Showing papers on "Capitalism published in 1987"

The Economic Institutions of Capitalism

Abstract: (1987). The Economic Institutions of Capitalism. Journal of Economic Issues: Vol. 21, No. 1, pp. 528-530.

The end of organized capitalism

Abstract: "The End of Organized Capitalism" argues that despite Marx s and Weber s insistence that capitalist societies become increasingly more ordered we now live in an era of disorganized capitalism. The book is devoted to a systematic examination of the shift to disorganized capitalism in five Western nations (Britain, the United States, France, West Germany, and Sweden). Through the analysis of space, class, and culture, Lash and Urry portray the restructuring of capitalist social relations that has resulted from this disorganization. They adduce evidence for the claims that in each of the nations there is a movement toward a deconcentration of capital within nation-states; toward the increased separation of banks, industry and the state; and toward the redistribution of productive relations and class-relevant residential patterns. The authors also show that national disparities in contemporary, disorganized capitalism can be understood through close examination of the extent to which, and mode in which, capitalism became historically organized in each of the five countries under consideration. The lucid arguments and judicious comparisons in this book will be of great interest to political scientists, sociologists, geographers, economists, and historians. "

The role of annual reports in gender and class contradictions at general motors: 1917–1976

Abstract: This paper argues that studies of female exploitation frequently pay too little attention to the broader social context; particularly alienation and crises in the development of late capitalism. This criticism applies with equal force to the domestic labor/housework studies and labor process studies and labor process studies where male domination is often advanced as the primary explanatory variable in accounting for female oppression. Even where labor process researchers have emphasized mediating affects on partiarchial influences (technology and control processes for instance; c.f. Milkman, Politics and Society , pp. 159–203, 1983), we argue that the broader context of alienated capitalist social relations is frequently understated. Female subordination under capitalism is traced to two primary sources in this study: First, that part of the labor process where the existence of female labor facilitates surplus value appropriation by playing the part of an “industrial reserve army” (sometimes “latent”, at other times “floating”). Second, in times of overproduction and underconsumption, capital has invented a consumerist ideology about women to help resolve its crisis of realizing surplus value. Only by seeing these different instances of female oppression as part of a larger, mutually reinforcing configuration of “instances” — emanating from capitalist social relations — are we likely to begin to adequately comprehend the resilience of social ideology concerning women and develop effective political and social counter-strategies. In this research, the above considerations are explored using evidence from a longitudinal study of General Motors where the annual reports are used to monitor the evolution of managerial ideology vis-a-vis women over some sixty years. We see in this study how the manner of women's exploitation changes with changes in the crises facing capitalism. The implications of the study are severalfold: Firwt, we see how a socially “unreflective” view of “management” and “management control systems” may lead to practices that are oppressive and exploitative. Second, we find “the labor process” to be an important but insufficient conceptual terrain for understanding women's oppression; instead we propose that the starting point of any analysis should be capitalist alienation. Third, this work has implications for the various controversies about class essentialism and the primacy of class. (Wright, New Left Review , pp. 11–36, 1983; Giddens, Central Problems in Social Theory: Action, Structure and Contradiction in Social Analysis , 1979; Miliband, New Left Review , pp. 57–68, 1983; Tinker, Journal of Accounting and Public Policy , pp. 1–20, 1984). as well as the relation between male domination and class oppression (Fox-Genovese, New Left Review , pp. 5–29, 1982, Goldelier, New Left Review , pp. 3–17, 1981) in that it examines the interplay between class and other forms of domination. Lastly, we see how annual reports may contribute to a general “world view” that aids social appropriation and domination.

Strategy or Structure? Capital, Labour and Control

Abstract: The literature on and for management makes increasing use of notions of strategy. Is such an approach compatible with analyses of capitalism as structurally determined? The first part of the paper ...

The Gold Standard and the Logic of Naturalism: American Literature at the Turn of the Century

Abstract: "The Gold Standard and the Logic of Naturalism" discusses ways of creating value in turn-of-the-century American capitalism. Focusing on such topics as the alienation of property, the invention of masochism, and the battle over free silver, it examines the participation of cultural forms in these phenomena. It imagines a literary history that must at the same time be social, economic, and legal; and it imagines a literature that, to be understood at all, must be understood both as a producer and a product of market capitalism.

The rise of accounting controls in British capitalist enterprises

Abstract: This paper represents an attempt to understand the historical factors which have led to the comparative pre-eminence of accountants in British management hierarchies and the emphasis on financial modes of control within British companies. It is argued firstly that the nature of British capital markets exaggerated the significance of the audit, thus establishing a power-base for the profession from which it was able to sponsor its own preferred modes of internal control and so strengthen its position in management structures. Secondly, the mode of wartime state intervention in this country favoured “external” accounting controls as a means of avoiding more directive forms of industrial mobilisation, in line with the policy of maintaining the operation of laisser-faire capitalism as far as possible. Thirdly the profession has played some part in the successive waves of merger which have occured in British industry and has proposed on the basis of offering financial solutions to the control problems of the resulting large organisations.

