Democracy and the Capitalist State

Democracy and the Capitalist State PDF

Author: Graeme Campbell Duncan

Publisher: CUP Archive

Published: 1989-03-02

Total Pages: 340

ISBN-13: 9780521280624

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This book examines one of the key issues in the analysis of the capitalist state: its relationship with democracy. To what extent can a capitalist state be democratised? Where and how do democratic institutions intervene in the management and control of capitalism? These questions and more are the subject of this book.

The Democratic State

The Democratic State PDF

Author: Roger W. Benjamin

Publisher: Lawrence, Ka. : University Press of Kansas

Published: 1985

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780700602636

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This collection of five original essays by seven of the best-known political-economy theorists addresses the interconnections between the economy and the polity and embodies the leading theoretical approaches to the political economy of the state. -- Amazon.com.

Clientelism, Capitalism, and Democracy

Clientelism, Capitalism, and Democracy PDF

Author: Didi Kuo

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2018-08-16

Total Pages: 181

ISBN-13: 1108426085

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In the United States and Britain, capitalists organized in opposition to clientelism and demanded programmatic parties and institutional reforms.

Capitalism and Democracy

Capitalism and Democracy PDF

Author: Thomas A. Spragens, Jr.

Publisher: University of Notre Dame Pess

Published: 2021-03-01

Total Pages: 319

ISBN-13: 0268200157

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This book serves as an introduction to the ongoing political debate about the relationship of capitalism and democracy. In recent years, the ideological battles between advocates of free markets and minimal government, on the one hand, and adherents of greater democratic equality and some form of the welfare state, on the other hand, have returned in full force. Anyone who wants to make sense of contemporary American politics and policy battles needs to have some understanding of the divergent beliefs and goals that animate this debate. In Capitalism and Democracy, Thomas A. Spragens, Jr., examines the opposing sides of the free market versus welfare state debate through the lenses of political economy, moral philosophy, and political theory. He asks: Do unchecked markets maximize prosperity, or do they at times produce wasteful and damaging outcomes? Are market distributions morally appropriate, or does fairness require some form of redistribution? Would a society of free markets and minimal government be the best kind of society possible, or would it have serious problems? After leading the reader through a series of thought experiments designed to compare and clarify the thought processes and beliefs held by supporters of each side, Spragens explains why there are no definitive answers to these questions. He concludes, however, that some answers are better than others, and he explains why his own judgement is that a vigorous free marketplace provides great benefits to a democratic society, both economically and politically, but that it also requires regulation and supplementation by collective action for a society to maximize prosperity, to mitigate some of the unfairness of the human condition, and to be faithful to important democratic purposes and ideals. This engaging and accessible book will interest students and scholars of political economy, democratic theory, and theories of social justice. It will also appeal to general readers who are seeking greater clarity and understanding of contemporary debates about government's role in the economy.

Democracy at Work

Democracy at Work PDF

Author: Richard Wolff

Publisher: Haymarket Books

Published: 2012-10-02

Total Pages: 221

ISBN-13: 1608462579

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What, and who, are we working for? A thoughtful assessment on our current society from “probably America’s most prominent Marxist economist” (The New York Times). Capitalism as a system has spawned deepening economic crisis alongside its bought-and-paid-for political establishment. Neither serves the needs of our society. Whether it is secure, well-paid, and meaningful jobs or a sustainable relationship with the natural environment that we depend on, our society is not delivering the results people need and deserve. One key cause for this intolerable state of affairs is the lack of genuine democracy in our economy as well as in our politics. The solution requires the institution of genuine economic democracy, starting with workers managing their own workplaces, as the basis for a genuine political democracy. Here Richard D. Wolff lays out a hopeful and concrete vision of how to make that possible, addressing the many people who have concluded economic inequality and politics as usual can no longer be tolerated and are looking for a concrete program of action. “Wolff’s constructive and innovative ideas suggest new and promising foundations for much more authentic democracy and sustainable and equitable development, ideas that can be implemented directly and carried forward. A very valuable contribution in troubled times.” —Noam Chomsky, leading public intellectual and author of Hope and Prospects

