Phillippe Aghion and Abhijit Banerjee
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- January 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199248612
- eISBN:
- 9780191714719
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199248612.003.0001
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Development, Growth, and Environmental
This introductory chapter begins with a brief discussion of the authors’ dissatisfaction with other economists’ positions regarding the instability of capitalist economies. The development of a model ...
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This introductory chapter begins with a brief discussion of the authors’ dissatisfaction with other economists’ positions regarding the instability of capitalist economies. The development of a model of the aggregate economy is described. An overview of the chapters included in this volume is presented.Less
This introductory chapter begins with a brief discussion of the authors’ dissatisfaction with other economists’ positions regarding the instability of capitalist economies. The development of a model of the aggregate economy is described. An overview of the chapters included in this volume is presented.
Lizabeth Cohen
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- July 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195392135
- eISBN:
- 9780199852543
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195392135.003.0012
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
Looking at the rising economic inequality of the last quarter century and how it undermines Americans' confidence that their democratic capitalist system remains sufficient in distributing political ...
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Looking at the rising economic inequality of the last quarter century and how it undermines Americans' confidence that their democratic capitalist system remains sufficient in distributing political and economic benefits to its citizens, the chapter begins by explaining the complex connections between the state and inequality through time. It argues that a better understanding can be attained only if the issue is historically contextualized and considered as part of the long evolution of the American state. Thus, in this chapter, a schema of five regimes of state building and their consequences for the shifting nature of inequality in American society is presented.Less
Looking at the rising economic inequality of the last quarter century and how it undermines Americans' confidence that their democratic capitalist system remains sufficient in distributing political and economic benefits to its citizens, the chapter begins by explaining the complex connections between the state and inequality through time. It argues that a better understanding can be attained only if the issue is historically contextualized and considered as part of the long evolution of the American state. Thus, in this chapter, a schema of five regimes of state building and their consequences for the shifting nature of inequality in American society is presented.
Nicholas Garnham
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198742258
- eISBN:
- 9780191695001
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198742258.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
This book approaches the problems raised by the media via a set of arguments with post-modernism and Information Society theory. It argues that the media are important because they raise a set of ...
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This book approaches the problems raised by the media via a set of arguments with post-modernism and Information Society theory. It argues that the media are important because they raise a set of questions central to social and political theory. It focuses on the problem raised by what Kant called the unsocial sociability of human kind. Then, it examines the implications for emancipation of seeing the media as cultural industries within the capitalist market economy; of seeing the media as technologies; of the specialisation of intellectual production and of the separation and increasing social distance between the producers and consumers of symbols. The problem of how the symbolic forms that the media circulate can be assessed is provided. It is argued that evaluation is in practice unavoidable and without some standards that are more than just subjective any criticism of the media's performance is impossible. Via an examination of the debate between the sociology of art and aesthetics the book argues for the ethical foundations of aesthetic judgement and for the establishment of agreed standards of aesthetic judgement via the discourse ethic that underlies the argument of the entire book. Next the book gives a discussion of the media and politics. Hereafter the book returns to the roots of public sphere theory.Less
This book approaches the problems raised by the media via a set of arguments with post-modernism and Information Society theory. It argues that the media are important because they raise a set of questions central to social and political theory. It focuses on the problem raised by what Kant called the unsocial sociability of human kind. Then, it examines the implications for emancipation of seeing the media as cultural industries within the capitalist market economy; of seeing the media as technologies; of the specialisation of intellectual production and of the separation and increasing social distance between the producers and consumers of symbols. The problem of how the symbolic forms that the media circulate can be assessed is provided. It is argued that evaluation is in practice unavoidable and without some standards that are more than just subjective any criticism of the media's performance is impossible. Via an examination of the debate between the sociology of art and aesthetics the book argues for the ethical foundations of aesthetic judgement and for the establishment of agreed standards of aesthetic judgement via the discourse ethic that underlies the argument of the entire book. Next the book gives a discussion of the media and politics. Hereafter the book returns to the roots of public sphere theory.
Deborah Posel
- Published in print:
- 1991
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198273349
- eISBN:
- 9780191684036
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198273349.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics
This book examines some of the crucial political processes and struggles which shaped the reciprocal development of Apartheid and capitalism in South Africa. The book's analysis debunks the orthodoxy ...