The Dead End of Matatheory@@@Powers of Theory: Capitalism, the State, and Democracy.

Abstract: Preface Acknowledgements Introduction: State and society in theoretical perspective 1. Theoretical perspectives as modes of inquiry Part I. The Pluralist Perspective: 2. State and society in pluralist perspective 3. The democratic state and consensus 4. The democratic state and participation 5. The pluralist perspective on the bureaucratic state 6. The pluralist perspective on the capitalist state Part II. The Managerial Perspective: 7. State and society in managerial perspective 8. The bureaucratic state and centralisation 9. The bureaucratic state and fragmentation 10. The managerial perspective on the capitalist state 11. The managerial perspective on the democratic state Part III. The Class Perspective: 12. State and society in class perspective 13. The capitalist state and accumulation 14. The capitalist state and class struggle 15. The class perspective on the democratic state 16. The class perspective on the bureaucratic state Part IV. Theory, Politics, and Contradictions in the State: 17. The powers of theory 18. The power of politics 19. The power of contradictions.

Capitalism and Unfree Labour: Anomaly or Necessity?

Abstract: Robert Miles deals with the historical continuity of forms of unfree labour in parallel with the emergence and reproduction of free, waged labour, offering a theoretical explanation drawing on international data.

Entrepreneurs and Parasites: The Struggle for Indigenous Capitalism in Zaïre

Abstract: Originally published in 1987, this book used data from Kisangani, Upper Zaire and North Kivu to demonstrate the emergence of an indigenous bourgeoisie of local capitalists without political position. These entrepreneurs invested in productive enterprise for the local market, managed and expanded their business in rational capitalist fashion, and were reproducing themselves as a class. The text discusses how the spiralling economic crisis in Zaire resulted in a severe decline in the administrative capacity of the state, but also opened up opportunities for social mobility. Reliance on anthropological methods of intensive fieldwork, personal contacts and collection of case histories created the basis for this study, forming an ethnography of local class formation and struggle.

Gentlemanly capitalism and British expansion overseas II: new imperialism, 1850‐1945

Abstract: T he forces represented by what we have termed gentlemanly capitalism rose to prominence in the late seventeenth century. 1 At their centre stood the powerful landed interest which combined, in the manner of samurai, the prestige of inherited social position with progressive, market-oriented ambitions. Closely associated with the landed elite, and offering it both support and deference, were the "new men" of the emerging service sector, whose innovations in finance, distribution and the professions generated wealth and eventually bestowed social recognition. Important though the manufacturing sector was, it was also less dynamic than is often supposed, and its representatives lacked both prestige and direct access to the "charmed circles" where policy was formulated. In the eighteenth century, England's mission was concerned less with world conquest than with entrenching domestic political order in the aftermath of the Civil War. But political imperatives at home rapidly became linked to economic and military success abroad as the creation of wealth from the burgeoning transactions sector promoted private gain, the fiscal needs of the state, and the defence of the realm. The fusion of these initially disparate elements produced a concept of the national interest which grounded individual liberties in approved property rights and used the apparatus of state to maintain, through the patronage system, the "balance" of the constitution. This "new regime" experienced increasing budgetary and political difficulties, at home and abroad, as the eighteenth century advanced, and after i8I5 reforms were introduced which curtailed "old corruption" at home and used the weapon of free trade to create new opportunities for finance and services abroad. In these ways the gentlemanly elite and its associates sought to adapt to the nineteenth century without relinquishing its inherited social prestige, acquired wealth, or public acceptability. As overseas expansion and imperial acquisition had been used to support these ambitions in the period down to i850, so too they were called into play-on an even larger scale-in the century which followed.

Revising State Theory: Essays in Politics and Postindustrialism

Abstract: Introduction: State Theory in Context Part I 1. Beyond Corporate Liberalism 2. The Ruling Class Does Not Rule: Notes on the Marxist Theory of the State 3. Cooperation and Conflict in the Capitalist World Economy 4. Beyond Relative Autonomy: State Managers as Historical Subjects Part II 5. New Productive Forces and the Contradictions of Contemporary Capitalism: A Postindustrial Perspective (with Larry Hirschhorn) 6. The Myth of Reindustrialization 7. Postindustrial Development and the Obsolescence of Economic Categories 8. Political Choice and the Multiple "Logics" of Capital Notes Index

The Corporation: Growth, Diversification and Mergers

Abstract: This book reviews the theory of the firm and the large modern corporation Examining the process of entrepreneurial capitalism in which firms come into existence, then managerial capitalism and the changing motives of management in corporations - The Corporation is a thorough and thoughtful account Of interest to students and academics in the area

The Ottoman Empire and European Capitalism, 1820-1913: Trade, Investment and Production

Abstract: 1. Introduction 2. Long-term fluctuations in Ottoman foreign trade 1830-1913 3. Ottoman terms of trade against industrialised countries 1854-1913 4. Foreign capital in the Ottoman Empire, 1854-1913 5. Commodity production for world markets and relations of production in agriculture 1840-1913 6. The decline and resistance of Ottoman cotton textiles 1820-1913 7. The Ottoman case in comparative perspective Appendices Notes Bibliography Index.

