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This chapter examines the nature of capitalism by recalling in the simplest terms the sophisticated sociology of Adam Smith, so often ignored and so very far removed from contemporary economic theory. There are two essential presuppositions to Smith's basic model of commercial society. The first is that economic success results from the way in which the division of labor enhances productivity. The second is that human beings have a natural disposition to “truck, barter and exchange,” and this must be let loose before the division of labor can bring its benefits to mankind as a whole. Based on these two principles, Smith constructs his argument. Smith was one of the earliest theorists of comparative advantage, that is, of the theory that all nations can enter a positive sum game by specializing in those products or industries in which they are specially gifted.

This chapter analyzes the mechanics of failure and the secrets of economic success. Cesar Luis Menotti's strategy's main ingredients could serve as a metaphor for the basic argument in the chapter: any low-income country can achieve sustained and inclusive growth if it properly identifies its endowment structure and uses its most competitive factors to exploit its comparative advantage. The chapter starts with a presentation of the standard model of stabilization and structural adjustment, which has come to dominate development thinking and policy across the world and has survived several decades of critical research. It then explores reasons why the model has endured despite criticism from across the ideological spectrum, especially in the 1980s and 1990s. It also offers an analysis of why traditional policy frameworks derived from the standard model often do not yield results, and it stresses the need to focus growth strategies on coordination and externalities. The chapter ends with a discussion of one of the main side effects of the standard model and its growth prescriptions: the extreme dependence on foreign aid by many low-income economies, especially those in Africa.

This chapter highlights the extent of French economic success in the mid-nineteenth century, providing a deeper understanding of the sources of French imperial expansion. The French empire of taste was not a purely capitalistic enterprise. It pursued profit, but also power and prestige. The chapter explores the cultural, political, and economic origins of French specialization in the provision of luxury and semi-luxury commodities, in order to understand how it helped France regain imperial status after 1815. By reconciling economic modernity with the preservation of firm hierarchies, French conspicuous commodities exercised a special kind of fascination on foreign elites and facilitated collaboration with other imperial and indigenous powers. The act of turning economic gains into global political advantages was especially overt during the Second Napoleonic Empire, and the latter's downfall contributed to the eventual decline of the empire of taste after 1870.

This chapter tests the utility of dominant typologies of modern capitalism in accounting for different patterns of relationship among characteristics of industrial relations systems, the regulation of conditions of employment, and labour-related social spending. It further relates these variables to indicators of economic ‘success’ in the provision of employment and the pursuit of innovation. It finds some, but weak, support for certain elements in typologies, but speculates that the most important differences among capitalist economies might lie at a different level.

This chapter proposes the establishment of social indicators of Latino small business success. The measure of a Latino small business success indicator is limited to three dimensions: operational/economic success, cultural capital success, and social capital success. The economic or operational domain includes the business' duration of existence, profitability, number of employees, core customer base, and owner-customer Latino-origin congruence. The cultural domain seeks to capture and build on cultural assets, and mobilize them to strengthen community bonds. It includes the sponsorship of community social and festivity events; collecting funds for funerals, scholarships, and disasters; support of community sports teams; beautification or Latinization of neighborhoods; and transnational connectedness. With regard to the social domain, social networks are often the primary source of startup capital for Latinos and other groups of color. The social domain includes participation on boards, committees, task forces, and coalitions; membership in and creation of business associations; mentorship and support for community economic development; and foster care parenting/mentoring/volunteering.

This conclusion retraces how the aftermath of the Cold War and the 1997 economic crisis has posed problems for the existing disciplinary modernization that had delivered economic success in Singapore. It explores the modes of the disciplinary governance and argues that the PAP state was caught between the society and culture it created and the society and culture it desired. On the whole, the party remained steadfast to its core mission of matching up with the modern West by using all the important socio-cultural engineering tools designed to reach that goal, with the assumption that culture and subjectivity are instrumentalizable and non-autonomous realms. However, the party failed to recognize that their earlier assumptions of polarized oppositions between political economy and culture, the material and the discursive, are rather obsolete. Having subjected the local society and the culture to external conditions, the party now desired the local to be more dynamic to further economic advancement. While globalization in Singapore has encouraged equality of cultures and diversity, this principle the city-state was inclined to need to be reaffirmed.

Hong Kong was recognized as a political anachronism that was often found to be at risk. The economic strategy imposed by this British-style system was reminiscent of that from the nineteenth century as it was characterized by free trade, a lack of restrictions on currency and imports, small government and low taxes, budget surpluses, negligible state borrowing, minimal government interference, and no subsidies and incentives for development and investment respectively. However, it is important to note that the country has a history of economic success. Also, in spite of how it lacks political sovereignty, Hong Kong stayed standing with its ability to serve as an autonomous international financial center. This chapter looks into how Hong Kong was able to learn from its banking history, and how laissez-faire doctrines had to be given up to achieve financial stability.