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This book examines some of the crucial political processes and struggles which shaped the reciprocal development of Apartheid and capitalism in South Africa. The book's analysis debunks the orthodoxy view, which presents apartheid as the product of a single ‘grand plan’, created by the State in response to the pressures of capital accumulation. Using as a case study influx control during the first phase of apartheid (1948–61), the book shows that apartheid arose from complex patterns of conflict and compromise within the State, in which white capitalists, the black working class, and popular movements exercised varying and uneven degrees of influence. This book integrates a detailed empirical analysis of the capitalist State and its relationship to class interests.Less
This book examines some of the crucial political processes and struggles which shaped the reciprocal development of Apartheid and capitalism in South Africa. The book's analysis debunks the orthodoxy view, which presents apartheid as the product of a single ‘grand plan’, created by the State in response to the pressures of capital accumulation. Using as a case study influx control during the first phase of apartheid (1948–61), the book shows that apartheid arose from complex patterns of conflict and compromise within the State, in which white capitalists, the black working class, and popular movements exercised varying and uneven degrees of influence. This book integrates a detailed empirical analysis of the capitalist State and its relationship to class interests.
Joseph V. Femia
- Published in print:
- 1987
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198275435
- eISBN:
- 9780191684128
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198275435.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
The unifying idea of Antonio Gramsci's famous Prison Notebooks is the concept of hegemony. In this study of these fragmentary writings this book elucidates the precise character of this concept, ...
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The unifying idea of Antonio Gramsci's famous Prison Notebooks is the concept of hegemony. In this study of these fragmentary writings this book elucidates the precise character of this concept, explores its basic philosophical assumptions, and sets out its implications for Gramsci's explanation of social stability and his vision of the revolutionary process. A number of prevalent and often contradictory myths are demolished, and, moreover, certain neglected aspects of his thought are stressed, including the predominant role he attributed to economic factors, the importance he gave to ‘contradictory consciousness’, and the close connection between his political thinking and his fundamental philosophical premises. The book concludes by critically examining Gramsci's novel solutions to three long-standing problems for Marxist theory: the reasons why the Western working class has not carried out its revolutionary mission; determining the appropriate strategy for a Marxist party working within an advanced capitalist framework; and what are the reasons behind the failure of existing socialist states in their task of liberation?Less
The unifying idea of Antonio Gramsci's famous Prison Notebooks is the concept of hegemony. In this study of these fragmentary writings this book elucidates the precise character of this concept, explores its basic philosophical assumptions, and sets out its implications for Gramsci's explanation of social stability and his vision of the revolutionary process. A number of prevalent and often contradictory myths are demolished, and, moreover, certain neglected aspects of his thought are stressed, including the predominant role he attributed to economic factors, the importance he gave to ‘contradictory consciousness’, and the close connection between his political thinking and his fundamental philosophical premises. The book concludes by critically examining Gramsci's novel solutions to three long-standing problems for Marxist theory: the reasons why the Western working class has not carried out its revolutionary mission; determining the appropriate strategy for a Marxist party working within an advanced capitalist framework; and what are the reasons behind the failure of existing socialist states in their task of liberation?
Ira Katznelson
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- January 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780198279242
- eISBN:
- 9780191601910
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198279248.003.0007
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
Section I of this chapter discusses how, by not embarking on the journey linking city space, capitalist development, and class formation, Marxism denied itself a critical dimension in the material ...
