Understanding Capitalism: Crises and Passive Revolutions

2002 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-212 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xing Li ◽  
Jacques Hersh
Keyword(s):  
Economic System ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Capital Accumulation ◽  
Environmental Concerns ◽  
Modus Operandi ◽  
Economic Level ◽  
Restructuring Strategy ◽  
Production Relations ◽  
Democratic Principles

This article has two objectives: First, it attempts to provide a framework for understanding capitalism's resilient adaptability through analysing the roles of liberal democracy and ecological environmentalism. Both are conceptualised as capitalism's passive revolutions in response to emerging crises – processes of constituting and reconstituting conditions for production and reproduction. Liberal democracy is seen as a political restructuring strategy aimed at producing social control with less coercive measures as well as depolitising social contradictions and economic crises. Ecological environmentalism is argued to be capitalism's ecological restructuring attempt at the economic level in order to rescue an economic system at an impasse and to resolve the contradictions between production relations/forces and the externalities of production. Second, the article aims to conduct a critical analysis of what are considered to be passive revolutions taking place within capitalism in order to uncover their hidden mystifications, contradictions and distortions in the promotion of certain policies, practices, values, cognitions and symbols which are considered to be supportive of the existing capitalist political and economic system. The working assumption is that, due to capitalism's modus operandi which is primarily based on capital accumulation, democratic principles and environmental concerns will eventually have to submit to this inherent imperative.

scholarly journals Rising tides? Data capture, platform accumulation, and new monopolies in the digital music economy

2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 543-561 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leslie M Meier ◽  
Vincent R Manzerolle
Keyword(s):  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Capital Accumulation ◽  
Attention Capture ◽  
Data Capture ◽  
Newspaper Coverage ◽  
Business Strategies ◽  
Digital Music ◽  
Consumer Privacy ◽  
User Data ◽  
Jay Z

This article examines the roles of platform-based distribution and user data in the digital music economy. Drawing on trade press, newspaper coverage, and a consumer privacy complaint, we offer a critical analysis of tech-music partnerships forged between Samsung and Jay-Z (2013), Apple iTunes Store and U2 (2014), Tidal and Kanye West (2016), and Apple Music and Drake (2017). In these cases, information technology (IT) companies supported album releases, and music was used to generate user data and attention: logics of data and attention capture were interwoven. The IT and music industries have adapted their business strategies to what we conceptualize as platform-based capital accumulation or ‘platform accumulation’, and models centred on controlling access and extracting rent have enabled the emergence of new monopolies and IT gatekeepers.

From Relevant to in Demand?

2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 (3) ◽  
pp. 3-22
Author(s):  
Andrey Shastitko
Keyword(s):  
Economic Theory ◽  
Economic History ◽  
Capital Accumulation ◽  
Karl Marx ◽  
Subsequent Development ◽  
Fundamental Question ◽  
Economic Research ◽  
Institutional Economic ◽  
Production Relations ◽  
Key Aspects

The article offers a survey of some of the ideas of Karl Marx in the context of the subsequent development of the new institutional economic theory in the 20th - early 21st centuries. It discusses various aspects of the unity of the historical and the logical in Marx’s Capital in the light of various ways of combining the historical and the theoretical in economic research, including a new economic history. The article considers the issues of the linkages between the problems of import and transplantation of institutes and the export of production relations, as well as the interaction of institutes and technologies, but in the context of the contradiction between productive forces and production relations, and possible parallels between the initial ideas of transaction costs and costs of circulation in the second volume of Marx’s Capital. It discusses the fundamental question of the absolute law of capital accumulation in the context of two key aspects of institutes - coordination and distribution.

A Critical Analysis of Capitalism, Capital Accumulation and Crisis Theory in David Harvey

2020 ◽  
pp. 097674792095300
Author(s):  
Tanaya Majumder
Keyword(s):  
Business Cycles ◽  
Critical Review ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Capital Accumulation ◽  
Capitalist Economy ◽  
Crisis Theory ◽  
Surplus Labour ◽  
The One ◽  
Rate Of Profit ◽  
Marxist Tradition

This article is a critical review of David Harvey’s essentialist theorisation of a capitalist economy and its crisis from a class focused Marxist perspective. The first part examines Harvey’s immense contribution to the understanding of space and spatiality of capitalism within the Marxist tradition. Capital accumulation in his theorisation serves as the impresario of space and spatiality and the harbinger of capitalist crisis in general. Expanding on a class focused approach, the second part provides a critique of Harvey’s methodology and crisis theory in which the law of capital accumulation reigns supreme. Specifically, using an anti-essentialist methodology of overdetermination with class process of surplus labour as the theoretical entry point, as developed by Resnick and Wolff, I argue that no correspondence of the rate of capital accumulation with those of rate of profit and rate of class distribution can be drawn. This unpredictability renders capitalism inherently unstable, prone to business cycles whose cause cannot be reduced to any chosen causal factor such as the one reducible to capital accumulation.

scholarly journals Kontradiksi Demokrasi Liberal dan “Akhir Sejarah” Yang Tertunda

