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 ...
More
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.
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 ...
More
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?
Fritz Scharpf
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198295457
- eISBN:
- 9780191685118
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198295457.003.0002
- Subject:
- Political Science, European Union
In democratic theory, the exercise of governing authority is legitimised as a manifestation of collective self-determination. In the history of normative political theory, two distinct but ...
More
In democratic theory, the exercise of governing authority is legitimised as a manifestation of collective self-determination. In the history of normative political theory, two distinct but complementary perspectives can be identified: input-oriented legitimisation and output-oriented legitimisation. Input-oriented democratic thought emphasises ‘government by the people’ while the output perspective emphasises ‘government for the people’. Political choices are legitimate if and because they reflect the ‘will of the people’—that is, if they can be derived from the authentic preferences of the members of a community. On the other hand, political choices are legitimate if and because they effectively promote the common welfare of the constituency in question. While both of these dimensions are generally complementary, they differ significantly in their preconditions, and in their implications for the democratic legitimacy of European governance, when each is considered by itself. This chapter focuses on political democracy in a capitalist economy and the political economy of capitalist democracies, as well as the limits of legitimacy in Europe.Less
In democratic theory, the exercise of governing authority is legitimised as a manifestation of collective self-determination. In the history of normative political theory, two distinct but complementary perspectives can be identified: input-oriented legitimisation and output-oriented legitimisation. Input-oriented democratic thought emphasises ‘government by the people’ while the output perspective emphasises ‘government for the people’. Political choices are legitimate if and because they reflect the ‘will of the people’—that is, if they can be derived from the authentic preferences of the members of a community. On the other hand, political choices are legitimate if and because they effectively promote the common welfare of the constituency in question. While both of these dimensions are generally complementary, they differ significantly in their preconditions, and in their implications for the democratic legitimacy of European governance, when each is considered by itself. This chapter focuses on political democracy in a capitalist economy and the political economy of capitalist democracies, as well as the limits of legitimacy in Europe.
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 ...
More
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.
Geoff Mulgan
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691165745
- eISBN:
- 9781400866199
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691165745.003.0009
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Financial Economics
This chapter argues that although most people think of the economy as made up of stuff such as new cars, tins of food, or mortgages; or in many of the wealthier economies the dominant sectors are ...
More
This chapter argues that although most people think of the economy as made up of stuff such as new cars, tins of food, or mortgages; or in many of the wealthier economies the dominant sectors are health, education, care, and the loosely defined territory of green industries and jobs, relationships are critically important in all of these fields. Pre-capitalist economies were mainly concerned with maintenance. Capitalism by contrast introduced linearity into the economy, with the idea of cumulative growth, and an economy based around things that are simply used and then disposed, generalizing what was always true of parts of the luxury economy. The chapter shows how, in the material economy, people increasingly aspire to homeostasis and equilibrium, just as they do in our physical bodies.Less
This chapter argues that although most people think of the economy as made up of stuff such as new cars, tins of food, or mortgages; or in many of the wealthier economies the dominant sectors are health, education, care, and the loosely defined territory of green industries and jobs, relationships are critically important in all of these fields. Pre-capitalist economies were mainly concerned with maintenance. Capitalism by contrast introduced linearity into the economy, with the idea of cumulative growth, and an economy based around things that are simply used and then disposed, generalizing what was always true of parts of the luxury economy. The chapter shows how, in the material economy, people increasingly aspire to homeostasis and equilibrium, just as they do in our physical bodies.
Rachel St. John
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691141541
- eISBN:
- 9781400838639
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691141541.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, American History: early to 18th Century
This chapter describes how ranchers, miners, investors, laborers, railroad executives, and innumerable economic actors integrated the border into an emerging transnational economy and began to create ...
