Capitalism is an economic system in which capital (the goods or wealth used to produce other goods for profit) is privately owned and profit is reinvested so as to accumulate capital. The dynamics of the economic exchange in capitalism are unique. Why was the rise of capitalism in Germany and Japan associated not with liberal institutions and democratic politics, but rather with statist controls and authoritarian rule? The histories of German and Japanese capitalism demonstrate that capitalism's structural forms and functional relations evolve by means of different processes with different goals.

Capitalism is an economic system in which capital (the goods or wealth used to produce other goods for profit) is privately owned and profit is reinvested so as to accumulate capital. The dynamics of the economic exchange in capitalism are unique.

In a barter system of economic activity a producer may grow a pound of potatoes and barter them for an equivalent amount of honey produced by someone else. In this exchange the goods bartered are of roughly equal value. In capitalism, however, a person uses capital to produce goods and then sells those goods for cash. The amount of cash received is greater than the value of the good produced such that a profit is created allowing for reinvestment in the capital stock and to support the owner and producers.

Why was the rise of capitalism in Germany and Japan associated not with liberal institutions and democratic politics, but rather with statist controls and authoritarian rule?

The histories of German and Japanese capitalism demonstrate that capitalism's structural forms and functional relations evolve by means of different processes with different goals.

Relative autonomy perspective assumes that the state can and does play a limited independent role in the maintenance and stabilization of capitalist society.

John David Rose, quoting capitalism's icon Adam Smith, points out that "Adam Smith's famous 'invisible hand' is just as apt to push present chiefs of industry into fraud as honest productivity. Under the pressure of villainous competition, good apples may join bad apples at the bottom of the moral barrel. It's not a lack of character. They have no choice. The financial market demands it. Their stockholders demand it."

The Economic Sociology of Capitalism: Weber and Schumpeter
Richard Swedberg, Cornell University, USA
Article points to a distinct puzzle in the analyses of capitalism that can be found in the works of Weber and Schumpeter, and gives a new introduction to their analysis of capitalism. Both Weber and Schumpeter wrote voluminously on capitalism, as testified to by such giant works as Economy and Society (Weber, 1978c [1922]) and Business Cycles (Schumpeter, 1939). One can also discern a distinct development in their thought over time: from emphasizing the role of various voluntaristic elements (such as the spirit of capitalism and the spirit of entrepreneurship) to stressing the role of institutions. Weber and Schumpeter both argue that a vigorous and healthy capitalism requires certain economic and non-economic institutions, in addition to something else. An absence of this 'something else' may lead to capitalist petrification or collapse, according to both authors. - jcs.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/2/3/227

Schumpeter and Weber on the Institutions of Capitalism
Solving Swedberg's `Puzzle'
Geoffrey Ingham, University of Cambridge, gki1000@hermes.cam.ac.uk
In a `new introduction' to their work, Richard Swedberg (2002) argues that Weber and Schumpeter's `economic sociology of capitalism' contains a `puzzle'. Weber and Schumpeter are said to believe that a vigorous capitalism requires `something else' in addition to the institutions outlined in their respective ideal types and theories. Dynamic capitalism requires individuals who possess a distinctive `mentality' or `inner motivation' - that is, a `capitalist or entrepreneurial spirit'. This new introduction is entirely consistent with the tenor of existing sociological interpretations of Weber and Schumpeter. But, more importantly, both Swedberg and the sociological tradition of which he is critical completely ignore the institutional source of dynamism that is central to Schumpeter's Theory of Economic Development and figures in Weber's General Economic History. Both saw that a differentia specifica of capitalism is the production of an elastic supply of credit-money by banks and states, without which entrepreneurial activity could not take place. - jcs.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/3/3/297

IS GLOBAL CAPITALISM MORALLY DEFENSIBLE?
John H. Dunning, Reading and Rutgers Universities
This article first makes the case for responsible global capitalism, and the role of belief systems in advancing or inhibiting economic efficiency and socially acceptable behaviour. It then goes on to illustrate how the content and effectiveness of three contemporary elements of the global economy, viz, corporate social responsibility, the achievement of the millennium development goals and the opening up of centrally planned economies to market forces, are being, or might be, effected by the appropriate `bottom up' and `top down' incentive structures and enforcement mechanisms devised by the society of which they are part. - cpe.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/24/1/135