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 88-104
Author(s):  
Eva Novi Karina
Keyword(s):  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Capital Accumulation ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Political Liberalism ◽  
Free Market ◽  
Human Society ◽  
Equal Rights ◽  
Market Mechanisms ◽  
Historical Developments ◽  
Political Economic

Due to historical developments and the works of theorists such as Francis Fukuyama, predominant political-economic literature has claimed that the combination of a “free market economy” and “liberal democracy built on equal rights” results in the most developed form of human society. With economic and political liberalism, societies of Western Europe and North America “at the vanguard of civilization” considered have reached the endpoint of humankind’s ideological evolution hence Western liberal democracy has been perceived as the final form of human government. However, the current rising wave of right-wing populism along with the exercise of protectionist economic measures in the most developed democratic countries has shown that democracy has begun to malfunction. Depart from this point, this article aims to re-examine the relationship between free market and democracy, and analyses the real inequalities manifested in income and the ownership of the means of production, and the inequalities within capitals, and between capital and wage labor. It concludes that the logic of market mechanisms poses a threat to democracy, while the extension of democracy would inevitably limit the freedom of the market and curb capital accumulation.

scholarly journals A ARTICULAÇÃO DOS ACONTECERES NA CONS-TRUÇÃO DOS FLUXOS GLOBAIS: NOTAS SOBRE OS CIRCUITO ESPACIAL PRODUTIVO DE MEDICA-MENTOS NA FRANÇA E NO BRASIL

GEOgraphia ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (48) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ricardo Mendes Antas Jr.
Keyword(s):  
Pharmaceutical Industry ◽  
Nous Avons ◽  
Division Of Labor ◽  
Industrial Production ◽  
Capital Accumulation ◽  
Pharmaceutical Products ◽  
The State ◽  
Modus Operandi ◽  
Transnational Companies ◽  
Technical Division

Resumo: No presente artigo, analisamos o circuito espacial produtivo de medicamentos presente nos territórios francês e brasileiro e determinadas trocas realizadas entre esses países, mas não exclusivamente. Abordamos a combinação de aconteceres homólogos, complementares e hierárquicos na execução das ações globais que constituem os circuitos espaciais produtivos, isto é, a articulação desses aconteceres por parte das corporações e do Estado de modo a promover uma sincronia entre os chamados espaços da globalização para efetivar uma divisão territorial do trabalho global. Inicialmente, discute-se a pertinência do conceito de circuito espacial produtivo em vez de cadeia produtiva ou redes de produção global. Em seguida, a articulação entre os aconteceres para a realização de ações globais. Por fim, elegemos quatro complexos de eventos do ramo farmacêutico e o modo como se apresentam nos territórios francês e brasileiro para abordar a produção de simultaneidades instrumentais à competitividade para as empresas do referido circuito espacial.Palavras chave: Circuito espacial produtivo de medicamentos. Acontecer solidário. Simultaneidade. Brasil. França. THE ARTICULATION OF EVENTS IN BUILDING OF GLOBAL FLOWS: NOTES ON THE PRODUCTIVE SPATIAL CIRCUIT OF DRUGS IN FRANCE AND BRAZILAbstract: We analyzed the spatial circuit of pharmaceutical products in French and Brazilian territories from the flow of productive inputs to this industrial production. In order to understand the modus operandi of these exchanges, we applied the concepts of homologous, complementary and hierarchical events and their articulation by companies and the State, to identify the technical division of labor between the industries of these two countries. We were able to verify the pharmaceutical industry articulations and productive particularities of each country to increase capital accumulation. We identified this intentional combination of events by transnational companies and the State by the use of simultaneity to strengthen capitalist competitiveness.Keywords: Spatial circuit of pharmaceutical products. Homologous, complementary and hierarchical events. Space-time simultaneity. Brazil. France Résumé: Nous avons analysé le circuit spatial des médicaments dans les territoires français et brésiliens à partir des flux d’intrants productifs nécessaires à cette production industrielle. Pour comprendre le traitement de ces échanges, nous avons utilisé les concepts d’événements homologues, complémentaires et hiérarchiques et leur articulation par les entreprises et l’État, identifiant comment une division technique du travail a été réalisée entre les industries installées dans ces deux pays. Nous avons pu vérifier que les laboratoires pharmaceutiques transnationaux articulent les particularités institutionnelles et productives de chaque pays pour augmenter l’accumulation de capital. Nous avons identifié cette combinaison intentionnelle d’événements par des sociétés transnationales et l’État comme l’utilisation de la simultanéité espace-temps pour renforcer la compétitivité capitaliste.Mots-clés: Circuit spatial des médicaments. Événements homologues, complémentaires et hiérarchiques. Simultanéité. Brésil. France. 

scholarly journals Contribution of Ambedkar in India’s Federal Finance System

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 8-16
Author(s):  
Manjula Laxman
Keyword(s):  
Economic System ◽  
Economic Life ◽  
Economic Welfare ◽  
Finance System ◽  
Colonial India ◽  
Economic Level ◽  
The People ◽  
The Social ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
Important Branch