More
This chapter describes how ranchers, miners, investors, laborers, railroad executives, and innumerable economic actors integrated the border into an emerging transnational economy and began to create binational communities on the boundary line. With the completion of the first transborder rail line—brought on by the joining of the Sonora Railway and the Arizona and New Mexico Railroad at the international boundary line—ranchers and miners secured an easy way to move stock and ore to markets. As more people realized this, the borderlands experienced nothing short of a capitalist revolution. The capitalist development of the borderlands would, in turn, spur the creation of an array of new transborder ties. By the early twentieth century, the border has become a point of connection and community in the midst of an emerging capitalist economy and the center of a transborder landscape of property and profits.Less
This chapter describes how ranchers, miners, investors, laborers, railroad executives, and innumerable economic actors integrated the border into an emerging transnational economy and began to create binational communities on the boundary line. With the completion of the first transborder rail line—brought on by the joining of the Sonora Railway and the Arizona and New Mexico Railroad at the international boundary line—ranchers and miners secured an easy way to move stock and ore to markets. As more people realized this, the borderlands experienced nothing short of a capitalist revolution. The capitalist development of the borderlands would, in turn, spur the creation of an array of new transborder ties. By the early twentieth century, the border has become a point of connection and community in the midst of an emerging capitalist economy and the center of a transborder landscape of property and profits.
Jerome Roos
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780691180106
- eISBN:
- 9780691184937
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691180106.003.0004
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Public Management
It has been established that power lies at the heart of the sovereign debt puzzle. This chapter asks: What are the precise mechanisms through which finance exerts its power? Under what conditions are ...
More
It has been established that power lies at the heart of the sovereign debt puzzle. This chapter asks: What are the precise mechanisms through which finance exerts its power? Under what conditions are these mechanisms likely to be effective, and under what conditions are they likely to break down? How have these dynamics been impacted by the globalization and financialization of the capitalist economy in recent decades? And what, if anything, can still be done to counteract the power of finance from below? It is argued that a distressed sovereign borrower will only choose to renege on its financial obligations if the social costs of repayment have become unbearable and citizens threaten to withdraw their loyalty to the state. Only in the context of a destabilizing legitimation crisis and a citizens' revolt from below will the administrators of a contemporary “debt state” ever contemplate defying their private creditors by defaulting on their financial obligations.Less
It has been established that power lies at the heart of the sovereign debt puzzle. This chapter asks: What are the precise mechanisms through which finance exerts its power? Under what conditions are these mechanisms likely to be effective, and under what conditions are they likely to break down? How have these dynamics been impacted by the globalization and financialization of the capitalist economy in recent decades? And what, if anything, can still be done to counteract the power of finance from below? It is argued that a distressed sovereign borrower will only choose to renege on its financial obligations if the social costs of repayment have become unbearable and citizens threaten to withdraw their loyalty to the state. Only in the context of a destabilizing legitimation crisis and a citizens' revolt from below will the administrators of a contemporary “debt state” ever contemplate defying their private creditors by defaulting on their financial obligations.
Michio Morishima
- Published in print:
- 1969
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198281641
- eISBN:
- 9780191596667
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198281641.003.0015
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Development, Growth, and Environmental
The argument developed in the previous chapter was based on the tacit assumption that the production of goods by means of goods and labour is independent of the feeding of labour, and was described ...