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Section I of this chapter discusses how, by not embarking on the journey linking city space, capitalist development, and class formation, Marxism denied itself a critical dimension in the material analysis both of the target it wished to confront and of the class it expected to be the agent of this successful engagement. Section II looks at how the separation between the social classes within the new social geography of the capitalist city in the nineteenth century helped assure the residential propinquity of members of the working class, as well as their isolation from other classes. However, with the elaboration of new networks made possible by the nationalization of labour markets, there was a growing sense that working classes shared a fate that transcended given localities, while advances in communications and transportation made the ties between class and space more complicated and tentative. Analyses are included of this break in working‐class history given in the work of Krishan Kumar and Craig Calhoun, and by Olivier Zunz and Richard Oestreicher in their studies of Detroit at the turn of the nineteenth century. Sections III–V show that the relationship of Marxism and the city and urban space now stands on unsure ground, since it is the politics and viability of class itself as the dominant form of collective identity that is currently under challenge; the discussion given here draws on the work of Mark Gottendiener and Eric Hobsbaum within the new urban Marxism.Less
Section I of this chapter discusses how, by not embarking on the journey linking city space, capitalist development, and class formation, Marxism denied itself a critical dimension in the material analysis both of the target it wished to confront and of the class it expected to be the agent of this successful engagement. Section II looks at how the separation between the social classes within the new social geography of the capitalist city in the nineteenth century helped assure the residential propinquity of members of the working class, as well as their isolation from other classes. However, with the elaboration of new networks made possible by the nationalization of labour markets, there was a growing sense that working classes shared a fate that transcended given localities, while advances in communications and transportation made the ties between class and space more complicated and tentative. Analyses are included of this break in working‐class history given in the work of Krishan Kumar and Craig Calhoun, and by Olivier Zunz and Richard Oestreicher in their studies of Detroit at the turn of the nineteenth century. Sections III–V show that the relationship of Marxism and the city and urban space now stands on unsure ground, since it is the politics and viability of class itself as the dominant form of collective identity that is currently under challenge; the discussion given here draws on the work of Mark Gottendiener and Eric Hobsbaum within the new urban Marxism.
Michael Foley
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199232673
- eISBN:
- 9780191716362
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199232673.003.0011
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
This chapter discusses American capitalism. Capitalism has not only become integrally related to the growth of the United States into a global industrial power, but in doing so has acquired an iconic ...
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This chapter discusses American capitalism. Capitalism has not only become integrally related to the growth of the United States into a global industrial power, but in doing so has acquired an iconic property as the generic expression of American ideas and experience. Just as capitalism has played a role in giving definition to America's social identity and historical position, so the United States has emerged as the exemplar of capitalist organization and the defining reference point by which its merits and demerits as an economic and ethical system is adjudged.Less
This chapter discusses American capitalism. Capitalism has not only become integrally related to the growth of the United States into a global industrial power, but in doing so has acquired an iconic property as the generic expression of American ideas and experience. Just as capitalism has played a role in giving definition to America's social identity and historical position, so the United States has emerged as the exemplar of capitalist organization and the defining reference point by which its merits and demerits as an economic and ethical system is adjudged.
Stefano Bartolini
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- February 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780199286430
- eISBN:
- 9780191603242
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199286434.003.0002
- Subject:
- Political Science, European Union
The analytical framework sketched in Chapter One is used to review the history of state formation in Europe at a number of critical junctures from the sixteenth to the twentieth century: state ...
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The analytical framework sketched in Chapter One is used to review the history of state formation in Europe at a number of critical junctures from the sixteenth to the twentieth century: state formation, capitalist development and market formation, nation formation, generalisation of participation rights (democratization), and development of social sharing institutions (welfare systems). The recasting emphasizes how the processes of boundary control in various spheres contributed to the specific and historically unique constellation of centre-periphery structuring, interest intermediation structuring, and cleavage structuring in the Western experience. This key idea — that domestic political structures are historically grounded in specific configurations of economic, cultural, administrative and coercion confinement of actors and resources — suggests that political developments affecting the boundary configuration of the nation state will also affect the domestic forms of its political structures. This is the starting point for the succeeding chapters devoted to the European integration process.Less
The analytical framework sketched in Chapter One is used to review the history of state formation in Europe at a number of critical junctures from the sixteenth to the twentieth century: state formation, capitalist development and market formation, nation formation, generalisation of participation rights (democratization), and development of social sharing institutions (welfare systems). The recasting emphasizes how the processes of boundary control in various spheres contributed to the specific and historically unique constellation of centre-periphery structuring, interest intermediation structuring, and cleavage structuring in the Western experience. This key idea — that domestic political structures are historically grounded in specific configurations of economic, cultural, administrative and coercion confinement of actors and resources — suggests that political developments affecting the boundary configuration of the nation state will also affect the domestic forms of its political structures. This is the starting point for the succeeding chapters devoted to the European integration process.
