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Consumers Against Capitalism?
Ellen Furlough
Manufacturer: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
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ASIN: 0847686493 |
Book Description
In this important collection of essays, historians from six different countries trace the history of the consumer cooperative movement in much of western Europe and North America from its inception to the present. The consumer cooperative, as the contributors show, bears directly on the role of socialist parties, the nascent feminist movement, and conceptions of the worker's role in a changing economy and society in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Book Description
A refreshing, insightful look into the political and economic dynamics driving globalization today
Globalization: it's earlier than you think. That's the provocative message of Against the Dead Hand, which traces the rise and fall of the century-long dream of central planning and top-down control and its impact on globalization-revealing the extent to which the "dead hand" of the old collectivist dream still shapes the contours of today's world economy. Mixing historical narrative, thought-provoking arguments, and on-the-scene reporting and interviews, Brink Lindsey shows how the economy has grown up amidst the wreckage of the old regime-detailing how that wreckage constrains the present and obscures the future. He conveys a clearer picture of globalization's current state than the current conventional wisdom, providing a framework for anticipating the future direction of the world economy.
Customer Reviews:
what you never learned in Poli Sci 101.......2005-10-11
I bought this book to help in my research on a masters thesis...I think it is excellent. The book moves between (overly) scholarly erudition at times to almost poetic prose at others. You will defiantly feel where the action picks up and where it drops off...but it is understandable when you are trying to build a scholarly case on this subject.
Essentially he argues that liberalism (free markets, limited government, and individual rights) lost the battle in the 20th century, but had been on a decline since the late 1800s in some areas. The result was a century of warfare, massacres, and sustained poverty.
The scholarly work and assumptions made in this book are not the work of childish or child like intelligence. It is quite the opposite. Have you ever heard a free market advocate arguing "Look even a child understands it, it must be true!" Never, such are the arguments of communists and socialists. The real childish assumptions come overwhelmingly from the global left. The belief that poverty can be solved simply be re-distributing wealth shows painful ignorance of the economics involved. (though Lindsey is not hostile to "saftey nets"...I don't believe in the free market long run saftey nets will be needed at all...politically I recognize they would be necessary to get anything accomplished, but only if they are made more effecient like a negative tax proposed by Milton Friedman) Further ignorance is demonstrated through their assumptions that free markets exploit. Free markets are based on voluntary transactions, and as a voluntary transaction IT CANNOT BE EXPLOITIVE.
I agree with Lindsey that the leftist assumptions are the results of years of fallacious reasoning...intentionally or unintentionally; they are wrong on almost all accounts. I however find their love for their fellow human and desire to increase the welfare of society to be admirable, their solutions however are the causes to the problems they address. They don't understand history, politics, or economics. And they always blame the market for problems that the market often did not cause by conveniently forgetting or ignoring the government involvement in the creation of said problem (example, the Asian Financial Crisis of the late 1990s...always blamed on free market capitalism when in fact fixed exchange rates, policies of the government not free trade, were a major cause of the crisis).
Current empirical evidence suggests, as Lindsey agrees, that economic freedom is strongly connected to civil and political freedom. That is, the more economically free a country is the more civil and political freedom the citizens enjoy...what we now call democracy is realized.
It is no coincidence that the forces who tried the hardest to suppress economic freedom also killed off vast portions of their populations...these are the Fascist and Communist governments that the Left have confused as polar opposites...they are not, both hate economic freedom and as a result both hate civil and political freedom.
Lindsey goes through great detail to list the conditions in the rise of liberalism and its decline. With the help of Hayek and Friedman he shows how government intervention and anti liberal policies helped bring about WWI, the great depression and WWII. The results of all of these were a belief that markets don't work and governments do. In the end, we live in a world that still fears globalization and free markets...a world that conflates free markets with mercantilism and continues to argue that free markets don't work in fact its their very own policy preferences that continue to cause global problems.