The Challenge For Capitalism
Do we want a world in which greed is the dominant driving force of the economic system?
Abstract: This Web site explores the human condition that writers write about, and economic systems are a major part of the human condition.
This article series is about destructive tendencies within the capitalist economic system and the need to control the system so that it works for us, but not against us. Some specific ways are mentioned to gain control, however solutions are more typically worked out in the realm of consensus opinion. Topics examine economics, the role of business, the role of government regulation, competing against ourselves, the business tendency to create non-competitive arenas, the lack of business and personal responsibility, the effect of a "games" mentality by business and the public toward economics, and strategies for controlling the system without damaging it. The fundamental issue raised is that excessive competition hurts us all. - visualwriter.com/WhatKindWorld/ChallengeCap.htm

The Political Economy of Post-Industrial Capitalism
George Liagouras, University of the Aegean (Greece), g.liagouras@fme.aegean.gr
The hypothesis of this article is that industrial capitalism, as conceptualized by a series of authors from Smith and Marx to Weber and Sombart, and then to Galbraith and Chandler, is outdated. We are entering a new era of information or ‘post-industrial capitalism’. The term used in the article is post-industrial capitalism. This is mainly because the notion of information capitalism does not define explicitly what is really new regarding the history of capitalism. Information capitalism can be either post-Fordist, or post-industrial, or even a transition period towards a post-capitalist society. The argument of the article is developed in two parts. The first offers a systematic comparison between the basic features of industrial and post-industrial capitalism. The second explores three main contradictions of post-industrial capitalism. The general idea behind this exploration is that the future of post-industrial capitalism remains open. It depends on how the contradictions of this new form of capitalism will be resolved. This, in turn, implies a critical position towards approaches that either extrapolate the economic patterns of the last two decades into the 21st century, or, by adopting sophisticated versions of technological determinism, propose a monistic scenario for the future. - the.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/81/1/20

The varieties of capitalism paradigm: not enough variety?
Matthew Allen - Correspondence: m.m.allen@bham.co.uk
Institute for German Studies, European Research Institute, Birmingham University, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK
This paper attempts to shed light on some of the unstated assumptions of the varieties of capitalism framework by comparing it with its ‘close relative’—that is, transaction cost economics—as well as neoclassical economics. These comparisons show that, within the varieties of capitalism approach, actors' strategic preferences are assumed to be endogenous to the institutional environment in which they operate. Moreover, important institutions are assumed to be uniformly spread across firms within a national economy. This latter presupposition ultimately makes the varieties of capitalism framework a structuralist approach. Despite its claims to the contrary that it is an actor-centred approach, the varieties of firms paradigm treats the varieties of firms as irrelevant. It is this variety that is lacking in the approach, and that needs to be addressed in any empirical assessments of it.

Varieties of Capitalism in an Internationalized World
Domestic Institutional Change in European Telecommunications
Mark Thatcher, London School of Economics
This article examines how internationalization affects domestic decisions about the reform of market institutions. A developing literature argues that nations maintain different "varieties of capitalism" in the face of economic globalization because of diverse domestic settings. However, in an internationalized world, powerful forces for change applying across border scan affect decision making within domestic arenas. The article therefore analyzes how three factors (transnational technological and economic developments, overseas reforms, and European regulation) affected institutional reform in a selected case study of telecommunications regulation in Britain, France, Germany, and Italy between the 1960s and 2002. The author argues that when different forms of internationalization are strong and combined, they can overwhelm institutional inertia and the effects of different national settings to result in rapid change and cross-national convergence in market institutions. Hence different varieties of capitalism may endure only when international pressures are low and/or for limited periods of time. - cps.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/37/7/751

Varieties of capitalism in the twentieth century
R Dore, W Lazonick and M O'Sullivan
Abstract: Of the world's multiple national variations on a basically capitalist system, the paper compares the century's history of the British and American, the two 'pioneers' whose institutions and economic behaviour patterns most closely confirm to, and those of Germany and Japan whose institutions most significantly deviate from, the prescriptions of neo-classical textbooks. There is no obvious story of a long and steady process of gradual convergence-capitalist rationality slowly washing out the effects of differing cultural traditions. All four societies have changed in key respects; finance and corporate control structures were arguably more similar in the 1920s than later. By the end of the post-war golden age, there were signs of convergence on similar forms of managerial capitalism. The crucial, and for us unpredictable, question is how far the transition to shareholder capitalism in Britain and America over the last two decades will be duplicated in Germany and Japan. - oxrep.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/15/4/102