More
The argument developed in the previous chapter was based on the tacit assumption that the production of goods by means of goods and labour is independent of the feeding of labour, and was described in terms of the matrices of input and output coefficients and the vector of labour‐input coefficients, all of which were considered as technologically given constants. However, it is difficult to obtain precise figures of these coefficients, especially for the labour‐input coefficients, without knowing how and at what level people are fed; the productivity of labour depends not only on technology in the narrowest sense but also on the workers’ state of health, their living and working conditions, etc. Further, in a slave economy, with the wages fixed at a subsistence level, the productivity of labour was low, and it is this that led to its replacement by a more productive system—the capitalist economy. It is not surprising that outputs of goods might increase, even though the allocation of available goods among industries and families became unfavourable for the former; in fact, the positive indirect effect on outputs of a transfer of goods from industries to families causing an improvement in the welfare of the workers might be so strong as to overcome the negative direct effect on outputs of the decrease in industrial inputs. Thus, the production of goods and the feeding of men should be treated as an inseparable process, and this is the approach taken in this chapter, which discusses: the production of goods and ‘men’ by means of goods and ‘men’; the properties of aggregate production processes; conditions for the Silvery Equilibrium; modification of the rule of competitive pricing such that Keynesian involuntary unemployment is allowed for; the existence of ‘quasi‐equilibrium’ processes and prices; the upper semicontinuity of quasi‐equilibrium prices; the equilibration of quasi‐equilibrium; efficiency and optimality in an economy with a flexible labour force; instantaneous efficiency and Pareto optimality of the Silvery Equilibrium; the possibility of optimum cyclical growth of production of goods and men; and the intertemporal efficiency and Pareto optimality of the Golden Equilibrium.Less
The argument developed in the previous chapter was based on the tacit assumption that the production of goods by means of goods and labour is independent of the feeding of labour, and was described in terms of the matrices of input and output coefficients and the vector of labour‐input coefficients, all of which were considered as technologically given constants. However, it is difficult to obtain precise figures of these coefficients, especially for the labour‐input coefficients, without knowing how and at what level people are fed; the productivity of labour depends not only on technology in the narrowest sense but also on the workers’ state of health, their living and working conditions, etc. Further, in a slave economy, with the wages fixed at a subsistence level, the productivity of labour was low, and it is this that led to its replacement by a more productive system—the capitalist economy. It is not surprising that outputs of goods might increase, even though the allocation of available goods among industries and families became unfavourable for the former; in fact, the positive indirect effect on outputs of a transfer of goods from industries to families causing an improvement in the welfare of the workers might be so strong as to overcome the negative direct effect on outputs of the decrease in industrial inputs. Thus, the production of goods and the feeding of men should be treated as an inseparable process, and this is the approach taken in this chapter, which discusses: the production of goods and ‘men’ by means of goods and ‘men’; the properties of aggregate production processes; conditions for the Silvery Equilibrium; modification of the rule of competitive pricing such that Keynesian involuntary unemployment is allowed for; the existence of ‘quasi‐equilibrium’ processes and prices; the upper semicontinuity of quasi‐equilibrium prices; the equilibration of quasi‐equilibrium; efficiency and optimality in an economy with a flexible labour force; instantaneous efficiency and Pareto optimality of the Silvery Equilibrium; the possibility of optimum cyclical growth of production of goods and men; and the intertemporal efficiency and Pareto optimality of the Golden Equilibrium.
B. R. Tomlinson
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198205654
- eISBN:
- 9780191676734
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198205654.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History, British and Irish Modern History
The two ‘paramount’ reasons for ‘the transformation of the earth’ in the modern period have been ‘the explosive increase of European population and its movement overseas, and the rise of the modern ...
More
The two ‘paramount’ reasons for ‘the transformation of the earth’ in the modern period have been ‘the explosive increase of European population and its movement overseas, and the rise of the modern capitalist economy and its evolution into industrialism’. Both these phenomena peaked during the second half of the nineteenth century, and both were closely linked to British Imperial expansion in the periphery. In the periphery, the suppliers of Britain can be divided into two broad categories, determined by their suitability for colonization by European organisms, technology, values, and production methods. The economic expansion of the periphery in the nineteenth century Imperial system was largely driven by the resource needs of European industrial economies. Today, it is Asian capitalism, rather than that of industrial Europe and North America, that shows the developing countries of the world their future, and that shows up the limitations of the economic expansion outside Europe wrought by nineteenth century imperialism.Less
The two ‘paramount’ reasons for ‘the transformation of the earth’ in the modern period have been ‘the explosive increase of European population and its movement overseas, and the rise of the modern capitalist economy and its evolution into industrialism’. Both these phenomena peaked during the second half of the nineteenth century, and both were closely linked to British Imperial expansion in the periphery. In the periphery, the suppliers of Britain can be divided into two broad categories, determined by their suitability for colonization by European organisms, technology, values, and production methods. The economic expansion of the periphery in the nineteenth century Imperial system was largely driven by the resource needs of European industrial economies. Today, it is Asian capitalism, rather than that of industrial Europe and North America, that shows the developing countries of the world their future, and that shows up the limitations of the economic expansion outside Europe wrought by nineteenth century imperialism.