Example: protectionism (tariffs and quotas) protect the wealth of the first world capital owners at the expense of the first world consumers (who pay higher prices) and third world laborers (who have more difficulty finding employment) and third world capital owners (who find difficulty in creating and maintaining an export industry). PROTECTIONISM IS A WEALTH TRANSFER FROM POOR TO RICH, that ironically most leftists seem to accept ignorantly unaware that in no way are workers actually protected. Free trade is the opposite of this. Barriers are removed, jobs are created between both first and third world countries, trade ensues, both sides are lifted up through increasing prosperity and wealth creation.
Free markets are not the end all for the debate in this book. Lindsey recognizes that the forces that destroyed liberalism once before are still at work. Their arguments, assumptions, and ignorance still lives and has the potential to again mobilize a mass movement against liberalism...and ironically for totalitarianism. That being said, the summary of his book is that globalization and free markets are not inevitable nor invinsible.
No hard core leftist will read this book and suddenly be converted. They will likely throw confused fits of frustration and show little ability to counter the arguments found inside. Classic Liberals and those more favorable to the free market will find themselves with a highly compelling argument in this book that will strengthen their own understanding of globalization. Those who find themselves in the center will find a book that challenges many of the major assumptions that most of society accepts...it may leave you wondering exactly how you went through your entire education and were never presented with any of these arguments or facts.
But the sad state of public education is another book altogether... :P
Economics & history that is plainspoken and factual.......2003-12-04
I'm not surprised that preceding customer reviews are love-or-hate. Lindsey is a free-market advocate, trying to zap anything that remotely resembles marxist, top-down central planning. He clearly advocates a strong and responsible role for government, for important duties such as: protecting individual rights (including orderly transfers of property), centralized functions that cannot compete with market driven processes (e.g. defense), and providing economically sustainable safety nets for those who need help and care and have no resources.
It might be hard to see if Lindsey's heart is a youthful 16 or 20--he definitely doesn't come across as a socialist. But his principles have anecdotal, qualitative and quantitative truths from more than a century of history, so his brain is certainly working just fine. For example, Lindsey presents a compelling case on protectionism leading to trade wars and world war. His equating pay-as-you-go entitlement systems (legislated by leaders such as Bismarck, chiefly concerned with opiating the masses) with Ponzi or pyramid schemes (deemed illegal by the same governments) is unassailable.
If you care about shaping the socioeconomic world that our children and grandchildren will be inheriting, and if you are concerned about what fiction will be taught to them in most universities (e.g. liberally spun Keynesian economics, without contrasting neoclassical or monetarist economics, or even historical resultants of collectivist policies), this is a great book.
If you want to revisit the Dark Ages, then disparage this book and its commendable author.
Painfully ignorant and simplistic--an embarrasment to Cato.......2003-11-29
Brink Lindsey is a fundamentalist. He believes that "free trade" will cure every problem in the world. And he believes that a lack of "free trade" is to blame for wars, poverty, and all other ills of humankind. Unfortunately, Lindsey seems to possess a childish understanding of "free trade," of world history, and of economics.
To take just one flaw, in a book filled with flaws... Rather than carefully examine the wholesale gutting of Russia, when free trade fanatics took over (in the early 1990s), and when the Russian economic nearly collapsed, industrial output plunged, corruption and crime roared, prostitution exploded, AIDS and drug epidemics devoured the nation, poverty is up exponentially--and Lindsey can only say that they didn't go far enough!
Three billion humans live on less than a dollar a day--and while 45 million human beings face death from AIDS, Lindsey offers them only the market. Most of them will die, while free marketeers talk of future salvation.
One need only read Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz's Globalization and its Discontents for a far more intelligent overview of capitalism today. Stiglitz, who is an ardent fan of capitalism, carefully disects the ways in which "free trade" is often anything but.
The problem with free market lunatics like Lindsey is that they fail to see the ways in which powerful nations and corporations bully the marketplace, control politics, and stack the deck in their favor. Just look at the cartels which control oil, fruit, cocoa, diamonds, automobiles, etc. They control prices, laws, wages, and politics around the globe. They profit from wars and from child labor. It takes either a fool or a free market fantasy to miss these basic problems with unregulated "free trade." Like all fundamentalists, Lindsey needs less faith and fervor and more critical analysis.