Class Struggles and the Reinvention of American Capitalism in the Second Half of the Twentieth Century
Victor D. Lippit
Department of Economics, University of California, Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521, USA
American capitalism has changed dramatically in the last fifty years. During the 1950s, one of its principal characteristics was a capital-labor accord with workers in major industries receiving many benefits in exchange for ceding management broad rights. From 1970 to 2000, by contrast, struggles between labor and capital intensified, with capital gaining overwhelming strength. This article examines some of the principal factors involved in this process, which played a major role in the transformation of American capitalism. - rrp.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/36/3/336

FEUDALISM AND THE ORIGINS OF CAPITALISM
Rodney Hilton
In spite of preoccupation with the war, there began in 1940 a lively discussion among English Marxists about the origins of the capitalist mode of production, its political system and its culture. Seminal to this discussion was Christopher Hill's short book The English Revolution: 1640*, published for the tercentenary of the Long Parliament, the beginning of the end of England's ancien regime. Naturally the discussion did not get properly under way until 1946 but from that year began a series of debates many of them focussing on the problem of the nature of late feudal society in England and the timing of its transformation. Some took the view that there was already a bourgeois state in the 16th century and that consequently the civil war of mid-17th century was the defeat of a counter-revolution. The strongest current of opinion was that which identified the so-called Puritan Revolution as a bourgeois revolution of the same kind as the French Revolution at the end of the 18th century. In addition, however, to these debates which were concerned mainly with the interpretation of events in the 17th century, problems about the nature of feudal society were also raised and no work was more influential than Maurice Dobb's Studies in the Development of Capitalism. This book, in turn, provoked the critical review of Dobb's ideas about feudalism by Paul Sweezy in the American Marxist journal Science & Society, giving rise to the famous Dobb-Sweezy controversy, which has been re-edited, with additions, including this introduction, and is being published this year by New Left Books. - hwj.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/1/1/9

Bunco Sharks and the Big Store: Understanding Capitalism Through Gilded Age Fraud and Corruption - Jane G. Haigh
The growth of capitalism in the Gilded Age was marked by the increasing organization and complexity of business and economic systems: the rise of corporate structures, vertically integrated resource industries, and increasingly sophisticated banking and finance instruments. My subjects are the Gilded Age confidence games and bunco sharks: the dark underside of capitalism, if you will. The increasing organization and complexity of these gaming systems parallels that of the legitimate economy. The era's emphasis on entrepreneurial capitalism was embraced wholeheartedly by an gamblers, and con men, as they sought to both exploit and subvert the new rules, while using many of the same innovations and structures as the bankers and business owners. They subtly took advantage of a limnal state as questions about the legitimacy of futures markets and bucket shops wound through the courts. Bunco sharks and con men practiced their games nationwide, and formed an extensive network that traded information on the conditions favorable for their operations. Like elite businessmen, and often with their cooperation, they participated in corrupting local officials in their efforts to continue their operations. In addition, bunco games and "big cons," in particular developed new technologies: specific, narrative structures which worked nearly infallibly to fleece a potential victim, in effect akin to software, and similar to the development of the new financial instruments of banking. I would like to acquaint those at the conference with this phenomenon, as I suggest it may have something to teach us about capitalism and especially its relationship to information. I use examples from the well documented activities of con men in Denver and their participation in the corruption of municipal elections 1889-1896,and the relation of this corruption to corruption in the Colorado legislature and the U.S. Senate. - fas.harvard.edu/~polecon/conference/papers.shtml

