Capitalism

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

Building Capitalism: The Transformation of the Former Soviet Bloc

Abstract: Building Capitalism: The Transformation of the Former Soviet Bloc, Anders Aslund. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002. 508 pp. $27.00 paperback.Since the collapse of the Soviet empire in 1989, the world has witnessed the simultaneous development of new political-economic systems on an unprecedented scale. More than twenty nations emerged from the strictures of communism in the last decade, creating a virtual laboratory of social reconstruction as their governments launched market-oriented systemic reforms. Anders Aslund, in his latest book, Building Capitalism, applies his extensive experience, historical insight, and thorough scholarship to a comparison of the choices and outcomes across the East European-Eurasian region through the first decade of reform. He argues that rapid reform strategies have produced the best results, while gradual reform has been co-opted by rent-seeking elites, leaving those countries stalled economically and politically.Aslund covers twenty-one countries in Building Capitalism: the fifteen former Soviet republics and six countries of Eastern Europe (excluding the former Yugoslavia and Albania). If his scope is broad, it is also deep, comparing the countries on output, liberalization, stabilization, privatization, social welfare, state intervention, and political participation. This comprehensive structure allows broad groupings to emerge, despite the great variation in experiences. Aslund suggests that three basic reform models are evident: the radical reformers (Central Europe, the Baltic nations, Georgia, Armenia, and Kyrgystan), which have created democratic, privatized, market-oriented systems; the gradual reformers (Bulgaria, Romania, Russia, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan), which are stalled in semidemocratic, semiprivatized, rent-seeking societies; and the non- reformers (Belarus, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan), which have restored state- controlled economies under dictatorial rule. He finds that both growth and social welfare are highest in the radical reform countries, while the gradual reformers have fared worse even than the non-reformers, exhibiting the slowest growth and highest inequality.The greatest strengths of this book lie in its complexity. Aslund weaves an intricate tapestry of data and interpretation, economics and politics, history and current events. In his zeal to "debunk the myths" of transformation, however, he too often deflects attention from this complexity with sweeping, dramatic conclusions or polemical arguments. Rather than a capstone to the debate over which transformation strategy is "better," Aslund's book is best viewed as a valuable catalyst for continuing scholarship in the field given its impressive compilation of comparative data and valuable insights on methodological problems.Building Capitalism stands out for its blend of quantitative and qualitative analysis. Whereas students of the Soviet bloc once suffered from the total absence of meaningful statistics, scholars now face the opposite problem: a flood of data that must be examined carefully for validity and comparability. Aslund bolsters his narrative with relevant measurements on countless topics but clearly explains their strengths and weaknesses. As he cautions, critical analysis of official statistics can be "treacherous," yet it is vital for developing a clearer picture of what has occurred during the transition-not only for scholars, but especially for policy-makers. Some leaders, he argues, overestimated the scope of economic crisis because of poor statistics and became reluctant to implement radical reforms. …

Offspring of Empire: The Koch'ang Kims and the Colonial Origins of Korean Capitalism, 1876-1945

Abstract: PrefacePART 1: THE RISE OF KOREAN CAPITALISMMerchants and Landlords: The Accumulation of Capital, 1876-1919An Industrial Bourgeoisie: Transition and Emergence, 1919-45PART 2: THE PATTERNS OF GROWTHClass and State: The Financial NexusClass and State: Partners in ManagementBetween Metropole and Hinterland: The Acquisition of Raw Materials and TechnologyBetween Metropole and Hinterland: The Quest for MarketsPART 3: CLASS AND SOCIETY"Without Any Trouble": Capitalist Views & Treatment of the Working ClassClass over Nation: Naisen Ittai and the Korean BourgeoisieConclusion: The Colonial LegacyAppendix 1: Protectorate and Colonial Administrations, 1905-45Appendix 2: "Dying for a Righteous Cause: The Responsibility of Imperial Citizens in Great"NotesGuide to RomanizationBibliographyIndex

Capitalism: Competition, Conflict, Crises

Abstract: Neoclassical economical theory uses aspects of perfect functioning of markets as part of its basic assumptions and introduces imperfections as analysis proceeds forward. Many types of heterodox economics insist on dealing with imperfect competition but project backwards to a previous perfect state. In Capitalism, Anwar Shaikh demonstrates that most of the central propositions of economic analysis can be derived without any reference to hyperrationality, optimization, perfect competition, perfect information, representative agents or so-called rational expectations. These include the laws of demand and supply, the determination of wage and profit rates, technological change, relative prices, interest rates, bond and equity prices, exchange rates, terms and balance of trade, growth, unemployment, inflation, and long booms culminating in recurrent general crises. In every case, Shaikh's theory is applied to modern empirical patterns and contrasted with neoclassical, Keynesian, and Post Keynesian approaches to the same issues. The object of analysis is the economics of capitalism, and economic thought on the subject is addressed in that light. This is how the classical economists, as well as Keynes and Kalecki, approached the issue. Anyone interested in capitalism and economics in general can gain a wealth of knowledge from this ground-breaking text. Available in OSO:

The "Production" of Child Care: How Labor Markets Shape Social Policy and Vice Versa

Abstract: This article examines child care policies in three countries-France, Sweden, and the United States-to explore the links between labor markets and social policy and to probe the applicability of the “varieties of capitalism” literature to the human services. Countries differ in the extent to which they subsidize early childhood care and education programs, reflecting, in part, the nature of the child care workforce. In liberal market economies such as the United States, a low-skill, low-wage workforce has enabled a private market of child care to develop, letting federal and state governments off the hook from having to subsidize these programs. In the more coordinated market economies of Western Europe, by contrast, higher labor market regulations, wages, and rates of unionization raise the cost of labor and impede the growth of a private child care market. As a result, governments aiming to promote women’s employment or assure the education of young children will feel pressed to provide extensive public subsidies for these services. While these differences reflect long-standing variations in labor market skill regimes, strong public sector unions also shape diverging trajectories in the “production” of child care services.