus value (exploiter) and he who performs the function of capital (non-labourer). Vice versa for the non-owner of the means of production who is also the exploited and the performer of the function of labour (labourer). There is in this case correspondence between the determinant and the determined elements. Thus the two fundamental classes under capitalism are defined in terms of correspondence among the three aspects of the production relations. But the concept of determinantion implies both correspondence and contradiction between the determinant and the determined element...

Capital and Exploitation

Abstract: We have emphasised that the production of use-values in commodity form tends to conceal the social relationships of production between workers and their labour by concentrating attention on exchange relationships between things. Nevertheless, as simple commodity production demonstrates logically and a history of trade demonstrates in reality, exchange itself can exist without capitalism. It is when labour-power itself becomes a commodity that the seeds of capitalism are sown. In this chapter, by examining exchange from the perspectives of a worker (or more generally a consumer) and then a capitalist, we will see why this must be so.

The Optimal Utilization of Slaves

Abstract: A Major theme in the historiography of American slavery is the analysis of the slave plantation as a capitalist market oriented enterprise. Much of the controversy surrounding the work of such scholars as Stanley Elkins, Kenneth Stampp and Eugene Genovese stems from differing views of the interaction of commercial capitalism with the ancient institution of slavery. A recurrent topic in this literature is the impact of the profit motive and competitive market conditions on the relationship between master and slave. A major concern is the extent these capitalist incentives may have motivated the master to either brutalize or ameliorate the conditions of the slave's existence. We wish to thank the following who read earlier drafts of this paper and made useful suggestions and criticisms: Professors Jerry Fastrup, George Jensen, Roger Ransom, Richard Roseman, and an anonymous referee. This study is part of a larger project, “The Optimal Accumulation and Utilization of Slaves” (forthcoming), which extends both static and dynamic neoclassical models of the firm to cases involving slavery.

Proletarians and African capitalism : the Kenyan case, 1960-1972

Abstract: Part I. The economic, social and political context: 1. Workers, unions and dependent capitalism 2. Labour policy in Kenya Part II. The state and the internal organization of unions: 3. The tendency toward oligarchy 4. The persistence of internal conflict 5 The bases of cleavage Part III. Working-class action: 6. Unions and clientelist politics 7. Militant economism (1) 8 Militant economism (2) 9. State control and worker protest.

What is Violence

Abstract: In The Communist Manifesto Marx and Engels expressed the view that "the epoch of the bourgeoisie", by contrast with earlier stages in human history, had "simplified class antagonisms", with the result that "Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great classes directly facing each other: Bourgeoisie and Proletariat" One reason for this, they suggested, was that capitalism had had the effect of stripping away the various ideological veils, religious and secular, by which exploitation and oppression had normally been both concealed and justified, and had "left remaining no other nexus between man and man than naked self-interest, than callous 'cash payment'" They summed up this process of de-mystification as follows: "In one word, for exploitation, veiled by religious and political illusions, it has substituted naked, shameless, direct, brutal exploitation" We do not need to assume that this represents the most central, or the most considered view on the subject expressed by Marx and/or Engels to recognise that this particular expectation as to the character of class conflict within capitalist society has not been fulfilled Capitalist exploitation is not uniquely naked and unveiled Ideology, bourgeois ideology, continues to play a quite decisive role in disguising and blurring class conflicts, and sustaining the claims to legitimacy made by the state and its agencies in capitalist society

Stages in Corporate Stability and the Risks of Corporate Failure

Abstract: Few would deny that the US economy is today dominated by huge corporations Much recent writing has proposed that these corporations form a stable and monopolistic (or oligopolistic) “core” around which a more competitive “peripheral” sector exists Firms in the core are said to be “eternal,” while firms in the periphery demonstrate the mortality and high turnover expected in competitive industries In another context, Paul Baran and Paul Sweezy emphasized the permanence of big corporations when they noted: The real capitalist today is not the individual businessman but the corporation …The giant corporation of today is an engine for maximizing profits and accumulating capital to at least as great an extent as the individual enterprise of an earlier period But it is not merely an enlarged and institutionalized version of the personal capitalist There are major differences between these types of business enterprise, and at least two of them are of key importance to a general theory of monopoly capitalism: the corporation has a longer time horizon than the individual capitalist, and it is a more rational calculator