Peter A. Swenson
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195142976
- eISBN:
- 9780199872190
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195142977.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
Challenges the conventional wisdom that welfare state builders take their cues solely from labor and other progressive interests. It argues instead that pragmatic social reformers in the U.S. and ...
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Challenges the conventional wisdom that welfare state builders take their cues solely from labor and other progressive interests. It argues instead that pragmatic social reformers in the U.S. and Sweden looked for support from above as well as below, taking into account capitalists’ interests and preferences in the political process. Legislation associated with the American New Deal and Swedish social democracy was built, consequently, on cross‐class alliances of interest. Capitalists in both countries appreciated the regulatory impact of reformist social and labor legislation. Their interests in such legislation derived from their distinct systems of labor market governance. Thus, new theory and historical evidence in this book illuminate the political conditions for greater equality and security in capitalist societies.Less
Challenges the conventional wisdom that welfare state builders take their cues solely from labor and other progressive interests. It argues instead that pragmatic social reformers in the U.S. and Sweden looked for support from above as well as below, taking into account capitalists’ interests and preferences in the political process. Legislation associated with the American New Deal and Swedish social democracy was built, consequently, on cross‐class alliances of interest. Capitalists in both countries appreciated the regulatory impact of reformist social and labor legislation. Their interests in such legislation derived from their distinct systems of labor market governance. Thus, new theory and historical evidence in this book illuminate the political conditions for greater equality and security in capitalist societies.
Philippe Van Parijs
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198293576
- eISBN:
- 9780191600074
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198293577.003.0007
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
Is there any reason to expect some form of socialism to do better than any form of capitalism in terms of securing a high sustainable level of basic income? None of the familiar arguments against ...
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Is there any reason to expect some form of socialism to do better than any form of capitalism in terms of securing a high sustainable level of basic income? None of the familiar arguments against capitalism—from market failures to cyclical crises and the reserve army of the unemployed— can justify the presumption that it will do worse than socialism in terms of efficiency. On the contrary, the fundamental fact that, unlike what happens under socialism, capitalist firms have to submit to the ruthless rule ‘Innovate or perish’ justify the presumption of capitalism's superior dynamic efficiency. But in a globalized capitalist economy, the sovereignty democratically exercised over this larger wealth keeps eroding, to the point that capitalist societies become unable to sustainably turn part of it into a higher basic income than would be possible under the best version of feasible socialism?Less
Is there any reason to expect some form of socialism to do better than any form of capitalism in terms of securing a high sustainable level of basic income? None of the familiar arguments against capitalism—from market failures to cyclical crises and the reserve army of the unemployed— can justify the presumption that it will do worse than socialism in terms of efficiency. On the contrary, the fundamental fact that, unlike what happens under socialism, capitalist firms have to submit to the ruthless rule ‘Innovate or perish’ justify the presumption of capitalism's superior dynamic efficiency. But in a globalized capitalist economy, the sovereignty democratically exercised over this larger wealth keeps eroding, to the point that capitalist societies become unable to sustainably turn part of it into a higher basic income than would be possible under the best version of feasible socialism?
Robin Archer
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198295389
- eISBN:
- 9780191598722
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198295383.003.0003
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
Sets out the basic argument for economic democracy. It shows that capitalist companies are associations that exercise authority and that workers are the only people subject to that authority. It ...
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Sets out the basic argument for economic democracy. It shows that capitalist companies are associations that exercise authority and that workers are the only people subject to that authority. It argues, therefore, that it is workers, and not capitalists, who should exercise direct decision‐making control over these companies. Like consumers, and other affected individuals, capitalists should only exercise indirect control: in their case through capital and stock markets. The chapter also considers other ways in which the freedom of labour is compromised by capitalism, and shows that economic democracy can also address these problems.Less
Sets out the basic argument for economic democracy. It shows that capitalist companies are associations that exercise authority and that workers are the only people subject to that authority. It argues, therefore, that it is workers, and not capitalists, who should exercise direct decision‐making control over these companies. Like consumers, and other affected individuals, capitalists should only exercise indirect control: in their case through capital and stock markets. The chapter also considers other ways in which the freedom of labour is compromised by capitalism, and shows that economic democracy can also address these problems.