Roy Hora
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198208846
- eISBN:
- 9780191678158
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198208846.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History
During the 1850s and 1860s, the Argentine pampas moved towards a capitalist organization of production based on the rapid expansion of sheep breeding. Argentina's primitive livestock raising culture ...
More
During the 1850s and 1860s, the Argentine pampas moved towards a capitalist organization of production based on the rapid expansion of sheep breeding. Argentina's primitive livestock raising culture slowly began to change, transforming the pampas into a capitalist economy with increasingly unified markets and accelerated rates of growth. A genuine landed identity emerged among a group of large landowners who were in the vanguard of farming improvement. This chapter describes the pampas in the third quarter of the nineteenth century, and of the position of landowners in rural society. It argues that the acceleration of capitalist development on the pampas during this period created conditions for the emergence of a new consciousness among a small group of dynamic estancieros who clustered around the newly established Sociedad Rural Argentina. However, these changes did not affect all rural proprietors. The chapter also analyses the landowners' relationship to political power and to the new political elite that took control of the country in the 1880s.Less
During the 1850s and 1860s, the Argentine pampas moved towards a capitalist organization of production based on the rapid expansion of sheep breeding. Argentina's primitive livestock raising culture slowly began to change, transforming the pampas into a capitalist economy with increasingly unified markets and accelerated rates of growth. A genuine landed identity emerged among a group of large landowners who were in the vanguard of farming improvement. This chapter describes the pampas in the third quarter of the nineteenth century, and of the position of landowners in rural society. It argues that the acceleration of capitalist development on the pampas during this period created conditions for the emergence of a new consciousness among a small group of dynamic estancieros who clustered around the newly established Sociedad Rural Argentina. However, these changes did not affect all rural proprietors. The chapter also analyses the landowners' relationship to political power and to the new political elite that took control of the country in the 1880s.
Mark Mason
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198292647
- eISBN:
- 9780191684937
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198292647.003.0001
- Subject:
- Business and Management, International Business, Political Economy
Japanese foreign direct investments (FDI) rose dramatically in the United States and Europe in the late 1980s. In the United States, Japanese companies directly invested around $113 billion in ...
More
Japanese foreign direct investments (FDI) rose dramatically in the United States and Europe in the late 1980s. In the United States, Japanese companies directly invested around $113 billion in America. From 1951 to 1986 the level of FDI increased by a factor of three. These spectacular inflows catapulted Japan by 1992 to the position of the largest foreign direct investor in the United States. Japan's FDI beginning in the late 1980s and continuing into the early 1990s entered Europe at rates which far exceeded earlier levels. After decades of increasing flows of international capital, convergence theory would suggest that by early 1990s, Europe and America should have treated inward FDI in substantially similar ways. By systematically comparing and contrasting European and American responses towards surging direct investment inflows from Japan, this study gauges the degree of similarity in the recent responses of these two major capitalist economies as each confronted a similar competitive threat from abroad.Less
Japanese foreign direct investments (FDI) rose dramatically in the United States and Europe in the late 1980s. In the United States, Japanese companies directly invested around $113 billion in America. From 1951 to 1986 the level of FDI increased by a factor of three. These spectacular inflows catapulted Japan by 1992 to the position of the largest foreign direct investor in the United States. Japan's FDI beginning in the late 1980s and continuing into the early 1990s entered Europe at rates which far exceeded earlier levels. After decades of increasing flows of international capital, convergence theory would suggest that by early 1990s, Europe and America should have treated inward FDI in substantially similar ways. By systematically comparing and contrasting European and American responses towards surging direct investment inflows from Japan, this study gauges the degree of similarity in the recent responses of these two major capitalist economies as each confronted a similar competitive threat from abroad.