Wide-ranging but one-eyed........2003-10-05
Lindsey is a neo-conservative and this book represents a wide-ranging but finally unsatisfactory addition to the non-debate about globalisation. It divides the world into two groups - the free marketers, who are good, and the collectivists, who are anti-modern and the cause of most if not all the failings of the current highly imperfect free markets. Anyone who can lump George Soros' concept of the Open Society with collectivism, really has a bad dose of the current tendency to declare 'if you are not with us, you are against us'.
Read the book for a sometimes fascinating excursion into history, politics, the informal economy, the failings of collectivism and state control (but not the failings of the market), but do not expect to have much light cast on the underlying issues of wealth and poverty, sustainability and the proper place of money in judging the progress of society. Equally, do not expect to see useful engagement with the issue of the role of great international economic agencies (WTO, IMF, World Bank) and the processes by which nations, corporates and the common people influence their decisions.
A Fresh and Well-Argued Discussion of Globalization.......2003-09-04
Challenging the new consensus on globalization in this book, Brink Lindsey "portrays globalization as a kind of wholesome vacuum filler, the vacuum having been created by the loss of credibility and authority of statism and collectivism, the regnant economic and political doctrines in the world for most of the twentieth century. Near-universal statism, he maintains, choked off the naturally expansive impulses of capital, the precedent for which was the explosion of the world economy in the half-century or so before World War I. He claims that blame for the interwar implosion of the world economy lies with statism and collectivism. He sees the future as a struggle between forces of globalization -- a liberal world order, that is -- and the remnants of statism, giving the nod to liberalism in this contest because of its successful record in promoting economic welfare, in contrast to the proven failure of statism and collectivism."
"This book is a qualified success because of its fresh and carefully argued perspective on economic globalization," yet "certain aspects of Lindsey's economic history may not stand up to scrutiny."
"A methodological point of considerable significance is Lindsey's use of qualitative evidence to show that statism refuses to die and is defended everywhere by vested interests and laws that are difficult to change, making the struggle between the dead hand and the invisible one a momentous issue of our time. Although Lindsey is correct to assert that the dead hand remains with us, it is nonetheless difficult to form a clear picture of the extent, strength, or influence of the past from his discussion."
Thus, it would be helpful if Lindsey showed "more carefully than he does that free-market forces have the stronger hand to play. His argument in one brief -- indeed, cursory -- chapter is merely that no viable alternative to markets exists as a macroeconomic organizing principle, so that the triumph of liberalism sooner or later must arrive despite stubborn and effective resistance from the forces of the dead hand. This conclusion assumes a certain degree of rationality and pragmatism on the part of the world body politic that some...might not yet be willing to grant."
-From "The Independent Review," Spring 2003
Book Description
This book will address a number of urgent themes in education today that include multiculturalism, the politics of whiteness, the globalization of capital, neoliberalism, postmodernism, imperialism, and current debates in Marxist social theory. The above themes will be linked to critical educational praxis, particularly to teaching activities within urban schools. Finally, the book will develop the basis for a wider political project directed at resisting and transforming economic exploitation, cultural homogenization, political repression, and gender inequality.
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McLaren and Farahmandpur -Contra-Band Pedagogy.......2005-01-03
With the precision of a surgeon, the vision of a sage, the passion of a teacher, and the cynicism of a philosopher, McLaren and Farahmandpur examine globalization, Imperialism, Marxism, and teaching policy through well researched past, a brilliant handle on a present, and a passionate call for a future of critical revolutionary pedagogy.