State Capitalism

State Capitalism PDF

Author: Joshua Kurlantzick

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2016-03-08

Total Pages: 297

ISBN-13: 0199385726

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The end of the Cold War ushered in an age of American triumphalism best characterized by the "Washington Consensus:" the idea that free markets, democratic institutions, limitations on government involvement in the economy, and the rule of law were the foundations of prosperity and stability. The last fifteen years, starting with the Asian financial crisis, have seen the gradual erosion of that consensus. Many commentators have pointed to the emergence of a powerful new rival model: state capitalism. In state capitalist regimes, the government typically owns firms in strategic industries. Not beholden to private-sector shareholders, such firms are allowed to operate with razor-thin margins if the state deems them strategically important. China, soon to be the world's largest economy, is the best known state capitalist regime, but it is hardly the only one. In State Capitalism, Joshua Kurlantzick ranges across the world--China, Thailand, Brazil, Russia, South Africa, Turkey, and more--and argues that the increase in state capitalism across the globe has, on balance, contributed to a decline in democracy. He isolates some of the reasons for state capitalism's resurgence: the fact that globalization favors economies of scale in the most critical industries, and the widespread rejection of the Washington Consensus in the face of the problems that have plagued the world economy in recent years. That said, a number of democratic nations have embraced state capitalism, and in those regimes, state-backed firms like Brazil's Embraer have enjoyed considerable success. Kurlantzick highlights the mixed record and the evolving nature of the model, yet he is more concerned about the negative effects of state capitalism. When states control firms, whether in democratic or authoritarian regimes, the government increases its advantage over the rest of society. The combination of new technologies, the perceived failures of liberal economics and democracy in many developing nations, the rise of modern kinds of authoritarians, and the success of some of the best-known state capitalists have created an era ripe for state intervention. State Capitalism offers the sharpest analysis yet of what state capitalism's emergence means for democratic politics around the world.

Capitalist State and Its Economy

Capitalist State and Its Economy PDF

Author: Paul Zarembka

Publisher: JAI Press Incorporated

Published: 2005-07-05

Total Pages: 308

ISBN-13: 9780762311767

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Focusing on the role of the state in capitalist society, by showing the welfare state as an historical product of the class structure of English agrarian capitalism, this volume addresses price and technical choice in capitalism, and economic democracy within socialism, defending direct democracy and economic calculation in terms of labor time.

Claus Offe and the Critical Theory of the Capitalist State

Claus Offe and the Critical Theory of the Capitalist State PDF

Author: Jens Borchert

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-04-28

Total Pages: 176

ISBN-13: 1317500091

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Back in 1972, German political sociologist Claus Offe published a book on the Structural Problems of Late Capitalism which, for almost two decades, inspired and stimulated an international and transdisciplinary debate on the role of the state in contemporary capitalism. An academic debate which, paradoxically, began to wane as the issues about which Offe had been writing became even more prominent: the "Contradictions of the Welfare State" (the title of a collection of Offe’s main contributions to the debate published in English in 1984) and democratic capitalism’s reality of the permanent "crises of crisis management". Since 2008, it has again become a widely shared diagnosis that advanced capitalism is in crisis. However, there is either scholarly disagreement or (more often so) mere perplexity when it comes to understanding this crisis and to explaining the prevalent patterns in dealing with it. In this volume, Jens Borchert and Stephan Lessenich critically combine a reconstruction Claus Offe’s approach to state theory with an analysis of the current constellation of democratic capitalism based on that same theory. In doing so, they expertly argue that his relational approach to state theory is much better equipped analytically to grasp the contradictory dynamics of the financial crisis and its political regulation than competing contributions. This is why systematically revisiting the theory of "late capitalism" is not only of a historical concern, but constitutes an essential contribution to a political sociology of our time.

Powers of Theory

Powers of Theory PDF

Author: Robert R. Alford

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 1985-10-31

Total Pages: 524

ISBN-13: 9780521316354

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An evaluation of different theories of the nature of the state in capitalist democracies.

Capitalism and Social Democracy

Capitalism and Social Democracy PDF

Author: Adam Przeworski

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 1986-12-26

Total Pages: 284

ISBN-13: 9780521336567

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Not to repeat past mistakes: the sudden resurgence of a sympathetic interest in social democracy is a response to the urgent need to draw lessons from the history of the socialist movement. After several decades of analyses worthy of an ostrich, some rudimentary facts are being finally admitted. Social democracy has been the prevalent manner of organization of workers under democratic capitalism. Reformist parties have enjoyed the support of workers.