Hans Blokland
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300110814
- eISBN:
- 9780300134827
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300110814.003.0002
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
This chapter studies Max Weber, who firmly believed in modern values such as pluriformity and individualism. The first section looks at Weber's personal life and intellectual background, before it ...
More
This chapter studies Max Weber, who firmly believed in modern values such as pluriformity and individualism. The first section looks at Weber's personal life and intellectual background, before it examines the process of Weber's thinking on democracy and politics and analyzes his philosophy of science. The next section focuses on the basic generalization process, including its two stimulators and manifestation (i.e. the bureaucracy and the capitalist market economy). Finally, the chapter ends with an examination of the political conclusions Weber made with regards to the mounting growth of these two organizational forms.Less
This chapter studies Max Weber, who firmly believed in modern values such as pluriformity and individualism. The first section looks at Weber's personal life and intellectual background, before it examines the process of Weber's thinking on democracy and politics and analyzes his philosophy of science. The next section focuses on the basic generalization process, including its two stimulators and manifestation (i.e. the bureaucracy and the capitalist market economy). Finally, the chapter ends with an examination of the political conclusions Weber made with regards to the mounting growth of these two organizational forms.
Helen F. Siu (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9789622099692
- eISBN:
- 9789882207189
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789622099692.003.0010
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
This chapter tells the stories of women workers in Hong Kong during the period between the 1960s and the 1990s. These three decades witnessed the growth of a vibrant economy fuelled by rapid ...
More
This chapter tells the stories of women workers in Hong Kong during the period between the 1960s and the 1990s. These three decades witnessed the growth of a vibrant economy fuelled by rapid industrialization, which peaked in the 1970s and 1980s. It argues that the stories of these women workers illuminate the role played by the invisible yet pervasive patriarchal gender substructure in the capitalistic development in Hong Kong, which, in turn, forms part of the growth of the global capitalist economy.Less
This chapter tells the stories of women workers in Hong Kong during the period between the 1960s and the 1990s. These three decades witnessed the growth of a vibrant economy fuelled by rapid industrialization, which peaked in the 1970s and 1980s. It argues that the stories of these women workers illuminate the role played by the invisible yet pervasive patriarchal gender substructure in the capitalistic development in Hong Kong, which, in turn, forms part of the growth of the global capitalist economy.
RAMóN EDUARDO RUIZ
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520262355
- eISBN:
- 9780520947528
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520262355.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, Latin American History
Adam Smith, the classical economist, called the discovery of America one of the “most important events in the history of mankind.” America's significance, he went on to say, lay not in its mines of ...
More
Adam Smith, the classical economist, called the discovery of America one of the “most important events in the history of mankind.” America's significance, he went on to say, lay not in its mines of silver and gold, but in the new and inexhaustible market for European goods. From that “discovery” emerged a New Spain, the ancestral mother of Mexico, a colony for three centuries, a hundred years longer than its independence. Those long centuries of Spanish hegemony set Mexico's contours. The European conquest and colonization of New Spain brought Western culture, the Spanish language, Catholicism, and Roman law, as well as an economic and political system. The conquest and later colony laid the basis for a capitalist economy. One other institution deserves careful scrutiny if we are to understand the background of Mexico's underdevelopment: the Catholic Church. But beneath the glitter of majestic cathedrals and the pomp and ceremony of the baroque years lay the ugly reality of colonialism.Less
Adam Smith, the classical economist, called the discovery of America one of the “most important events in the history of mankind.” America's significance, he went on to say, lay not in its mines of silver and gold, but in the new and inexhaustible market for European goods. From that “discovery” emerged a New Spain, the ancestral mother of Mexico, a colony for three centuries, a hundred years longer than its independence. Those long centuries of Spanish hegemony set Mexico's contours. The European conquest and colonization of New Spain brought Western culture, the Spanish language, Catholicism, and Roman law, as well as an economic and political system. The conquest and later colony laid the basis for a capitalist economy. One other institution deserves careful scrutiny if we are to understand the background of Mexico's underdevelopment: the Catholic Church. But beneath the glitter of majestic cathedrals and the pomp and ceremony of the baroque years lay the ugly reality of colonialism.