McLaren and Farahmandpur address an audience ranging from theorists to elementary school teachers; thus the appropriate use of language and sentence structure. In addition, the subtle sense of humor, entwined with a rich content, make this book a must read. I give it five stars
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- Excellence in explaining what can be "boring"
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Against the Market: Political Economy, Market Socialism & the Marxist Critique
David McNally
Manufacturer: Verso
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ASIN: 0860916065 |
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Excellence in explaining what can be "boring".......2002-08-01
I chose this book for a book review for my Political Theory class. I love to read and write about marxism and market socialism, but every other book I've read has been boring, until I read this book. This book has an amazingly fresh approach to market socialism and political economy. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to look at a different side of Marxism and socialism; moreover, I highly recommend this book to any political science students who want an excellent summertime read to keep the brain in order ;) very good book! buy it!
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- Silly socialist airhead
- Silly conservative propaganda
- Response to Publisher's Commentary
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South Africa's War Against Capitalism:
Walter E. Williams
Manufacturer: Praeger Publishers
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ASIN: 027593179X |
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Williams begins with a brief overview of South African history, the racial and ethnic diversity of its peoples, and the development of thinking about apartheid. He then highlights some of South Africa's legal institutions, particularly its racially discriminatory laws, and traces the historical forces behind racially discriminatory labor law. Subsequent chapters apply standard economic analysis to apartheid in business and the labor market and consider market challenges to apartheid and governmental responses. Finally, Williams summarizes recent changes to apartheid laws and offers a general discussion of the lessons about racial relations that can be drawn from the South African experience.
Customer Reviews:
Silly socialist airhead.......2005-12-16
"This book shows absolutely no understanding of South Africa's history and economic institutions. In particular, Williams conveniently ignores the role capitalists played in constructing the racist institutions in South Africa in his attempt to portray apartheid as anti-capitalist. One of the most biased interpretations of South African history in existence (rivaled only by the work of W. H. Hutt). Recommended only for conservatives who don't want their view of reality cluttered with actual facts."
You're damn right that early "capitalists" supported the apartheid regime, but only because they didn't want black people to have the economic freedom that the whites did. It's called an unequal distribution of capitalism. The whites had capitalism in South Africa, whereas the blacks had socialism. You forget that capitalism is an economic system, not a type of person (unless they believe in that system). The apartheid regime was socialist and against capitalism, because it denied blacks the right to own property and intervened in order to help out special interests. It's kind of like how many regulations ultimately help big businesses and corporations by squashing mom and pop stores.
Silly conservative propaganda.......2002-06-19
This book shows absolutely no understanding of South Africa's history and economic institutions. In particular, Williams conveniently ignores the role capitalists played in constructing the racist institutions in South Africa in his attempt to portray apartheid as anti-capitalist. One of the most biased interpretations of South African history in existence (rivaled only by the work of W. H. Hutt). Recommended only for conservatives who don't want their view of reality cluttered with actual facts.
Response to Publisher's Commentary.......1998-12-23
The publisher's representative is correct is asserting that William's main objective is to defend capitalism against the charge that "apartheid is a result of capitalism". Unfortunately, the remainder of the commentary on William's book is both dishonest and scurrilous. The commentator employs many of the classic intellectual defenses used by members of left when confronted with the sad and sorry result of over 100 years of collectivist thought and action. The "perfectly competitive market" straw man, the "state capitalism" chimera, the ever useful "fascist" label for right-wing Socialists, and the spurious claim that government is the only avenue for political and economic advancement for oppressed groups are disingenuous weapons in the arsenal of a Collectivist movement forced to confront the real-world results of their theorizing i.e. Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Stalin's Russia, Mao's China, Pol Pot's Cambodia, and Mengitsu's Ethiopia.
