Capitalism

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

Capitalism and social democracy

Abstract: This is a study of the choices faced by socialist movements as they developed within capitalist societies. Professor Przeworski examines the three principal choices confronted by socialism: whether to work through elections; whether to rely exclusively on the working class; and whether to try to reform or abolish capitalism. He brings to his analysis a number of abstract models of political and economic structure, and illustrates the issues in the context of historical events, tracing the development of socialist strategies since the mid-nineteenth century. Several of the conclusions are novel and provocative. Professor Przeworski argues that economic issues cannot justify a socialist programme, and that the workers had good reasons to struggle for the improvement of capitalism. Therefore, the project of a socialist transformation, and the fight for economic advancement, were separate historical phenomena.

The Postcolonial Aura: Third World Criticism In The Age Of Global Capitalism

Abstract: Postcoloniality and the perspective of history culturalism as hegemonic ideology and liberating practice the postcolonial aura - Third World criticism in the age of global capitalism the global in the local Chinese history and the question of orientalism there is more in the Rim than meets the eye - some thoughts on the Pacific idea three worlds or one, or many? - the reconfiguration of global relations under contemporary capitalism postcolonial or postrevolutionary? - the problem of history in postcolonial criticism the postmodernization of production and its organization - flexible production, work and culture the past as legacy and project - postcolonial criticism in the perspective of indigenous historicism

Religion and the Rise of Capitalism

Abstract: In one of the truly great classics of twentieth-century political economy, R H Tawney addresses the question of how religion has affected social and economic practices He does this by a relentless tracking of the influence of religious thought on capitalist economy and ideology since the Middle Ages In so doing he sheds light on why Christianity continues to exert a unique role in the marketplace In so doing, the book offers an incisive analysis of the historical background of present morals and mores in Western culture Religion and the Rise of Capitalism is even more pertinent now than when it first was published; for today it is clearer that the dividing line between spheres of religion and secular business is shifting, that economic interests and ethical considerations are no longer safely locked in separate compartments By examining that period which saw the transition from medieval to modern theories of social organization, Tawney clarifies the most pressing problems of the end of the century In tough, muscular, richly varied prose, he tells an absorbing and meaningful story And in his new introduction, which may well be a classic in its own right, Adam Seligman details Tawney's entire background, the current status of social science thought on these large issues, and a comparative analysis of Tawney with Max Weber that will at once delight and inform readers of all kinds"

Alliance capitalism : the social organization of Japanese business

Abstract: Business practices in Japan inspire fierce and even acrimonious debate, especially when they are compared to American practices. This book attempts to explain the remarkable economic success of Japan in the post-war period - a success it is useful to understand in a time marked by controversial trade imbalances and concerns over competitive industrial performance. Gerlach focuses on what he calls the intercorporate alliance, the innovative and increasingly pervasive practice of bringing together a cluster of affiliated companies that extends across a broad range of markets. The best known of these alliances are the "keiretsu", or enterprise groups, which include both diversified families of firms located around major banks and trading companies and vertical families of suppliers and distributors linked to prominent manufacturers in the automobile, electronics and other industries. In providing a key link between isolated local firms and extended international markets, the intercorporate alliance has had profound effects on the industrial and social organization of Japanese businesses. Gerlach casts his net widely. He not only provides a rigorous analysis of intercorporate capitalism in Japan, making useful distinctions between Japanese and American practices, but he also develops a broad theoretical context for understanding Japan's business networks. Addressing economists, sociologists and other social scientists, he argues that the intercorporate alliance is as much a result of overlapping political, economic and social forces as traditional Western economic institutions such as the public corporation and the stock market. Most compellingly, "Alliance Capitalism" raises important questions about the best method of exchange in any economy. It identifies situations where cooperation among companies is an effective way of channelling corporate activities in a world marked by complexity and rapid change, and considers in detail alternatives to hostile takeovers and other characteristic features of American capitalism. The book also points to the broader challenges facing Japan and its trading partners as they seek to coordinate their distinctive forms of economic organization.

The socio-spatial dialectic

Abstract: An increasingly rigidifying orthodoxy has begun to emerge within Marxist spatial analysis that threatens to choke off the development of a critical theory of space in its infancy. The concept of a socio-spatial dialectic is introduced as a means of reopening the debate and calling for the explicit incorporation of the social production of space in Marxist analysis as something more than an epiphenomenon. Building upon the works of Henri Lefebvre, Ernest Mandel, and others, a general spatial problematic is identified and discussed within the context of both urban and regional political economy. The spatial problematic is not a substitute for class analysis but it can be an integral and increasingly salient element in class consciousness and class struggle within contemporary capitalism. Space is not a scientific object removed from ideology and politics; it has always been political and strategic. If space has an air of neutrality and indifference with regard to its contents and thus seems to be “...