Robin Archer
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198295389
- eISBN:
- 9780191598722
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198295383.003.0004
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
Seeks to clarify the concept of feasibility and distinguish it from concepts of viability and efficiency. It focuses on the question of whether there is a feasible strategy that would enable the ...
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Seeks to clarify the concept of feasibility and distinguish it from concepts of viability and efficiency. It focuses on the question of whether there is a feasible strategy that would enable the labour movement to move step by step towards economic democracy, beginning with circumstances as they exist at present. The chapter suggests that discussion should be limited to advanced capitalist countries with politically significant labour movements.Less
Seeks to clarify the concept of feasibility and distinguish it from concepts of viability and efficiency. It focuses on the question of whether there is a feasible strategy that would enable the labour movement to move step by step towards economic democracy, beginning with circumstances as they exist at present. The chapter suggests that discussion should be limited to advanced capitalist countries with politically significant labour movements.
Robin Archer
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198295389
- eISBN:
- 9780191598722
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198295383.003.0007
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
Argues that corporatism enables workers to accumulate incremental increases in control over firms through a series of trade‐offs. If the workers, the capitalists, and the government are rational ...
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Argues that corporatism enables workers to accumulate incremental increases in control over firms through a series of trade‐offs. If the workers, the capitalists, and the government are rational collective actors, then a single trade‐off will be feasible so long as three conditions are met: the workers must be able to exchange a good that would threaten the profits of the capitalists; the trade‐off must be compatible with the requirements of national economic management, so that it does not undermine the government's ability to win elections; and the corporatist system itself must be compatible with the requirements of national economic management. To repeat these trade‐offs and compound their effect, a further three conditions must be met.Less
Argues that corporatism enables workers to accumulate incremental increases in control over firms through a series of trade‐offs. If the workers, the capitalists, and the government are rational collective actors, then a single trade‐off will be feasible so long as three conditions are met: the workers must be able to exchange a good that would threaten the profits of the capitalists; the trade‐off must be compatible with the requirements of national economic management, so that it does not undermine the government's ability to win elections; and the corporatist system itself must be compatible with the requirements of national economic management. To repeat these trade‐offs and compound their effect, a further three conditions must be met.
Duane Swank
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198297567
- eISBN:
- 9780191600104
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198297564.003.0008
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics
The first of three chapters on the implications of electoral politics and the design of political institutions for welfare state adjustment. Swank first provides an overview of two key domestic and ...
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The first of three chapters on the implications of electoral politics and the design of political institutions for welfare state adjustment. Swank first provides an overview of two key domestic and international pressures on developed welfare states: domestic fiscal stress and international capital mobility. He then outlines the theoretical argument that democratic institutions fundamentally determine government responses to domestic and international structural change, focusing on formal and informal institutions and drawing on and fusing insights from ‘power resources’ theory, the new institutionalism, and new cultural arguments about the determinants of social policy in advanced capitalist democracies. The next two sections utilize new data on social welfare effort, national political institutions, and internationalization to provide an econometric assessment of the social policy impacts of domestic fiscal stress and capital mobility during the period 1965 to 1995, looking first at the direct impacts of rises in public sector debt and in international capital mobility on social welfare provision, and second at the welfare state effects of fiscal stress and global capital flows across nationally and temporally divergent democratic institutional contexts; the initial focus is on total social welfare effort and then the analysis is shifted to changes in cash income maintenance and social services. The conclusion assesses the implications of the arguments and findings for the future course of social policy in developed democracies, and potentially bolsters the evidence for the central assertion that domestic institutions systematically determine the direction of welfare state restructuring.Less
The first of three chapters on the implications of electoral politics and the design of political institutions for welfare state adjustment. Swank first provides an overview of two key domestic and international pressures on developed welfare states: domestic fiscal stress and international capital mobility. He then outlines the theoretical argument that democratic institutions fundamentally determine government responses to domestic and international structural change, focusing on formal and informal institutions and drawing on and fusing insights from ‘power resources’ theory, the new institutionalism, and new cultural arguments about the determinants of social policy in advanced capitalist democracies. The next two sections utilize new data on social welfare effort, national political institutions, and internationalization to provide an econometric assessment of the social policy impacts of domestic fiscal stress and capital mobility during the period 1965 to 1995, looking first at the direct impacts of rises in public sector debt and in international capital mobility on social welfare provision, and second at the welfare state effects of fiscal stress and global capital flows across nationally and temporally divergent democratic institutional contexts; the initial focus is on total social welfare effort and then the analysis is shifted to changes in cash income maintenance and social services. The conclusion assesses the implications of the arguments and findings for the future course of social policy in developed democracies, and potentially bolsters the evidence for the central assertion that domestic institutions systematically determine the direction of welfare state restructuring.