Williams does not take liberties in defining capitalism and socialism. He uses standards defined in most economic textbooks i.e. the greater the amount of governmental interference in an economy, the more socialist the economy. His ideas are not preconceived, nor does he attempt to downplay the impact of a vicious and immoral racist society on the perpetrators and victims. He does argue persuasively that apartheid without extensive government controls in the economic and political life of South Africa is untenable. Apartheid existed because a Socialist economy allowed the instigators to diffuse the costs of racism among the general population, white, black, and colored. In an open market without government subsidies and supports, racist employers are forced to absorb the risks and costs associated with their preferences (higher wages paid to eligible workers, fewer potential clients, and a loss of information from market distortions). In South Africa a large majority of the Boer population was able to enjoy exercising their racist proclivities as a result of extensive subsidies from a Socialist state. The commentator bemoans the institutional controls erected by the apartheid regime, including closed national and international markets, disenfranchisement, and the failure to adequately develop human capital. The publisher's representative will find absolutely nothing in the writings of Williams, Freidman, Sowell, Becker, Hayek, or Von Mises supporting the type of regime created by the Boers in South Africa.
There is no such animal as State Capitalism. It is an invention of socialists who are unable to explain why their ideas, wherever applied, result in totalitarianism. Perfectly competitive markets have never existed. Most young economic students learn this fact early in their careers. Fascism, when used by leftists to describe odious governments, is an empty epithet. All so-called fascist states have economic systems that are indistinguishable from their left-wing variants.
Book Description
In recent years John Bellamy Foster has emerged as a leading theorist of the Marxist perspective on ecology. His seminal book
Marx's Ecology (Monthly Review Press, 2000) discusses the place of ecological issues within the intellectual history of Marxism and on the philosophical foundations of a Marxist ecology, and has become a major point of reference in ecological debates. This historical and philosophical focus is now supplemented by more directly political engagement in his new book,
Ecology against Capitalism. In a broad-ranging treatment of contemporary ecological politics, Foster deals with such issues as pollution, sustainable development, technological responses to environmental crisis, population growth, soil fertility, the preservation of ancient forests, and the "new economy" of the Internet age.
Foster's introduction sets out the unifying themes of these essays enabling the reader to draw from them a consolidated approach to a rapidly-expanding field of debate which is of critical importance in our times.
Within these debates on the politics of ecology, Foster's work develops an important and distinctive perspective. Where many of these debates assume a basic divergence of "red" and "green" issues, and are concerned with the exact terms of a trade-off between them, Foster argues that Marxism
properly understood
already provides the framework within which ecological questions are best approached. This perspective is advanced here in accessible and concrete form, taking account of the major positions in contemporary ecological debate.
Customer Reviews:
A Positive Alternative to Capitalism.......2002-11-17
John Bellamy Foster's "Ecology Against Capitalism" is a collection of essays that addresses some of the various aspects of capitalism's crisis of accumulation and the environment. Importantly, the author compares and contrasts the failures of the ecological economics model with the more promising ecosocialist paradigm, arguing that the latter is humanity's best chance to create a stable, healthy and humane world.
I haven't read any other books by Foster, but it is hard to imagine a better effort. This powerful little book is written with passion, clarity and purpose. Foster seems to pack more meaning in 170 pages than others who use twice the space. Consequently one can imagine the book serving as an excellent supplemental textbook for students who may be interested in rapidly developing their critical thinking skills.
Many of the articles discuss how the growth of capitalism is leading to environmental collapse. Foster shows that assigning market values to nature and introducting relatively less harmful technologies will not end the destruction. Rather, these so-called Green Economics solutions will merely lead to a "more efficient exploitation of the environment" (pg. 58) by the capital markets.
Foster strongly believes that a moral element is at play. The "higher immorality" of the bourgeoise class is implicit in its accumulation of material goods and profits at the expense of the poor and the environment; but it is also sometimes explicitly stated, such as in Lawrence Summers' infamous World Bank memo where a policy of exporting pollution to poor countries was rationalized because the economies are less developed there.
In my opinion, one of the best passages on the issue of morality concerned Foster's devastating critique of Malthus, who was one of the original apologists for the privileged class. Foster brilliantly turns the cult of Malthusianism on its head by arguing that the environmental crisis is a result of overconsumption by the rich, not the poor. Foster points out that neo-Malthusianism remains influential within neoliberal thought and argues forcefully that it must end if we are to ever stop deluding ourselves and get to work on real solutions to the crisis.
