Cover
Title
Copyright
Dedication
Contents
Acknowledgements
Chronology
Who’s who
Glossary
PART ONE ANALYSIS AND ASSESSMENT
1 HOW TO THINK ABOUT CAPITALISM
Introduction
Outline of the book
The capitalist system: a simple definition and some not-so-simple issues arising from it
Identifying changes in the capitalist system over time
2 CAPITALISM AS A SYSTEM: ‘NATURAL’ AND ‘FREE’
Introduction
Adam Smith: markets are natural for humans . . . but not for dogs
Milton Friedman on markets, freedom and Alka Seltzer
More from Adam Smith: markets feed us because of self-interest
Is private property ‘natural’ as well?
The state as impartial rule enforcer
Some states are better rule enforcers than others – and so sometimes capitalism fails
Capitalism is also the most economically productive system
Capitalism – the most economically productive system and therefore the ‘end of history’
Does capitalism lead to democracy?
Capitalism as equal and just
Capitalism as a friend of the environment
3 CAPITALISM AS A SYSTEM: ‘UNJUST’ AND ‘UNSTABLE’
Introduction
Unjust and unstable: Keynes and reformist critics
Unjust and unstable: Marx and radical critics
The importance of labour – or why workers are alienated but apes aren’t
Capitalism’s contradiction: poverty amidst plenty
Capitalism and crises
Capitalism as anti-Nature
Capitalism and gender inequality
The capitalist state: to be captured or replaced?
The capitalist state and education: enforcing the rules of American football or those of the treadmill?
4 EMPIRE AND CRISES 1870–1945
Capitalism unfolds
The curse of capitalism: late nineteenth-century crises
Overseas expansion as the response to crises
The curse of capitalism: the Great Depression of the 1930s
The human cost: riding the rails, searching for work and the crime of vagrancy
National responses to the Depression: Swedish social democracy, the ‘New Deal’ in the US and the spread of fascism in Europe
5 POST-1945 CAPITALISM: VARIATIONS ACROSS COUNTRIES
National capitalisms
How capitalisms differ: state–capital–labour relations
The Anglo-American model: decentralized wage bargaining and stock markets
The northern European or corporatist model: consensus decision-making and a large welfare state
Japanese (or East Asian) developmental capitalism: guiding the market and controlling labour
National varieties of capitalism as rivals
Varieties of capitalism: a matter of choice or history?
Varieties of capitalism: Asia, China, Russia and Latin America
6 POST-1945 CAPITALISM: VARIATIONS OVER TIME
Introduction
1945–70: the ‘golden age’ . . . hot economies, warm capital–labour relations, and the Cold War
The ‘golden age’ in the South: postcolonial capitalist states seek modernity and industrialization
The 1970s: oil shocks the system . . . and Keynesian policy responses
A new international division of labour: the lure of cheap labour in the South
The 1980s and 1990s: the rise of neoliberalism . . . capital strikes back
Neoliberalism in the South: open those doors, be ‘market friendly’!
Global turbulence: financial crises in the 1990s
‘Crony capitalism’ blamed for the Asian crises
Lessons not learned: The Global Financial Crisis of 2008
7 GLOBAL CAPITALISM
All the world’s a stage . . .
Are nation states still important actors?
I. The ‘globalization weakens the nation state’ view
II. The ‘globaloney’ or ‘states are still powerful’ view
III. The ‘some states are still powerful’ or ‘new imperialism’ view
IV. The ‘regionalism is more important’ view
As the curtain falls: what drama is unfolding on the capitalist world stage?
PART TWO DOCUMENTS
1 Adam Smith and the invisible hand
2 Friedman on economic freedom and political freedom
3 Marx and Engels on capitalism and class conflict
4 Capitalism and class conflict in China today
5 Keynes on Casino capitalism
6 The formation of the Bretton Woods institutions
7 The Washington Concensus
8 Wolf’s cry for more globalization not less
9 World Social Forum Charter of Principles
GUIDE TO FURTHER READING
REFERENCES
INDEX