Tycho De Boer
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813032481
- eISBN:
- 9780813038360
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813032481.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
This chapter focuses on the transformation of the Green Swamp into a place where technological and entrepreneurial advancements were forwarded by humans, driving and precipitating the rapid expansion ...
More
This chapter focuses on the transformation of the Green Swamp into a place where technological and entrepreneurial advancements were forwarded by humans, driving and precipitating the rapid expansion of America's capitalist economy. Faced with nature's great economic potential and the obstacles to economic growth it presented, as America started to flourish as a new nation the people of the Green Swamp had already built relatively small communities that served as outposts of the larger Atlantic market to which Wilmington gave them access. When the American Revolution dislodged the southeastern part of one of the commercial nodes in the British imperial trading network, it opened the region up to the developments that thrust crudely capitalist economies across the country into a nationwide “market revolution”. In the Green Swamp area, tar and turpentine, which became important crops during the colonial days as currency, became the products around which population shifts revolved. The area also saw the rejuvenation of plantation slavery after a brief decline, the growth of towns, and the creation of a vibrant naval stores market through the improvements in domestic processing and transportation facilities.Less
This chapter focuses on the transformation of the Green Swamp into a place where technological and entrepreneurial advancements were forwarded by humans, driving and precipitating the rapid expansion of America's capitalist economy. Faced with nature's great economic potential and the obstacles to economic growth it presented, as America started to flourish as a new nation the people of the Green Swamp had already built relatively small communities that served as outposts of the larger Atlantic market to which Wilmington gave them access. When the American Revolution dislodged the southeastern part of one of the commercial nodes in the British imperial trading network, it opened the region up to the developments that thrust crudely capitalist economies across the country into a nationwide “market revolution”. In the Green Swamp area, tar and turpentine, which became important crops during the colonial days as currency, became the products around which population shifts revolved. The area also saw the rejuvenation of plantation slavery after a brief decline, the growth of towns, and the creation of a vibrant naval stores market through the improvements in domestic processing and transportation facilities.
Richard B. Freeman
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- February 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226620947
- eISBN:
- 9780226620954
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226620954.003.0002
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, South and East Asia
At the turn of the twenty-first century, many analysts view the United States as the peak capitalist economy—the economy whose institutions other countries should emulate. A decade or so earlier, ...
More
At the turn of the twenty-first century, many analysts view the United States as the peak capitalist economy—the economy whose institutions other countries should emulate. A decade or so earlier, analysts saw the United States in a very different light. In the 1970s and 1980s most viewed Japan as the peak capitalist economy. The “changing of the guard” from Japan to the United States as peak capitalist economy raises important questions about the relation between economic institutions and outcomes. Is there in fact a single capitalist model that deserves the title of peak economy? Does the performance of the U.S. and Japanese economies support the notion that in the 1990s the United States had the right stuff, whereas in the 1980s Japan had the best economic institutions? What features of the U.S. system enabled it to outperform other capitalist countries in the 1990s? How do these features compare to those that enabled Japan to outperform other capitalist countries in the 1990s? This chapter examines these questions.Less
At the turn of the twenty-first century, many analysts view the United States as the peak capitalist economy—the economy whose institutions other countries should emulate. A decade or so earlier, analysts saw the United States in a very different light. In the 1970s and 1980s most viewed Japan as the peak capitalist economy. The “changing of the guard” from Japan to the United States as peak capitalist economy raises important questions about the relation between economic institutions and outcomes. Is there in fact a single capitalist model that deserves the title of peak economy? Does the performance of the U.S. and Japanese economies support the notion that in the 1990s the United States had the right stuff, whereas in the 1980s Japan had the best economic institutions? What features of the U.S. system enabled it to outperform other capitalist countries in the 1990s? How do these features compare to those that enabled Japan to outperform other capitalist countries in the 1990s? This chapter examines these questions.