Ira Katznelson
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- January 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780198279242
- eISBN:
- 9780191601910
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198279248.003.0002
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
The first of the two main sections of this chapter discusses Marx's goal and the elements of a Marxist tradition, and presents the views of various later scholars (David Little, Steven Lukes, Alvin ...
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The first of the two main sections of this chapter discusses Marx's goal and the elements of a Marxist tradition, and presents the views of various later scholars (David Little, Steven Lukes, Alvin Goulder, Edward Thompson, Leonard Krieger, Georg Lukács, Antonio Gramsci, and others) on these elements. The three distinctive but inter‐related projects elaborated in Marx's aim of reconstructing the post‐capitalist world are examined in detail: the construction of a theory of history to account for the change between epochs on the largest possible scale, which focuses on the struggles between social classes within the twin frame of the development of the forces of production, and the nature of the relationships joining people in the social features of the production process; the building of a model of the economy within the capitalist epoch; and the construction of a social theory capable of inventing explanations about specific capitalist societies (the focus of most of this book). Gramsci elaborated on the most promising lines of inquiry embedded in Marx's historical writings to develop the base–superstructure distinction as a complex web of relations in which the economic, political, and cultural elements of a situation are interconnected, and in which the historicity of social structure is made central. The final section of the chapter explores these issues of Marxist social theory in the work of Edward Thompson, Raymond Williams, Eric Hobsbawm, and G. A. Cohen (who demonstrate the repertoire of alternative theoretical moves developed since Gramsci), and points out that the capacity of Marxism to provide an attractive alternative to the differentiation problematic in studies of the city hinges on the character and persuasiveness of these linkages. In the concluding discussion, the author returns to the issue of the capaciousness of Marxist theory.Less
The first of the two main sections of this chapter discusses Marx's goal and the elements of a Marxist tradition, and presents the views of various later scholars (David Little, Steven Lukes, Alvin Goulder, Edward Thompson, Leonard Krieger, Georg Lukács, Antonio Gramsci, and others) on these elements. The three distinctive but inter‐related projects elaborated in Marx's aim of reconstructing the post‐capitalist world are examined in detail: the construction of a theory of history to account for the change between epochs on the largest possible scale, which focuses on the struggles between social classes within the twin frame of the development of the forces of production, and the nature of the relationships joining people in the social features of the production process; the building of a model of the economy within the capitalist epoch; and the construction of a social theory capable of inventing explanations about specific capitalist societies (the focus of most of this book). Gramsci elaborated on the most promising lines of inquiry embedded in Marx's historical writings to develop the base–superstructure distinction as a complex web of relations in which the economic, political, and cultural elements of a situation are interconnected, and in which the historicity of social structure is made central. The final section of the chapter explores these issues of Marxist social theory in the work of Edward Thompson, Raymond Williams, Eric Hobsbawm, and G. A. Cohen (who demonstrate the repertoire of alternative theoretical moves developed since Gramsci), and points out that the capacity of Marxism to provide an attractive alternative to the differentiation problematic in studies of the city hinges on the character and persuasiveness of these linkages. In the concluding discussion, the author returns to the issue of the capaciousness of Marxist theory.
Ira Katznelson
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- January 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780198279242
- eISBN:
- 9780191601910
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198279248.003.0003
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
The most important urban studies within Marxism since the 1960s are examined by looking at the work of Henri Lefebvre, David Harvey, and Manuel Castells, the three most influential recent students of ...