A World Too Much with Us

Abstract: Wordsworth in 1807 warned that the world was too much with us, that getting and spending we laid waste our powers, that we were giving our hearts away, and that we saw less and less in the external world, in nature, that the heart could respond to. In our modern jargon we call this "alienation." That was the word by which Marx described the condition of the common man under Capitalism, alienated in his work. But for Marx, as Harold Rosenberg has pointed out,

Democratising the Wealth of Nations

Abstract: This book introduces three techniques for democratising the wealth of nations. The three techniques: Ownership Transfer Corporations (OTCs), Cooperative Land Banks (CLBs) and Producer-Consumer Cooperatives (PCCs), like Employee Share Ownership Plans (ESOPs), transfer wealth without taxes or welfare to allow the extent of taxes, welfare and the size of government to be reduced. Unlike ESOPs, the three techniques systemically democratise wealth by replacing static, exclusive and perpetual property rights with dynamic, inclusive and time limited rules of ownership. In this way a more efficient, equitable and participatory economic system can be created described as Social Capitalism. The Credo of Social Capitalism being: From each according to their interest; To each according to their contribution; Provided the basic needs of all are fulfilled. Differences between economists and business people in describing the nature and meaning of wealth are explained along with the non monetary value wealth. Also explained is why employees and professionals stay poor and how corporations concentrate wealth in a manner that is not reported by accountants. The book explains how wealth can be gained from inflation but this is limited by the ability of society to create wealth from production. The introduction of dynamic property rights could be used to create a community dividend to replace welfare to allow governments to replace full employment policies with a policy of fulfilment from work and/or leisure.

The Role of Education in a Strategy for Social Change.

Abstract: AT THE CIES MEETINGS in San Francisco this past March, Philip Foster asked our panel on "Educational Change in Revolutionary Societies" how he could agree with much of our analysis of educational change but at the same time so disagree with the implications of our analysis for change. My answer was that we disagreed on the nature of capitalist development. Foster takes a Schumpeterian view, believing that the main problem of capitalist development is that the State interferes with the workings of a market system which is inherently just and fair and leads to maximum economic development. I and my co-panelists believe that the interference by the State is not anti-capitalist. To the contrary, it is part and parcel of the cooperation between the State and capitalists to increase profits. Of course, only a small proportion of capitalists may be rewarded, but we think that the evolution of competitive capitalism to monopoly capitalism is a logical outcome of the way capitalism functions and that the participation of the State in this process is inevitable given the State's role in post-feudal societies. Foster's Schumpterian view of the State's role in economic development is clear in his proposals to decentralize educational decisions and responsibilities. According to Foster, decentralization would be possible because centralized authority is the product of a colonial "state of mind." However, I have suggested that the dominant role of the State in development is due to the economic and social structures of dependent capitalism. Thus, it seems to me that many of Foster's suggestions for decentralization will not be implemented because they conflict with the interests of the government and capitalist local bourgeoisie who profit from its decisions and foreign, ex-colonial groups who believe more in economic stability than in reform and decentralized decision-making. This is the fundamental reason why I can agree with parts of Foster's analysis and so disagree with his strategy for educational development and social change. By 1985, the majority of the world's children will have had some formal schooling. We can view this fact with pride, believing that it marks a forward step in human development, or we can view it with serious misgivings, fearful that much of the schooling experience is no more than a further incarceration of the human will and spirit. Our judgment should emerge from an analysis of the economic and social system which this formalized teaching-learning process is being used to maintain and promote. I submit that schooling should be analyzed as an institution serving a particular society with well-defined ends and means to