Capitalism

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

Trade and Civilisation in the Indian Ocean

Abstract: Before the age of Industrial Revolution, the great Asian civilisations - whether located in the Middle East, India, South-East Asia, or the Far East - constituted areas not only of high culture but also of advanced economic development. They were the First World of human societies. This 1985 book examines one of the driving forces of that historical period: the long chain of oceanic trade which stretched from the South China Sea to the eastern Mediterranean. It also looks at the natural complement of the seaborne commerce, its counterpart in the caravan trade. Its main achievement is to show how socially determined demand derived from cultural habits and interpretations operated through the medium of market forces and relative prices. It points out the unique and limiting features of Asian commercial capitalism, and shows how the contribution of Asian merchants was valued universally, in reality if not legally and formally. Professor Chaudhuri's book, based on more than twenty years' research and reflection on pre-modern trade and civilisations, was a landmark in the analysis and interpretation of Asia's historical position and development.

The Crisis Of Global Capitalism: Open Society Endangered

Abstract: George Soros applies his experience in the world of finance to explain what is happening in the collapsing global economy. The Russian economy has collapsed leading to inflation and economic hardship; scores of Japanese banks are in ruin; the once-booming economies of Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia have imploded; and even in Europe and America, the markets lurch violently, wiping out gains each week. Soros dissects the crisis and economic theory, revealing how theoretical assumptions have combined with human behaviour to lead to today's calamities. He shows how unquestioning faith in market forces causes blindness to crucial instabilites, and how those instabilities have chain-reacted to cause the economic crisis which, he argues, still has the potential to get much worse. Soros offers solutions to this global meltdown.

Real freedom for all

Abstract: Capitalist societies are full of unacceptable inequalities. Freedom is of paramount importance. These two convictions, widely shared around the world, seem to be in direct contradiction with each other. Fighting inequality jeopardizes freedom, and taking freedom seriously boosts inequality. Can this conflict be resolved? In this ground-breaking book, Philippe Van Parijs sets a new and compelling case for a just society. Assessing and rejecting the claims of both socialism and conventional capitalism, he presents a clear and compelling alternative vision of the just society: a capitalist society offering a substantial and unconditional basic income to all its members. Not just an exercise in political theory, this book reveals a new ideal of a free society and its meaning in the real world by drawing out its policy implications. It is essential reading for anyone concerned about the just society and the welfare state as we move into the twenty-first century.

The Sociology of Financial Markets

Abstract: Introduction SECTION I: INSIDE FINANCIAL MARKETS 1. The Embeddedness of Electronic Markets: The Case of Global Capital Markets 2. How Are Global Markets Global? The Architecture of a Flow World 3. How a Super-Portfolio Emerges: Long Term Capital Management and the Sociology of Arbitrage 4. How to Recognize Opportunities: Heterarchical Search in a Trading Room 5. Emotions on the Trading Floor: Social and Symbolic Expressions 6. Women in Financial Services: Fiction and More Fiction SECTION II: THE AGE OF THE INVESTOR 7. The Investor as a Cultural Figure of Global Capitalism 8. The Values and Beliefs of European Investors 9. Conflicts of Interest in the US Brokerage Industry SECTION III: FINANCE AND GOVERNANCE 10. Interpretive Politics at the Federal Reserve 11. The Return of Bureaucracy: Managing Dispersed Knowledge in Global Finance 12. Enterprise Risk Management and the Organization of Uncertainty in Financial Institutions 13. Managing Investors: How Financial Markets Reshaped the American Firm 14. Nothing But Net? Networks and Status in Corporate Governance

Capitalism, Democracy, and Welfare

Abstract: This book, first published in 2005, builds on institutionalist theory in both economics and political science to offer a general political economy framework for the study of welfare capitalism. Based on the key idea that social protection in a modern economy, both inside and outside the state, can be understood as protection of specific investments in human capital, the book offers a systematic explanation of popular preferences for redistributive spending, the economic role of political parties and electoral systems, and labor market stratification (including gender inequality). Contrary to the popular idea that competition in the global economy undermines international differences in the level of social protection, the book argues that these differences are made possible by a high international division of labor. Such a division is what allows firms to specialize in production that requires an abundant supply of workers with specific skills, and hence high demand for protection.