Foster's personal experiences with the timber industry conflicts in the Pacific Northwest are related in the book's lengthiest essay. The author discusses the limits of achieveing environmental sustainability without class struggle and the support of labor. Interestingly, Foster demonstrates the practical value of ecosocialist theory by articulating a workable solution that went beyond the rhetoric of "jobs versus logs". Perhaps not surpisingly, the author tells us that the promising proposal was quashed by a Bush Sr. administration official in favor of a pro-industry solution.
Ultimately, Foster shows that an ecosocialist society that values democracy, community and nature can indeed create "a positive, not just a negative, alternative to capitalism" (pg. 132). I urge you to read this outstanding book.
An Ecology without Capitalism?.......2002-06-06
In this new book John Bellamy Foster has assembled a great deal of evidence (in a dozen chapters written and published over the last decade) that the earth's ecology is incompatible with capitalism. But is there an alternative?
Foster says: "A shift toward a broad movement for ecological conversion and the creation of a sustainable society also means that that the partnership between the state and the capitalist class, which has always formed the most important linchpin of the capitalist system, must be loosened by degrees, as part of an overall social and environmental revolution. This partnership must be replaced, in the process of a radical transformation of the society, by a new partnership between democratized state power and popular power" (p. 132).
Reading just that far, one might conclude that such a loosening by degrees could be achieved within the two-party system in the United States or in other regimes where voters choose between conservatives and liberals. Certainly many environmental progressives (if that's not a contradiction) have opted to work within the existing political duopoly.
But the Ralph Nader campaigns of 1996 and 2000, and the concomitant rise of the Green Party, presage a different direction. It is one, however, which will require both a deeper and more ecological understanding of the incompatibility of ecosystems with a profit system, and a more radical politics than the market-regulation offered by the Green Party platform and Citizen Nader's narrower planks.
Foster goes on to say: "Such a shift requires revolutionary change that must be more than simply a rejection of capitalist methods of accumulation and their effects on people and the environment. Socialism -- as a positive, not just a negative, alternative to capitalism -- remains essential to the conversion process, because its broad commitment to worldwide egalitarian change reflects an understanding of 'how the needs of the various communities can be fit together in a way that leaves nobody out, and that also satisfies global environmental requirements'."
In his major opus, Marx's Ecology (2000), Foster showed Marx's development of an ecological perspective that drew from the latest natural science discoveries. These included the discovery of the micro metabolic cycles by the cell theorists, Theodor Schwann and Matthias Schleiden, which Marx linked with the discovery of the grand metabolic cycles of earth and sky by the agrochemist Justus von Liebig. To this one would have to add the influence on Marx of Karl Fraas, an important figure in forest ecology neglected by Foster and most scholars in this country.
Marx's resulting awareness of the ecological care necessary to plan a sustainable socialism was ignored, however, by the Soviet Union under Stalin, as Foster showed, despite profound contributions by scientists like Vladimir I. Vernadsky, whose 1924 book, The Biosphere (1998), has become an internationally-recognized classic of ecology. Critical radicals today, and particularly those in the ecosocialism paradigm, reject the lack of democracy and bureaucratic centralism of such regimes, which
played a key role in the adoption of policies that degraded the environment.
Nevertheless, Foster argues, "Within a socialist framework, the sources of the largest-scale and most severe environmental destruction could be dealt with head-on, in a way that has already shown itself to be beyond the capacity -- not to say against the interests -- of capital."
Foster acknowledges a range of collaborators and rivals in the crafting of his new book. Most important is Paul Burkett, whose
Marx and Nature: A Red and Green Perspective (1999) finally clarified the distinction between the human use of nature and the exploitation of the exchange value of commodities. Foster also cites James O'Connor, author of Natural Causes (1998)as showing that "While there are many variations in economic growth theory, all presuppose that capitalism cannot stand still...that it must 'accumulate or die,' in Marx's words" (p. 80).