Many governments, international organizations, consultancy companies, and academic observers look to Asia’s economic success, recommending that other developing countries follow similar models and paths of development. Indeed, generating lessons from Asia is quite an industry—and a major contributor to the Washington Consensus analysis of the 1990s and early 2000s. However, Asian ‘lesson-making’ usually represents a grave error in policy-thinking and in the historical understanding of the nature and process of development. This chapter examines the paths of successful growth of East and South East Asia, to identify what we can and cannot learn from the Asian experience. The chapter argues that there are no models to imitate and no direct lessons for other developing countries in other regions. It asks the question: if there are no direct lessons or models to imitate, what can other developing countries learn from Asia’s success, if anything?

This chapter shows how the economic success of the United States was built on the successful exploitation of its diverse natural resources and complementary innovations in transportation, in science and engineering, and in property rights regimes. It describes how American industrial success continued as a result of its technological lead, and then examines the development of its natural-resource based industries. The chapter also examines the relationship between natural resources, growth, and political outcomes.

This chapter examines social cohesion, competitiveness, and the policy environment in London, England. It evaluates the impact of competition and cohesion on residential and business communities, and describes how the situation has changed as a result of internationalisation and intensified competition since the early 1980s. The chapter also investigates the role of urban governance in achieving competitiveness and cohesion goals, and analyses the importance of different aspects of social cohesion in sustaining urban economic success.

This chapter examines the uneven terrain of economic success in Punata by focusing on the experiences of members of a group of more prosperous career chola and mestiza market women. In particular, it explores how these women sought to mitigate their fears of envy and sorcery through their religious devotion to an image of Saint James known as “Tata Bombori,” regarded as the patron saint of healers and sorcerers. The chapter begins with a discussion of how concerns about envy and sorcery and the risks they pose to health influenced local embodied understandings of emotional distress in Punata. It then considers the negative connotations of ambition and how public displays of ambition were viewed with ambivalence in Punata. It also provides an overview of the religious pilgrimage to Bombori and its accompanying rituals, showing that devotees perceived it as a way to obtain protection for their entrepreneurial activities as well as an “investment” toward future tranquility.

This concluding chapter connects the insights of the previous chapters, emphasizing the linkages that tie together spatialized definitions of race and gender, the concept of “authenticity,” and the creation of transnational, youthful West Indian subjectivities. It considers how West Indian notions of success are gendered and generational, and reflects on the degree to which West Indian girls' bold critiques and strategic identity assertions translate into real-life opportunities for social empowerment and economic success in the shadow of a museum threatened by economic restructuring and gentrification. In the end, these young women will face choices, both grim and hopeful, as they transition into womanhood and into becoming Americans.

This chapter provides an overview of how a second key ingredient of economic success, that is, a modern articulated financial system, quickly emerged in the Washington administration. According to historians, Alexander Hamilton was the founder most responsible for the financial revolution of 1790. This chapter states that Hamilton, who became a student of financial history while an officer on General Washington's staff during the War of Independence, realized that financial modernization was needed both for effective government and economic growth. With the cooperation of Congress, Hamilton implemented the federal revenue system the Constitution authorized, restructured the national debt and placed it on a sound financial footing, argued for, and obtained, a national banking corporation, and defined the new U.S. dollar and provided for its coinage by calling for a federal mint. Hence effective government and modernized finances, two key ingredients of economic success, were realized very quickly in 1790.

In Chapter 6 the author explores conventional and creative strategies for success by male shamans. Unlike female shamans who constantly push against the larger system, male shamans are gainfully positioned in a male-dominated patriarchal system. Their shamanic strategies include demonstrating kinship affiliations with well-known (during their lifetime) ancestors; seeking international recognition through global travel and networking; and using everyday micro-tactics to recruit clients through casual conversations and impromptu encounters. These postsocialist shamans must also demonstrate their prowess in dealing with the influx of previously suppressed unidentifiable spirits who roam in search for human hosts. Some shamans construct tight-knit kinship enclosures from their origin spirits and block the stranger-spirits from pestering them. Others take the opposite route, adopting the orphaned spirits for various tasks. Economic success and spiritual power prove to be interdependent; material resources are necessary to support spiritual advancement. But this presents a delicate line for shamans to tread: though they display their economic success in order to prove that their spirits are potent, they must also downplay their material interests in order to persuade others of their spiritual power, thus maintaining their credibility and avoiding being labelled “business shamans.”

This chapter discusses the competition state thesis. Globalisation, the decline of the Fordist model of production, and the rise of the global knowledge economy have all played their role in producing a more competitive environment in which welfare states operate. What exactly is the competition state? Where the welfare state seeks to use the tools of the economy to further the public interest and promote social justice, the competition state seeks only economic success, with welfare provisions not only secondary, but offered only when they support the primary goal of economic success. The chapter then summarises and subsequently extends previous empirical work undertaken using the competition state framework in order to assess the extent to which the core thesis is still relevant today.

This chapter argues that the difference in economic success among countries is not a matter of nature, intellect, or genetics. The problem—and the solution—lies in public policies. But effective policies can be created and implemented only if one truly understands what makes the economies of poor (or rich) nations grow. But even during the 1990s, when development economics seemed most promising, it lacked that understanding. The chapter discusses the failure of development economics; the disparities in wealth among those nations at the peak of the global economic landscape; the McKinsey Global Institute research project; and the importance of productivity and why productivity levels are so different around the world.