Ambedkar was a multifaceted personality who made deep impression on the social-political-economic life of India of his times. Ambedkar provided valuable guidance on the socio-political-economic platform in colonial India and independent India as well; yet economists have generally ignored his contributions to India. In this context, this article examines his significant role in federal finance, which is an important branch of economics and makes an effort to understand and evaluate the process of its development and his contribution to it. He had played a major role in a newborn country like India. He had been one of the contributors to the Constitution of India and had contributed towards the development of the federal finance system in independent India. His main insistence on the federal finance system was for economic welfare of the people with the establishment of such an economic system from the local to centre levels, which could progressively raise their economic level without jeopardizing their interests.

scholarly journals The Sustainable Imperative—Smart Cities, Technology and Development

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (21) ◽  
pp. 8892 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gusti Ayu Made Suartika ◽  
Alexander Cuthbert
Keyword(s):  
Smart City ◽  
Capital Accumulation ◽  
Smart Cities ◽  
Social Constructs ◽  
Urban Problems ◽  
Democratic Principles ◽  
Natural Capitalism ◽  
The One ◽  
Legal Controls ◽  
The Relationship

This paper investigates the relationship between the smart city concept and its applications that are heavily technologically focused. Using principles derived from political economy, it denies the “smart city” approach as an idealist/utopian solution to urban problems and focuses on what the smart city is. We also maintain that the smart city cannot be considered an independent force in urbanization. While the benefits of technology are undeniable, such technologies are frequently applied prior to establishing appropriate social and legal controls. We therefore focus on the sociopolitical dimensions of the debate and do this by compounding the smart city ideology with two other social constructs, namely the concept of “sustainable development” on the one hand and “natural capitalism” on the other. In combination, these three ideologies are mutually dependent. They promote a concentration of private capital and are perpetuated as ideological structures focused on capital accumulation rather than equality and social democracy. Following these trends, much research on smart cities appears to be compromised, and a new ethical approach is required. In conclusion, we suggest that the smart city concept and its implementation must realign itself to this objective if democratic principles founded upon social justice are to be promoted.

Entrepreneurial Education

2020 ◽  
pp. 192-210
Author(s):  
Noemia Carneiro de Araujo Resende ◽  
André Luiz Cardoso Coelho ◽  
Elisandro dos Santos Lima ◽  
Maria Raidalva Nery Barreto ◽  
Jocelma Almeida Rios
Keyword(s):  
Social Transformation ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Basic Education ◽  
Entrepreneurial Activity ◽  
Social Forces ◽  
Entrepreneurial Education ◽  
Continuous Training ◽  
Modus Operandi ◽  
Theoretical Conception ◽  
Education In Brazil

This chapter presents entrepreneurial education as a source of social transformation in relation to the urgent need to adapt to the new modus operandi, influenced by economic and social forces. The goal is to provoke reflections on the theoretical conception of being an entrepreneur, the education, the entrepreneurial activity that drives changes, the growth and the development of the local and global economies based on the analysis of entrepreneurial education in Brazil as a methodic journey through a literature review and critical analysis by the authors, who gather solid experience in the area of education for entrepreneurship. As a result of the study, there is the need for intensive investments which offer entrepreneurial education from basic education, in order to attend the continuous training directed to students, beginner and experienced entrepreneurs, and to individuals in immigration situations.

Extractivism or specificity of capital accumulation? A critique on the extractivist approach regarding the case of Argentina

2021 ◽  
pp. 030981682110174
Author(s):  
Nicolás Pérez Trento
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Capital Accumulation ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Development Model ◽  
Political Transformations ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Latin American Countries

The recent economic and political transformations in many Latin American countries have been increasingly analysed under the (neo-)extractivism approach. Specifically, the debate surrounding the contradictions and limitations of this development model, as well as its consequences, gained traction among scholars. In this article, we intend to put forth a critical analysis of this approach with the goal of giving an account of its explanatory power, focusing on Argentina. In order to do this, we summarize some of the more noteworthy conceptual features of (neo-)extractivism, as well as the main arguments to include Argentina as a case. Then, after presenting some immediate conceptual limitations linked to this theoretical perspective, we introduce an alternative approach in regard to the specific way in which capital accumulation takes place in Argentina, based on the Critique of Political Economy put forward by Marx in Capital, and taking the global unity of capital accumulation as a starting point. This allows us to critically engage, in the last section, with the main claims of extractivism.

Demokracja nieliberalna jako projekt polityczny

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 11-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrzej Antoszewski
Keyword(s):  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Political System ◽  
Separation Of Powers ◽  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Political Behaviour ◽  
Political Consequences ◽  
Illiberal Democracy ◽  
Democratic Principles ◽  
Second World

Illiberal democracy seems to be one of the most important topics for political scientists studying the process of post­communist democratisation. It may be – and often has been – considered as a real alternative for models of democracy developing in the Western political hemisphere. This article focuses on the sources of crisis of liberal democracy and possible political consequences of its replacing by an illiberal vision of political system. Author hypothesises that making illiberal democracy real requires the reinterpretation of main democratic principles, such as representation or separation of powers, as well as abandoning of political consensus, present in consolidated West European democracies after the Second World War, and, in effect, fundamental change of patterns of political behaviour. The question of the future of illiberal democracy is also posed and three possible scenarios are considered.

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