Smoki Musaraj
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- January 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781501750335
- eISBN:
- 9781501750366
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501750335.003.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, European Cultural Anthropology
This chapter describes events of excitement and loss in order to gain a better understanding of how people from all walks of life came to invest in financial schemes in Albania, which became ...
More
This chapter describes events of excitement and loss in order to gain a better understanding of how people from all walks of life came to invest in financial schemes in Albania, which became intertwined with everyday transactions, dreams, and aspirations. It focuses on the Albanian firms that represent an economic reality that is endemic to capitalist economies, such as speculative bubbles and crashes. These firms were all the rage in the early 1990s Albania, attracting 1.5 million investors, in a country of 3 million. Through the study of the Albanian pyramid firms, the chapter takes an ethnographic view of speculative finance. It traces how the Ponzi logics of accumulation, prevalent in the early 1990s Albania, were intricately connected to the significant political and economic transformations of the end of the twentieth century.Less
This chapter describes events of excitement and loss in order to gain a better understanding of how people from all walks of life came to invest in financial schemes in Albania, which became intertwined with everyday transactions, dreams, and aspirations. It focuses on the Albanian firms that represent an economic reality that is endemic to capitalist economies, such as speculative bubbles and crashes. These firms were all the rage in the early 1990s Albania, attracting 1.5 million investors, in a country of 3 million. Through the study of the Albanian pyramid firms, the chapter takes an ethnographic view of speculative finance. It traces how the Ponzi logics of accumulation, prevalent in the early 1990s Albania, were intricately connected to the significant political and economic transformations of the end of the twentieth century.
Mark Mason
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198292647
- eISBN:
- 9780191684937
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198292647.001.0001
- Subject:
- Business and Management, International Business, Political Economy
Japanese foreign direct investment surged into Western markets in the late 1980s provoking intense policy debates in Europe and America. How did the European authorities respond to this ‘Japanese ...
More
Japanese foreign direct investment surged into Western markets in the late 1980s provoking intense policy debates in Europe and America. How did the European authorities respond to this ‘Japanese Challenge’? How did their response compare to the US policy record? Does this international business activity give any insights into the idea of increasing convergence of behaviour of the world's capitalist economies? To answer these questions, the book investigates European policies towards the Japanese Challenge in cross-national and historical perspectives. It compares the policy response of European governments with that of the US government by contrasting case studies in three key sectors: the automobile industry, consumer electronics, and banking. The case studies are then examined in the context of wider policy patterns and models across the entire Triad throughout the postwar period.Less
Japanese foreign direct investment surged into Western markets in the late 1980s provoking intense policy debates in Europe and America. How did the European authorities respond to this ‘Japanese Challenge’? How did their response compare to the US policy record? Does this international business activity give any insights into the idea of increasing convergence of behaviour of the world's capitalist economies? To answer these questions, the book investigates European policies towards the Japanese Challenge in cross-national and historical perspectives. It compares the policy response of European governments with that of the US government by contrasting case studies in three key sectors: the automobile industry, consumer electronics, and banking. The case studies are then examined in the context of wider policy patterns and models across the entire Triad throughout the postwar period.
Robert R. Locke
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198774068
- eISBN:
- 9780191695339
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198774068.001.0001
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Business History, International Business
Every nation likes to believe myths about itself. Americans' belief in the superiority of their managerial know-how seemed to be among those most solidly based in reality. Yet, the author argues, ...
