Showing papers on "Capitalism published in 1988"

The Renaissance of Political Culture

Abstract: The publics of different societies are characterized by durable cultural orientations that have major political and economic consequences. Throughout the period from 1973 to 1987, given nationalities consistently showed relative high or low levels of a “civic culture”—a coherent syndrome of personal life satisfaction, political satisfaction, interpersonal trust and support for the existing social order. Those societies that rank high on this syndrome are much likelier to be stable democracies than those that rank low. Economic development and cultural change are linked in a complex pattern of reciprocal influence. Originally, Protestantism may have facilitated the rise of capitalism, leading to economic development, which in turn favored the emergence of the civic culture. But in those countries that attained high levels of prosperity, there eventually emerged postmaterialist values that tended to neutralize the emphasis on economic accumulation that earlier characterized Protestant societies.

Capitalism, nature, socialism a theoretical introduction∗

Abstract: Summary This article expounds the traditional Marxist theory of the contradiction between forces and relations of production, over‐production of capital and economic crisis, and the process of crisis‐induced restructuring of productive forces and production relations into more transparently social, hence potentially socialist, forms. This exposition provides a point of departure for an “ecological Marxist”; theory of the contradiction between capitalist production relations and forces and the conditions of production, under‐production of capital and economic crisis, and the process of crisis‐induced restructuring of production conditions and the social relations thereof also into more transparently social, hence potentially socialist, forms. In short, there may be not one but two paths to socialism in late capitalist society. While the two processes of capital over‐production and underproduction are by no means mutually exclusive, they may offset or compensate for one another in ways which create the appe...

Structural Dependence of the State on Capital

Abstract: A central claim of both Marxist and neoclassical political theory is that under capitalism all governments must respect and protect the essential claims of those who own the productive wealth of society. This is the theory of “structural dependence of the state on capital.” Using a formal model, the internal logic and the robustness of the theory is examined. We conclude that in a static sense the theory is false: virtually any distribution of consumption between wage earners and owners of capital is compatible with continual private investment once an appropriate set of taxes and transfers is in place. Yet the state may be structurally dependent in a dynamic sense. Policies that, once in place, redistribute income without reducing investment do reduce investment during the period in which they are anticipated but not yet implemented.

The agrarian question

Abstract: Lenin described The Agrarian Question as the first systematic Marxist study of capitalism and agriculture and the most important event in economic literature since the third volume of Capital. This great work is regarded as Kautsky's main achievement and is a classic work of analysis. Kautsky's pariah status in the eyes of revolutionary Marxists resulted in many years of neglect, but his role and work are now commanding great attention. The analysis of the transformation of peasant economies by capital in The Agrarian Question is now seen as particularly relevant to contemporary Third World peasant economies. This remarkable translation, which brings out the humanity - and the humour - in Kautksy's writing, is more than a work of economic analysis: in a manner ahead of his time, Kautsky integrates questions of political strategy, ecology, sexuality and the family. The illuminating reassessment of The Agrarian Question in the introduction by Professor Teodor Shanin and Hamza Alavi examines in detail the political context, Kautsky's own life, the development of Kautsky's ideas within the work, and its contribution to our understanding of the world today. This timely re-evaluation of Kautsky's significance is long overdue.

Disorganized Capitalism: Contemporary Transformations of Work and Politics

Abstract: Should the Western democracies, contrary to their prevailing self-image as \"planned\" and \"managed,\" be seen as highly disorganized systems of social power and political authority? If so, what are the symptoms, consequences of, and possible remedies for these disorganizing tendencies?In these ten essays, Claus Offe seeks to answer such questions. Moving beyond the boundaries of both Marxism and established forms of political sociology, he focuses on the growth of serious divisions within the work force (and between the employed and unemployed), the importance of the \"informal\" sector, the severe difficulties faced by trade unions in coping with the present economic crisis, the vulnerability of neocorporatist mechanisms, and the failures of state policymaking based on either majority rule or bureaucratic administration.In examining these and other fundamental problems of advanced capitalist democracies, Offe also contests some widely held assumptions of contemporary social science. He calls into question the neutrality of liberal democratic mechanisms of participation and representation, the centrality of the category of work and the division between labor and capital, and the feasibility and desirability of full employment.Claus Offe is the author of numerous books and essays, including Contradictions of the Welfare State (MIT Press paperback). He is currently Professor of Political Science and Sociology in the Faculty of Sociology, University of Bielefeld, West Germany. John Keane is Senior Lecturer in Political Theory and Sociology at the Polytechnic of Central London. Disorganized Capitalism is included in the series, Studies in Contemporary German Social Thought, edited by Thomas McCarthy.