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The most important urban studies within Marxism since the 1960s are examined by looking at the work of Henri Lefebvre, David Harvey, and Manuel Castells, the three most influential recent students of Marxism and the city, who, through the study of the city, have introduced space into the core of one or more of Marxism's three projects. By examining their work, it is possible to assess the current status of the respatialized Marxism they have tried to fashion, and this post‐1960s Marxism of the city has shown how Marxist social theory can powerfully illuminate things urban, and also how an explicitly urban focus can strengthen Marxism as social and empirical theory. The work accomplished in the past quarter‐century has treated Marx's project of understanding epochal change mainly as background to more current events, although it has successfully elaborated and deepened his project of the analysis of capitalism as an economic system. However, in spite of much effort, it has contributed only unsteadily to Marx's project of a social theory for capitalist societies. The limitations of these Marxist urban studies are identified as being due principally to a certain narrowness of subject matter, a lack of engagement with history, and a restrictive treatment of the issues central to, but difficult for, Marxist social theory: base and superstructure, structure and agency, and causal determination, which neither Harvey nor Castells tackled persuasively in their later work in the 1980s.Less
The most important urban studies within Marxism since the 1960s are examined by looking at the work of Henri Lefebvre, David Harvey, and Manuel Castells, the three most influential recent students of Marxism and the city, who, through the study of the city, have introduced space into the core of one or more of Marxism's three projects. By examining their work, it is possible to assess the current status of the respatialized Marxism they have tried to fashion, and this post‐1960s Marxism of the city has shown how Marxist social theory can powerfully illuminate things urban, and also how an explicitly urban focus can strengthen Marxism as social and empirical theory. The work accomplished in the past quarter‐century has treated Marx's project of understanding epochal change mainly as background to more current events, although it has successfully elaborated and deepened his project of the analysis of capitalism as an economic system. However, in spite of much effort, it has contributed only unsteadily to Marx's project of a social theory for capitalist societies. The limitations of these Marxist urban studies are identified as being due principally to a certain narrowness of subject matter, a lack of engagement with history, and a restrictive treatment of the issues central to, but difficult for, Marxist social theory: base and superstructure, structure and agency, and causal determination, which neither Harvey nor Castells tackled persuasively in their later work in the 1980s.
Ira Katznelson
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- January 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780198279242
- eISBN:
- 9780191601910
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198279248.003.0004
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
The previous chapter showed that neither David Harvey nor Manuel Castells in the early 1980s tackled the limitations of Marxist urban studies persuasively, each in his own way abandoning the project ...
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The previous chapter showed that neither David Harvey nor Manuel Castells in the early 1980s tackled the limitations of Marxist urban studies persuasively, each in his own way abandoning the project of Marxist social theory, whose central questions concern the joining together of structure and agency in a single hand. This chapter presents an analysis of the route taken by Friedrich Engels in his early work on cities in The Condition of the Working Class in England; in his compressed discussion of Manchester and other early industrial revolution urban centres, Engels blazed a road that has not been travelled either by Marxism or by students of the city, and identified mechanisms that connect structure and agency. The provocative union of Marxism and the city proposed by Engels had nothing to say about the history, character, and activities of national states. His contribution, rather, lies in the way he raised fundamental questions in three dimensions that correspond to each of Marx's theoretical projects: (1) questions about the linkages between large‐scale processes, principally the development of capitalism, and the emergence of the modern capitalist city; (2) questions about the linkages between the city as a point in the accumulation process and its internal forms; and (3) questions about the linkages between these forms and the development of class and group consciousness. These are the tasks entailed in joining Marxism and the city, and these are the questions explored in the remaining chapters of the book.Less
The previous chapter showed that neither David Harvey nor Manuel Castells in the early 1980s tackled the limitations of Marxist urban studies persuasively, each in his own way abandoning the project of Marxist social theory, whose central questions concern the joining together of structure and agency in a single hand. This chapter presents an analysis of the route taken by Friedrich Engels in his early work on cities in The Condition of the Working Class in England; in his compressed discussion of Manchester and other early industrial revolution urban centres, Engels blazed a road that has not been travelled either by Marxism or by students of the city, and identified mechanisms that connect structure and agency. The provocative union of Marxism and the city proposed by Engels had nothing to say about the history, character, and activities of national states. His contribution, rather, lies in the way he raised fundamental questions in three dimensions that correspond to each of Marx's theoretical projects: (1) questions about the linkages between large‐scale processes, principally the development of capitalism, and the emergence of the modern capitalist city; (2) questions about the linkages between the city as a point in the accumulation process and its internal forms; and (3) questions about the linkages between these forms and the development of class and group consciousness. These are the tasks entailed in joining Marxism and the city, and these are the questions explored in the remaining chapters of the book.