Although Foster's new book appeared at the same time as Joel Kovel's The Enemy of Nature (2002), which has the same basic theme, the books are quite different. Foster's collection of articles is intended to deal with specifics, it is "an attempt to intervene directly in contemporary political-economic debates on capitalism and the environment..." (p. 7). Kovel's book is actually an intervention into eco-politics and provides a sustained exploration of Ecosocialism as compared and contrasted with Deep Ecology, Bioregionalism, Anarchist Social Ecology, and particularly with Populism and variants of small-business capitalism.
If Foster's new book is focused on what needs to be undone in an ecological and economic conversion, Kovel's is much more a manual of what needs to be done to build the alternative to capitalism. The books actually complement each other, and both are essential tools for the ecological activist and the open-minded citizen.
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Toxic Capitalism: Corporate Crime and the Chemical Industry (Socio-legal Studies)
Frank Pearce , and
Steve Tombs
Manufacturer: Ashgate Publishing
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ASIN: 1855219506 |
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A long-awaited text that is result of more than ten years of academic study. Frank Pearce and Steve Tombs stress the understanding of how both the positive and negative effects of the chemical industry are produced and also what determines how the benefits and costs are distributed. Currently, the destructive nature of the industry - the death, injury, ill-health, and environmental devastation which it causes - remains particularly poorly recognized and challenged.
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Against Global Capitalism: African Social Movements Confront Neoliberal Globalization
E. Osei Kwadwo Prempeh
Manufacturer: Ashgate Publishing
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ASIN: 0754647641 |
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Ellen Meiksins Wood argues that with the collapse of Communism the theoretical project of Marxism and its critique of capitalism is more timely and important than ever. In this book she sets out to renew the critical program of historical materialism by redefining its basic concepts and its theory of history in original and imaginative ways, using them to identify the specificity of capitalism as a system of social relations and political power. She goes on to explore the concept of democracy in both the ancient and modern world, examining the concept's relation to capitalism.
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Ellen Meiksins Wood argues that with the collapse of Communism the theoretical project of Marxism and its critique of capitalism is more timely and important than ever. In this book she sets out to renew the critical program of historical materialism by redefining its basic concepts and its theory of history in original and imaginative ways, using them to identify the specificity of capitalism as a system of social relations and political power. She goes on to explore the concept of democracy in both the ancient and modern world, examining the concept's relation to capitalism.
Customer Reviews:
Revolutionary thinking.......2003-11-21
I learned what everyone else did in school: Communism bad, Capitalism good. But this book made me rethink my personal definitions of what politics is, and makes a really good argument that civic equality can not survive when paired with a vastly unequal capitalistic economy that--by definition--creates have's and have-not's. My whole worldview changed after I read this! Very technical, though, as she critiques other Marxists' and socialists' writings.
training.......2000-03-13
secretaries are now called administrative professionals. One should not undervalue any job - page 286 - those who do this job know that it is very valued. Will have to re-read this book as it has interesting undertones.
Average customer rating:
- An Ultimate Paradigm Shift
- A good introduction to Economic Democracy
- I disagree but I still recommend this book
- A good argument for economic democracy
- There Is An Alternative
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Against Capitalism
David Schweickart
Manufacturer: Westview Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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After Capitalism (New Critical Theory)
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ASIN: 0813331137 |
Book Description
This book is a completely rewritten version of the author's earlier Capitalism or Worker Control? (first published in 1980). Its central thesis is that, despite the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and the break-up of the Soviet Union, capitalism cannot be justified on either economic or ethical grounds. There is in fact an alternative to capitalism that promises greater efficiency, and equality, and more rational growth, democracy and meaningful work. This alternative, Economic Democracy, is market socialism with decentralised investment planning and workplace democracy. Professor Schweickart compares this model with other models – laissez-faire conservatism, the Keynesian welfare state, and ‘neo-liberalism’ – and argues that it is really superior on every count. He also sketches out a possible transition from advanced capitalism, from what is left of the centrally planned economies, and from Third World underdevelopment, to Economic Democracy. The author concludes with some reflections on Marx's communism, as historical materialism, and on the future of Marxism.