Economic and philosophic manuscripts of 1844 . Communist manifesto

Abstract: Communism as a political movement attained global importance after the Bolsheviks toppled the Russian Czar in 1917. After that time the works of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, especially the influential "Communist Manifesto (1848)", enjoyed an international audience. The world was to learn a new political vocabulary peppered with 'socialism', 'capitalism', 'the working class', 'the bourgeoisie', 'labor theory of value', 'alienation', 'economic determinism', 'dialectical materialism', and 'historical materialism'. Marx's economic analysis of history has been a powerful legacy, the effects of which continue to be felt world-wide. Serving as the foundation for Marx's indictment of capitalism is his extraordinary work titled "Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts", written in 1844 but published nearly a century later. Here Marx offers his theory of human nature and an analysis of emerging capitalism's degenerative impact on man's sense of self and his creative potential. What is man's true nature? How did capitalism gain such a foothold on Western society? What is alienation and how does it threaten to undermine the proletariat? These and other vital questions are addressed as the youthful Marx sets forth his first detailed assessment of the human condition.

Socialist Entrepreneurs: Embourgeoisement in Rural Hungary

Abstract: Among the East European nations, Hungary has been noted in recent years for permitting, even encouraging, family entrepreneurship in agriculture. In this highly empirical study, Ivan Szelenyi and his collaborators explore this phenomenon, affording a rare view of the reemergence of private sector activity in a socialist society, and offering new insights into the very origins of capitalism. In the years since the government relaxed its policy of forced collectivization, approximately ten percent of rural Hungarian families have taken up entrepreneurial opportunities in agriculture. Why they have chosen this course and why ninety percent of family have chosen to remain in proletarian or cadre positions are central questions in Szelenyi s inquiry. The theory advocated here is one of interrupted embourgeoisement. Those people who, during the years of Stalinism, found occupations in which they could successfully resist the dual pressures of proletarianization and cadrefication are the ones now able to reenter the interrupted embourgeoisement trajectory. As a result, the communist revolution from above has been challenged by a somewhat unexpected revolution from below, in the process producing a socialist mixed economic system that seems to be as different from Soviet style communism as it is from Western capitalism. This is a very, very important work, combining rich primary research by Szelenyi and four colleagues with a major step toward a theory of articulation of a state socialist mixed economy. . . . Using surveys from 1972-73 and 1982-84, the authors traced life histories to identify variables that showed why families responded differently to proletarianization, formation of a new working class, or embourgeoisement. World Development"

States, War, and Capitalism: Studies in Political Sociology

Abstract: 1. The Autonomous Power of the State: Its Origins, Mechanisms and Results 2. States, Ancient and Modern 3. State and Society, 1180-1815: An Analysis of English State Finances 4. Capitalism and Militarism 5. War and Social Theory: Into Battle with Classes, Nations and States 6. The Roots and Contradictions of Modern Militarism 7. Ruling Class Strategies and Citizenship 8. The Decline of Great Britain.

A Theory of Socialism and Capitalism

Abstract: Acknowledgements Three institutions assisted me while I wrote this treatise. As a Heisenberg Scholar I enjoyed the most generous financial support from the German Science Foundation (DFG) from 1982 through 1986. The present study is the most recent work I completed during this period. Additional support came from the Johns Hopkins University Bologna Center for Advanced International Studies, where I spent the academic year 1984-1985 as a Visiting Professor. The lectures delivered there provided the core of what is presented here. Finally, during the academic year 1985/86, when my research took on its present form and which I spent in New York City, I received the most unbureaucratic and cordial help from the Center for Libertarian Studies. My deepest gratitude is to my teacher and friend Murray N. Rothbard. To his scholarly and personal example I owe more than I can properly express. He read an earlier draft of the study and provided me with invaluable comments. Innumerous discussions with him were a never ending source of inspiration and his enthusiasm was a constant encouragement.

African Capitalism: The Struggle for Ascendency

Abstract: 1. Themes and perspectives 2. Economic development during the colonial period 3. Colonial rule and African enterprise 4. Government, politics and African capitalism since independence 5. Class formation and state power 6. African business and foreign capital: the contemporary situation 7. The cultural and economic climate 8. Entrepreneurial endeavour, business success and social origins 9. What prospects for African capitalism? Notes Index.

The Recent Work of Jürgen Habermas: Reason, Justice and Modernity

Abstract: Acknowledgements List of abbreviations Introduction 1. Rationality, social theory and political philosophy 2. Action, rationality and normative discourse 3. Justice and the foundations of communicative ethics 4. Toward a minimal ethics and orientation for political theory 5. Communicative reason, modernity and contemporary capitalism 6. The two tasks of critical theory Notes Bibliography Index.