More
Every nation likes to believe myths about itself. Americans' belief in the superiority of their managerial know-how seemed to be among those most solidly based in reality. Yet, the author argues, despite its universal claims, American managerialism has never been more than a cultural peculiarity, one moreover whose claims to superiority had not been proved but assumed, on the premise that the best economy must have the best management. That premise, moreover, has not served American managerialism particularly well, for in the 1970s a gap opened up between the mystique of American management and the reality of a mediocre American managerial performance. The ‘mystique’ collapsed and those looking for best practice began to look elsewhere. The author provides a thorough examination of alternative forms of management that grew up in West Germany and Japan during the past decades. He argues that these alternative management forms have done a better job managing capitalist economies since the 1970s than has American managerialism. In fact, he asserts that American managerialism has become so dysfunctional that it threatens to undermine the prosperity of the American people, and America's role in the future world order. In the final chapter the author suggests ways that American management can follow in order to fulfil its original promise. Looking forward, he urges American management to unlearn much of the received wisdom and learn from the successes of others in order for the nation to enter the 21st century with a management equal to the social and economic challenges.Less
Every nation likes to believe myths about itself. Americans' belief in the superiority of their managerial know-how seemed to be among those most solidly based in reality. Yet, the author argues, despite its universal claims, American managerialism has never been more than a cultural peculiarity, one moreover whose claims to superiority had not been proved but assumed, on the premise that the best economy must have the best management. That premise, moreover, has not served American managerialism particularly well, for in the 1970s a gap opened up between the mystique of American management and the reality of a mediocre American managerial performance. The ‘mystique’ collapsed and those looking for best practice began to look elsewhere. The author provides a thorough examination of alternative forms of management that grew up in West Germany and Japan during the past decades. He argues that these alternative management forms have done a better job managing capitalist economies since the 1970s than has American managerialism. In fact, he asserts that American managerialism has become so dysfunctional that it threatens to undermine the prosperity of the American people, and America's role in the future world order. In the final chapter the author suggests ways that American management can follow in order to fulfil its original promise. Looking forward, he urges American management to unlearn much of the received wisdom and learn from the successes of others in order for the nation to enter the 21st century with a management equal to the social and economic challenges.
Volker R. Berghahn
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780691179636
- eISBN:
- 9780691185071
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691179636.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, Social History
This chapter analyzes the broader context of the three journalists' work in Hamburg as one of several media centers in West Germany. It also explores the question of press freedom during the Cold War ...
More
This chapter analyzes the broader context of the three journalists' work in Hamburg as one of several media centers in West Germany. It also explores the question of press freedom during the Cold War and of how far journalists were able to enjoy it. After all, the West German Basic Law guaranteed the freedom to write and speak, within the limits of the law, without fear of being arrested and imprisoned. The Nazi era, when these freedoms had been suppressed, was over. Yet there was another constraint: after the war the Federal Republic, having abolished Nazi regimentation of the press, adopted a capitalist economy. This meant that the ultimate freedom to publish rested with the publishers and owners of a particular paper. This is the legal background of the emergence of a free press in West Germany. Many journalists who had experienced “un-freedom” and brutal censorship during the Nazi period now found themselves in the era of the Cold War, with its new conformist pressures, which were personified by Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, for he in many ways embodied the autocratic style that continued to pervade post-1945 West German political culture.Less
This chapter analyzes the broader context of the three journalists' work in Hamburg as one of several media centers in West Germany. It also explores the question of press freedom during the Cold War and of how far journalists were able to enjoy it. After all, the West German Basic Law guaranteed the freedom to write and speak, within the limits of the law, without fear of being arrested and imprisoned. The Nazi era, when these freedoms had been suppressed, was over. Yet there was another constraint: after the war the Federal Republic, having abolished Nazi regimentation of the press, adopted a capitalist economy. This meant that the ultimate freedom to publish rested with the publishers and owners of a particular paper. This is the legal background of the emergence of a free press in West Germany. Many journalists who had experienced “un-freedom” and brutal censorship during the Nazi period now found themselves in the era of the Cold War, with its new conformist pressures, which were personified by Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, for he in many ways embodied the autocratic style that continued to pervade post-1945 West German political culture.