Customer Reviews:
An Ultimate Paradigm Shift.......2006-02-20
Against Capitalism makes a strong argument for Economic Democracy, where essentially democracy is extended to the workplace. The book meticulously presents the arguments in a scientific fashion, and changed my view of the economy. Before reading this book, I had always viewed socialism through the ignorant lens of the command-form Soviet model (which really is not what socialists are for). This book opened my eyes to the true inherent flaws of capitalism, and prevented a constructive alternative system. The one earlier reviewer obviously did not read this book, which is very critical of the command-form Soviet Union.
One must realize that capitalism does have flaws, and Against Capitalism presents an excellent alternative. It is worth a read to see if you think Economic Democracy is a good alternative. After I read it a few years ago, I still have not found a better system presented.
A good introduction to Economic Democracy.......2006-02-15
I was very impressed with this book when I read it a number of years ago. I'm looking at purchasing his new book based on my positive impresssion of this book.
He provides a pretty good argument for Economic Democracy, expains how it can and has worked, and explains the benifits of this type of organization.
It definately gives you a lot of information to think about and provides another possiblity for an economic organization that is more human and more egalitarian while remaining productive in the usual sense. It also supports more modest proposals for worker participation in decision making and profit sharing.
I disagree but I still recommend this book.......2002-04-16
As a libertarian, I found this book challenging, provocative, well-argued and thorough. Of course, as a libertarian, I also found it to be completely wrong about everything, but I would still recommend this book to any libertarian, conservative or free-marketeer who is up for an honest intellectual challenge rather than the parade of straw-man fallacies, circular reasoning and populist rhetoric usually trotted out by the left.
A good argument for economic democracy.......2001-04-19
One previous reviewer seems to not have even read the book, but i want ot reiterate what has been stated previously: this book is not about soviet communism, it is about something new called economic democracy. every reviewer should realize this when reading other reviews that deride this book by applealling to the stalinistic soviet union.
the first chapter discusses marxian arguments against capitalism. the only real original writing in the first chapter is at the end when he attacks nozick, an argument that i think is particularly damning to nozicks argument; unless youre a are pure libertarian who doesnt really care about the bad stuff that other people suffer.
after that, marx doesnt come into the discussion until the last chapter where he tries to align his theory with marxism. like mentioned previously, i am not sure if he sells his case.
one last thing. as much as i loathe those previous reviewers who appeal to the soviet union to make a case against socialism, i must admit that even schweickart's central real world example of economic democracy has some flaws. a little bit of research will turn up that the socialist paradise of the mondragon cooperative has recently discovered that there were some serious corruption problems occuring within the system. that said, schweikart's book is still an excellent piece of social philosophy.
There Is An Alternative.......2001-02-02
In the aftermath of the failure of Soviet socialism, we hear over and over again that there is no alternative to capitalism. Schweickart shows, with great clarity, wide learning, and an accessible prose style, that this is not true. His alternative is a market economy in which the workers run the factories, farms, and offices. What is is that capitalists contribute merely by owning the productive assets, in virtue of which there might be a point in letting them take the profits? Schweickart answers: _nothing_, and backs it up. Workers can perform all the managerial and entrepreneurial functions themselves. He develops a model in which they do, based on empirical research into worker cooperatives. The economy has a large state sector for finance, but uses markets to allocate scarce resources and satisfy demand. Schweickart shows that this would be more just, more democratic, and more efficient than either libertarian laissez-faire capitalism or welfare state capitalism. He also tries to show, rather less successfully, that his economic democracy is somehow in the Marxist tradition, despite Marx's dislike of markets. But whether one finds this argument as plausible as his argument for the dispensibility of capitalism is really immaterial. Schweickart has articulated a compelling and practicable alternative to capitalism, something that would be different, better, and worth fighting for. The book is essential reading for anyone thinking about economic alternatives.
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