Humanistic Economics: The New Challenge

Abstract: Economics has long been imprisoned by a one-dimensional view of the person and the narrow assumption of self-interest that this entails. Humanistic Economics breaks out of this paradigm by proposing an alternative framework that is no longer incompatible with actions undertaken for the sake of deeply held values, compelling reasons, and higher interests. The new theoretical foundation makes it possible to discuss in a new light questions of social institutions, such as the relationship between government and the market, as well as social policy goals like full employment, industrial democracy, and balanced international trade. Equipped with this basic insight, the authors proceed to century-old ideologies of individualist capitalism and scientific socialism.

Inequality and labor processes.

Abstract: The authors argue that inequalities associated with labor result from bargaining and conflict among workers capitalists households organizations and governments over the ranking of positions and the sorting of individuals and groups into those ranked positions in the 3 areas of employment categories jobs and labor markets. This conflict is carried out within the limits of the contenders interpersonal networks and the resources found within those networks which are in turn profoundly influenced by such demographic matters as population age structure and flows of immigration and such macroeconomic conditions as the level of aggregate demand the composition of demand for particular products the looseness or tightness of the labor market and the dispensability of particular types of labor. The authors veer away from the quest for One Big Equation specifying relations between labor processes and inequality toward a series of simultaneous contingent relationships. They point to complex relationships surrounding bargaining resources and the means of collective action. The links that they draw between their arguments and some of the most vital current traditions in sociology and history hold the promise that the study of inequality and labor processes will break out of its isolation from other sociological problems and be seen as a special case of questions to be asked in many other contexts.

Creating Capitalism: The State and Small Business Since 1945

Abstract: Part I Forms of Capitalism and the State: The Italian Case, 1945-1975 The Problem - Its Contours and Explanations The Petite Bourgeoisie on Trial Patterns of State Support I - Bountiful but Bounded Patterns of State Support II - Beyond Employment The Social Project The Internal Challenge. Part II The Creative State in Retrospect and Prospect Giantism and Geopolitics Re-creating Micro Capitalism. Appendices.

British Capitalism and Caribbean Slavery : The Legacy of Eric Williams

Abstract: Preface 1. British capitalism and Caribbean slavery: the legacy of Eric Williams: an introduction Barbara L. Solow and Stanley L. Engerman Part I. Slavery as an Economic Phenomenon: 2. Race and slavery: considerations on the Williams Thesis William A. Green Part II. Caribbean Slavery and the Industrial Revolution: 3. Capitalism and slavery in the exceedingly long run Barbara L. Solow 4. Slavery and the development of industrial capitalism in England Joseph E. Inikori 5. The slave trade, sugar, and British economic growth, 1748-1776 David Richardson Part III. The Decline of the British West Indies: 6. The American Revolution and the British West Indies' economy Selwyn H. H. Carrington 7. 'Dreadful Idlers' in the cane fields: the slave labor pattern on a Jamaican sugar estate, 1762-1831 Richard S. Dunn Part IV. The Basis of Abolition and Emancipation: 8. Paradigms tossed: capitalism and the political sources of abolition Seymour Drescher 9. Capitalism, abolitionism, and hegemony David Brion Davis 10. Eric Williams and abolition: the birth of a new orthodoxy Howard Temperley 11. What and who to whom and what: the significance of slave resistance Michael Craton Part V. Capitalism and Slavery in Historical Perspective: 12. Capitalism and slavery on the Islands: a lesson from the mainland Gavin Wright 13. 'The Williams Effect': Eric Williams's Capitalism and Slavery and the growth of West Indian political economy Hilary McD. Beckles 14. Eric Williams and Capitalism and Slavery: a biographical and historiographical essay Richard B. Sheridan.