Colin Crouch
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199286652
- eISBN:
- 9780191713354
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199286652.003.0002
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Political Economy
This chapter shows how oversimplification often results from confusion between ideal types and cases, with the latter being seen as exemplifiers of the former, rather than the former being seen as ...
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This chapter shows how oversimplification often results from confusion between ideal types and cases, with the latter being seen as exemplifiers of the former, rather than the former being seen as constituents of the latter. This is often combined with excessive concern with identifying national, rather than micro level, patterns of institutions. Characteristics of economies have been bundled together as coherent wholes with inadequate attention being paid to the forces which produce the bundles, and this has often been done through an account of types that has been too closely linked to the polemic between neoliberalism and social democracy.Less
This chapter shows how oversimplification often results from confusion between ideal types and cases, with the latter being seen as exemplifiers of the former, rather than the former being seen as constituents of the latter. This is often combined with excessive concern with identifying national, rather than micro level, patterns of institutions. Characteristics of economies have been bundled together as coherent wholes with inadequate attention being paid to the forces which produce the bundles, and this has often been done through an account of types that has been too closely linked to the polemic between neoliberalism and social democracy.
David Ambaras
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520245792
- eISBN:
- 9780520932203
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520245792.001.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Asian Cultural Anthropology
A study of the political, social, and cultural history of juvenile delinquency in modern Japan, this book treats the policing of urban youth as a crucial site for the development of new state ...
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A study of the political, social, and cultural history of juvenile delinquency in modern Japan, this book treats the policing of urban youth as a crucial site for the development of new state structures and new forms of social power. Focusing on the years of rapid industrialization and imperialist expansion (1895 to 1945), it challenges widely held conceptions of a Japan that did not, until recently, experience delinquency and related youth problems. The author reconstructs numerous individual life stories in the worlds of home, school, work, and the streets, and relates the changes that took place during this time of social transformation to the broader processes of capitalist development, nation-state formation, and imperialism.Less
A study of the political, social, and cultural history of juvenile delinquency in modern Japan, this book treats the policing of urban youth as a crucial site for the development of new state structures and new forms of social power. Focusing on the years of rapid industrialization and imperialist expansion (1895 to 1945), it challenges widely held conceptions of a Japan that did not, until recently, experience delinquency and related youth problems. The author reconstructs numerous individual life stories in the worlds of home, school, work, and the streets, and relates the changes that took place during this time of social transformation to the broader processes of capitalist development, nation-state formation, and imperialism.
ANDREW GLYN
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199226795
- eISBN:
- 9780191710544
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199226795.003.0001
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Economic Systems
This chapter discusses challenges faced by the capital system. It begins with a description of the unprecedented boom of the economies of the most developed capitalist countries (North America, ...
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This chapter discusses challenges faced by the capital system. It begins with a description of the unprecedented boom of the economies of the most developed capitalist countries (North America, Western Europe, Japan, and Australasia) in the 1950s and 1960s, dubbed as the ‘Golden Age’, characterized by low unemployment, low inflation, and rapidly growing living standards. This was followed by the apparent decline of the capitalist system during the second half of the 1960s and through the 1970s, characterized by the emergence of organized labour, international disorganization, and productivity slowdown.Less
This chapter discusses challenges faced by the capital system. It begins with a description of the unprecedented boom of the economies of the most developed capitalist countries (North America, Western Europe, Japan, and Australasia) in the 1950s and 1960s, dubbed as the ‘Golden Age’, characterized by low unemployment, low inflation, and rapidly growing living standards. This was followed by the apparent decline of the capitalist system during the second half of the 1960s and through the 1970s, characterized by the emergence of organized labour, international disorganization, and productivity slowdown.