Will Limited Needs Kill Capitalism?
Gilles Saint-Paul, Universit� des Sciences Sociales de Toulouse
Gilles Saint-Paul (2006) "Will Limited Needs Kill Capitalism?," Capitalism and Society: Vol. 1: No. 1, Article 4
Abstract: This paper argues that a number of ``unorthodox" analyses of capitalism can be understood from the point of view of orthodox economic theory. Our argument is based on the assumptions of monopolistic competition and that utility derived from consuming an individual good is bounded. The model's predictions are consistent with some popular heterodox views, such as ``In modern capitalist society, productivity is so high that many people are nearly saturated with goods;" ``Productivity growth reduces the real consumption wage of workers;" and ``The benefits from growth are appropriated by symbol manipulators." Furthermore, depending on relative levels of product diversity and physical productivity, globalization may harm poorer workers in LDCs, rather than unskilled workers in developed countries, as is usually predicted. - bepress.com/cas/vol1/iss1/art4

Varieties of welfare capitalism
Alexander Hicks and Lane Kenworthy
Department of Sociology, Emory University, Atlanta, USA
Despite the considerable influence of Esping-Andersen's categorization of three "worlds" of welfare capitalism, researchers have largely neglected investigation of his dimensions of welfare state policy and politics. Building on and extending the foundations provided by Esping-Andersen, we explore the identities and consequences of welfare state regime dimensions. Our principal components analyses identify two such dimensions. The first, which we label "progressive liberalism", rearranges Esping-Andersen's separate "social democratic" and "liberal" dimensions into two poles of a single dimension. Its positive pole is characterized by extensive, universal and homogeneous benefits, active labour market policy, government employment and gender-egalitarian family policies. The second, which we label "traditional conservatism", is similar to but broader than Esping-Andersen's conservative dimension. It features not only occupational and status-based differentiations of social insurance programmes and specialized income security programmes for civil servants, but also generous and long-lasting unemployment benefits, reliance on employer-heavy social insurance tax burdens and extensions of union collective bargaining coverage. Pooled cross-section time-series regressions covering 18 countries over the 1980s and 1990s suggest that progressive liberalism is associated with income redistribution and greater gender equality in the labour market. The principal consequence of traditional conservatism appears to be weakened employment performance. - ser.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/1/1/27

The Crisis of German and Japanese Capitalism
Stalled on the Road to the Liberal Market Model?
STEVEN K. VOGEL, University of California, Berkeley
German and Japanese opinion leaders demand a decisive move toward the liberal market model, yet their governments have been slow to act. Why can't Germany and Japan reform? To unravel this puzzle, we must understand how the German and Japanese models of capitalism bind the potential winners from liberal reform, such as competitive manufacturing exporters, to the potential losers, such as workers and protected service industries. Competitive exporters are reluctant to embrace reforms that might undermine valued relationships with workers, financial institutions, and other business partners. Moreover they cannot forge a strong reform coalition because they must work through industry associations and political parties that represent both competitive and protected sectors. As a result, Germany and Japan proceed cautiously with reform; they package delicate compromises, often compensating the potential losers; they design reforms to preserve core institutions; and they seek novel ways to build on the strengths of these models. - cps.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/34/10/1103

The Legitimation of Capitalism in the Postcommunist Transition Public Opinion about Market Justice, 1991—1996
James R. Kluegel, David S. Mason and Bernd Wegener
Department of Sociology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 702 S. Wright St., Urbana, IL 61801. e-mail: jkluegel@uiuc.edu
This paper examines change in economic justice attitudes in five former communist states (Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, eastern Germany, Hungary, and Russia), using data from opinion surveys conducted in 1991 and 1996. We examine the implications of theory and research concerning the popular legitimation of western capitalism for change in support for ‘market justice’ beliefs and norms among postcommunist publics. Our analyses show: first, that in the Czech Republic and eastern Germany, public opinion is moving closer to market justice as found in western capitalism, but socialist justice remains strong or is increasing in the other three countries; secondly, that in postcommunist countries correlations between support for market justice norms and the perceived fairness of the existing economic order have become stronger over time; and thirdly, that privatesector employment, and retrospective, current and prospective standard-of-living evaluations each shape market justice beliefs and norms. We conclude that (1) theory of the public legitimation of capitalism in the West does apply in postcommunist states; (2) change in market/socialist justice is a function of both collective and individual level factors; and (3) we have entered a second stage of the transition where popular economic justice evaluations are more clearly subject to ‘empirical test’. - esr.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/15/3/251

