Capitalism

About: Capitalism is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 27714 publications have been published within this topic receiving 858042 citations.

Globalization: A Critical Introduction, 2nd edn

Abstract: Laval. He has contributed more than 100 articles and entries in a dozen encyclopaedias and reference books published in the US, including Men and Masculinities: A Social, Cultural, and Historical Encyclopedia (ABC-Clio, 2004), edited by Michael S. Kimmel and Amy Aronson. He was on the advisory board for the Encyclopedia of the Blues (Routledge, 2005). Address: Departement de sociologie, Bureau 3469, Université Laval Quebec City, Canada G1K 7P4. [email: yves.laberge@lit.ulaval.ca]

The Great Persuasion: Reinventing Free Markets since the Depression

Abstract: Just as today’s observers struggle to justify the workings of the free market in the wake of a global economic crisis, an earlier generation of economists revisited their worldviews following the Great Depression. The Great Persuasion is an intellectual history of that project. Angus Burgin traces the evolution of postwar economic thought in order to reconsider many of the most basic assumptions of our market-centered world. Conservatives often point to Friedrich Hayek as the most influential defender of the free market. By examining the work of such organizations as the Mont Pelerin Society, an international association founded by Hayek in 1947 and later led by Milton Friedman, Burgin reveals that Hayek and his colleagues were deeply conflicted about many of the enduring problems of capitalism. Far from adopting an uncompromising stance against the interventionist state, they developed a social philosophy that admitted significant constraints on the market. Postwar conservative thought was more dynamic and cosmopolitan than has previously been understood. It was only in the 1960s and ’70s that Friedman and his contemporaries developed a more strident defense of the unfettered market. Their arguments provided a rhetorical foundation for the resurgent conservatism of Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan and inspired much of the political and economic agenda of the United States in the ensuing decades. Burgin’s brilliant inquiry uncovers both the origins of the contemporary enthusiasm for the free market and the moral quandaries it has left behind.

The Rise and Fall of Neoliberal Capitalism

Abstract: The financial and economic collapse that began in the United States in 2008 and spread to the rest of the world continues to burden the global economy. David Kotz, who was one of the few academic economists to predict it, argues that the ongoing economic crisis is not simply the aftermath of financial panic and an unusually severe recession but instead is a structural crisis of neoliberal, or free-market, capitalism. Consequently, continuing stagnation cannot be resolved by policy measures alone. It requires major institutional restructuring. Kotz analyzes the reasons for the rise of free-market ideas, policies, and institutions beginning around 1980. He shows how the neoliberal capitalism that resulted was able to produce a series of long although tepid economic expansions, punctuated by relatively brief recessions, as well as a low rate of inflation. This created the impression of a "Great Moderation." However, the very same factors that promoted long expansions and low inflation-growing inequality, an increasingly risk-seeking financial sector, and a series of large asset bubbles-were not only objectionable in themselves but also put the economy on an unsustainable trajectory. Kotz interprets the current push for austerity as an attempt to deepen and preserve neoliberal capitalism. However, both economic theory and history suggest that neither austerity measures nor other policy adjustments can bring another period of stable economic expansion. Kotz considers several possible directions of economic restructuring, concluding that significant economic change is likely in the years ahead.

Emerging Inequalities in Central and Eastern Europe

Abstract: Market transitions are thought to inevitably produce spiraling inequality on the road to economic growth. This review provides an overview of research evaluating inequality in income and wages in Central and Eastern Europe since 1989. The empirical studies agree that inequality has increased, but disagree about the amount, pace, source, and explanation of change. Patterns of inequality are unrelated to economic performance, to the pace or timing of reform, or to rates of subsequent growth. Inequality increased the most in the least successful countries and the least in those countries with historic cultural connections to the West. Inequalities by age, education, region of the country, and health status increased; differences by gender appear to have declined. Although data are plentiful and promising, it is not yet possible to conclude that patterns of inequality among postcommunist countries are due to the genesis of capitalism, to social and cultural assimilation to the West, to adaptations of redistri...

Democracy, property rights and economic growth

Abstract: What does the global surge in democracy and capitalism portend for economic growth? The shift toward popular government is predicted by some to accelerate growth, by others to retard it Often left out of the equation is property rights as a factor distinct from democratic rule Using recent data on 59 less developed and transitional countries, this article explores the relationship among institutional factors and growth in the 1980s and early 1990s Democratic freedoms and property rights are associated with the dependent variable, suggesting that national income in poor countries stands to gain from recent efforts to implant these institutions