On Work: Historical, Comparative and Theoretical Approaches

Abstract: Acknowledgements Preface Introduction: Work in Context Part I Ways of Working in Former Times Editor's Introduction: Historical Aspects of Work, Employment, Unemployment and the Sexual Division of Labour 1. The Familiar Fate of the Famulae: Gender Divisions in the History of Wage Labour CHRIS MIDDLETON 2. Ways of Getting a Living in 18th Century England R. W. MALCOLMSON 3. Women's Work, Mechanization and the Early Phases of Industrialization in England MAXINE BERG 4. Protective Legislation, the Capitalist State and Working-Class Men: The Case of the 1842 Mines Regulation Act JANE HUMPHRIES 5. Work, Culture and Society in Industrializing America 1815-1919 HERBERT G. GUTMAN 6. From Work to Employment and Unemployment: The English Experience KRISHAN KUMAR Part II Employers' Strategies and Workers' Strategies Editor's Introduction 7. Taylorism, Responsible Autonomy and Management Strategy STEPHEN WOOD and JOHN KELLY 8. Thirty Years of Making Out MICHAEL BURAWOY 9. Piece Rates, Hungarian Style MICHAEL BURAWOY 10. Managerial Strategies, New Technology and the Labour Process J. CHILD 11. The Decentralisation of Production - the Decline of the Mass-Collective Worker? FERGUS MURRAY 12. Labour Market Segmentation and Workers' Careers: the Case of the Italian Knitwear Industry GIOVANNI SOLINAS 13. Worker Behaviour in the Labour Market GABOR KARTESI and GYJORGY SZIRACZKI 14. Rethinking Internal Labour Markets: New Insights from a Comparative Perspective DAVID STARK Part III Most of the World's Work: Ideas, Concepts, Problems Editor's Introduction 15. Accumulation, Reproduction and Women's Role in Economic Development: Boserup Revisited LOURDES BENERIA and GITA SEN 16. Conceptualizing the Labour Force: The Underestimation of Women's Economic Activities LOURDES BENERIA 17. Domestic Labour and the Household MAUREEN M. MACKINSTOSH 18. Women as Food Producers and Suppliers in the Twentieth Century: the Case of Zambia SHIMWAAYI MUNTEMBA 19. Gender, Accumulation and the Labour Process NANNEKE REDCLIFT 20. Female Workers in the First and Third Worlds: the Greening of Women's Labour RUTH PEARSON Part IV Forms of Work and Sources of Labour Editor's Introduction 21. No Exit for Wives: Sexual Divisions of Labour and the Cumulation of Household Demands in Canada MARTIN MEISSNER, ELIZABETH W HUMPHREYS, SCOTT M. MEIS and WILLIAM J. SCHEU 22. Who Cares? A Review of Empirical Evidence from Britain GILLIAN PARKER 23. Household Composition, Social Networks and Household Production in Germany WOLFGAN GLATZER and REGINA BERGER 24. Reciprocal Exchange of Labour in Hungary ENDRE SIK 25. Work and Informal Activities in Urban Southern Italy ENZO MINGIONE 26. Time, Technology and the Informal Economy JONATHAN GERSHUNY Part V Disaggregated Capitalism: New World Factories, New Technologies, New Strategies and New Contradictions Editor's Introduction Homeworking in Britain. CATHERINE HAK.

Competition for Economic Development among Southeastern Cities

Abstract: Economic development, in its most general sense, is a process through which a community's material and social well-being is increased. For American cities, the interaction of federalism and capitalism makes the pursuit of economic development a competitive process. This study assesses the nature and extent of interjurisdictional competition for economic development by surveying 84 public- and private-sector actors in 31 Southeastern cities. The findings indicate that the competition ethos is pervasive, with cities establishing aggressive economic development programs to compete with larger, economically diverse jurisdictions.

No Paradise For Workers : Capitalism and the Common People in Australia, 1788-1914

Abstract: Written for a popular audience, this is the first radical history of capitalism in Australia. It analyses the social and political relations of that economic system imposed on the original Australians by British imperialism 200 years ago. It traces its evolution from colonial prison to a neo-colony of international finance capital, caught in the vortex between the two contemporary empires of the Pacific, the USA and Japan. The first of two volumes deals with the formation of the system from its beginnings as a prison farm to the consolidation of pastoral capitalism, and the emergence of an organized working class and incipient manufacturing industry to 1914. Hence it covers such topics as the expropriation of the original Australians; the genesis of capitalism as a police state based on forced labour; the origins of the colonial ruling class of pastoralists and merchant capitalists; the rise of the bourgeoisie, the making of the working class; struggles between and within social classes; nationalism and federation by the men of property; populism, racism, monopolies, imperialism, and war. Economic historians; students of Australian history.

Concentration, competition and distribution - a critique of theories of monopoly capital

Abstract: The paper argues that: 1. Contrary to the claims of the theory of monopoly capital, the level of competition has had a tendency to increase under capitalism due to the lowering of the costs of transport and communications, the development and dispersion of the techniques of business calculation and the increase in the quantity and the quality of business information. 2. The theory of monopoly capital is based on a questionable causal interpretation of a static equilibrium relation. 3. The empirical evidence of declining profitability cannot be explained by an increased degree of monopoly.