The Development of Capitalism in Africa

Abstract: 1. Introduction 2. Trade and Primary-Commodity Production Before Independence 3. The Emergence of Wage Labour 4. Trade, Industrialisation and the State of the Post-Colonial Period 5. Conclusion: Wishful Thinking or Effective Reality?

The Culture of Capitalism

Abstract: Peasants - the peasantry in England before the Industrial Revolution - mythical model? population - modes of reproduction violence - peasants and bandits nature - man and the natural world evil - the root of all evil love - love and capitalism revolution - socioeconomic revolution and the origin of the modern world capitalism - the cradle of capitalism - the case of England individualism reconsidered or the craft of the historian. Appendix - the nature of capitalism.

West Germany: The Policy of the Middle Way

Abstract: This article focuses attention on the distinctive characteristics of economic and social policy in West Germany during the last four decades. It will be argued, that the distinctiveness of state intervention in West Germany resides in a combination of policies of conversative-reformist, liberal and social democratic complexion. The policy of the middle way which results from this combination differs from the extreme poles that are marked by the model of Social-Democratic welfare capitalism on the one hand and market capitalism on the other, but it also comprises elements of both types of political economies. The emergence and the maintenance of the policy of the middle way can largely be attributed to distinctive characteristics of the policy process, and of processes of learning from historical catastrophes.

Marxism and the Crisis of Development in Prewar Japan

Abstract: This study is a comprehensive analysis of the Marxist debate in Japan over how capitalism developed in that country.Originally published in 1987.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Rethinking the French Revolution: Marxism and the Revisionist Challenge

Abstract: Historians generally--and Marxists in particular--have presented the revolution of 1789 as a bourgeois revolution: one which marked the ascendance of the bourgeois as a class, the defeat of a feudal aristocracy, and the triumph of capitalism. Recent revisionist accounts, however, have raised convincing arguments against the idea of the bourgeois class revolution, and the model on which it is based. In this provocative study, George Comninel surveys existing interpretations of the French Revolution and the methodological issues these raise for historians. He argues that the weaknesses of Marxist scholarship originate in Marx's own method, which has led historians to fall back on abstract conceptions of the transition from feudalism to capitalism. Comninel reasserts the principles of historical materialism that found their mature expression in Das Kapital; and outlines an interpretation which concludes that, while the revolution unified the nation and centralized the French state, it did not create a capitalist society.

Money as an Institution of Capitalism

Abstract: There is an old saying that everyone knows what money is except economists. When economists rush to their dictionaries, they find references to medium of exchange, unit of account, and measure of value. While there can be no quarrel with these definitions, they do not take us very far toward understanding money in the kind of world in which we actually live. For example, the dictionary does not tell us that the production of goods and services by which we live is a byproduct of the expectation of businessmen to "make money." While one does not expect a dictionary to contain a treatise on money, is it unreasonable to expect lexicographers to do better by economists? We shall be concerned with money as a special form of private property and with the impact of this strategic institution on employment and output in the economy as a whole. What is special about money under capitalism is that the private owners of capital assets may be deterred from making them available to wage earners because of uncertainty concerning the terms on which real output can be converted into money in the future at time of sale. The purchase of raw materials and the utilization of plant and equipment are also determined by business judgments about the realization of prospective money gains. To analyze money as an institution of capitalism presupposes a clear picture of the salient features of the capitalist system. Under capitalism, The author thanks Louisa Gardner Dillardfor helpful suggestions in the preparation of this article.

The Medieval Market Economy

Abstract: This volume comprises ten essays, six of which are published in English for the first time. The author considers the development of medieval capitalism from the vantage point of international merchants and merchant-bankers. He reconsiders the much discussed "Great Depression" of the 14th and 15th centuries, and is particularly concerned with the active and often destabilizing role played by money in the medieval economy at a time when the money supply consisted overwhelmingly of metallic currency. It includes an account of how a money shortage of critical proportions resulted from the decline of mine production and the steady drain of precious metal to the eastern Mediterranean. The book contains numerous tables and charts of mint production, prices and wages, foreign trade and other selected economic indicators for different countries of Europe in the late Middle Ages.

The economic illusion : false choices between prosperity and social justice

Abstract: In The Economic Illusion Robert Kuttner sets out to refute the conventional view that a more egalitarian distribution of income and services is only achievable at the expense of a prosperous and growing capitalism. By carefully examining issues where economic growth and social justice appear to be in conflict-issues such as social security, protectionism, income taxation, and welfare-he convincingly argues that equality and economic prosperity are not mutually exclusive pursuits. As a means to reconcile equality with efficiency-i.e., prosperity-Kuttner argues for economic polices that would deemphasize private markets, for an increase in trade protection, and for an adapted version of the technical approaches of such countries as Sweden, Germany, Austria, and Japan. Kuttner concludes his arguments with the suggestion that injustice is not necessarily an economic issue and that practical social alternatives are possible.