Coverture and Capitalism
Amy Louise Erickson, amyerickson@blueyonder.co.uk
This article looks at the role of gender in the creation of a capitalist economy in England in the early modern period. Most capital in this period was both accumulated and transferred by means of marriage and inheritance, so it stands to reason that the laws governing marriage and inheritance played a role in structuring the economy. English property law was distinctive in two respects: first, married women under coverture were even more restricted than in the rest of Europe; second, single women enjoyed a position unique in Europe as legal individuals in their own right, with no requirement for a male guardian. I suggest these peculiarities had two consequences for the development of capitalism. First, the draconian nature of coverture necessitated the early development of complex private contracts and financial arrangements, accustoming people to complicated legal and financial concepts and establishing a climate in which the concept of legal security for notional concepts of property (the bedrock of capitalism) became commonplace. Second, without the inhibiting effect of legal guardianship, England had up to fifty per cent more people able to move capital purely because that market included the unmarried half of the female population in addition to the male population. This area needs a great deal more research and three comparative European approaches to single women's financial activity are offered: public investment records; court records of debt litigation; and individual biography of single female entrepreneurs. The connections proposed between marital property law and economic development are suggestive and deserve further consideration. - hwj.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/59/1/1

Turning Modes of Production Inside Out
Or, Why Capitalism is a Transformation of Slavery
David Graeber, Department of Anthropology, Yale University, David.Graeber@yale.edu
Marxist theory has by now largely abandoned the (seriously flawed) notion of the ‘mode of production’, but doing so has only encouraged a trend to abandon much of what was radical about it and naturalize capitalist categories. This article argues a better conceived notion of a mode of production - one that recognizes the primacy of human production, and hence a more sophisticated notion of materialism - might still have something to show us: notably, that capitalism, or at least industrial capitalism, has far more in common with, and is historically more closely linked with, chattel slavery than most of us had ever imagined. - coa.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/26/1/61

The Problem of `Crony Capitalism': Modernity and the Encounter with the Perverse
Joel S. Kahn, La Trobe University. j.kahn@latrobe.edu.au
Francesco Formosa, School of Social Sciences, La Trobe University f.formosa@latrobe.edu.au
This article provides some reflections on the problem posed by ostensibly perverse phenomena like political patronage, corruption and crony capitalism for modernising narratives, which are currently enjoying a renewed popularity. In the light of an ethnographic example from Indonesia, it is argued that the continual attempt to relocate such phenomena to terrains not properly modern precludes the possibility of serious analysis or moral/political assessment of these phenomena. The starting point for any genuine engagement with these issues is the recognition that these phenomena are as internal to modernity as the modernist discourses that seek to externalise them. - the.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/69/1/47

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Understanding Capitalism: Competition, Command, And Change
by Samuel Bowles, Richard Edwards, Frank Roosevelt - April 30, 2005

Understanding Capitalism, provides an introduction to economics with extensive attention to the global economy, inequality, the information revolution, the exercise of power and the historical evolution of economic institutions and individual preferences. Its 'three dimensional approach' focuses on competition in markets, command in firms, governments and international relations, and change as a permanent feature of a capitalist economy promoted by technical innovation and conflict over the distribution of income. Understanding Capitalism, 3/e, is designed for introductory undergraduate courses in economics and students of political economy throughout the social sciences.

Organizing America : Wealth, Power, and the Origins of Corporate Capitalism
by Charles Perrow - April 1, 2005

American society today is shaped not nearly as much by vast open spaces as it is by vast, bureaucratic organizations. Over half the working population toils away at enterprises with 500 or more employees--up from zero percent in 1800. Is this institutional immensity the logical outcome of technological forces in an all-efficient market, as some have argued? In this book, the first organizational history of nineteenth-century America, Yale sociologist Charles Perrow says no. He shows that there was nothing inevitable about the surge in corporate size and power by century's end. Critics railed against the nationalizing of the economy, against corporations' monopoly powers, political subversion, environmental destruction, and "wage slavery." How did a nation committed to individual freedom, family firms, public goods, and decentralized power become transformed in one century?
Bountiful resources, a mass market, and the industrial revolution gave entrepreneurs broad scope. In Europe, the state and the church kept private organizations small and required consideration of the public good. In America, the courts and business-steeped legislators removed regulatory constraints over the century, centralizing industry and privatizing the railroads. Despite resistance, the corporate form became the model for the next century. Bureaucratic structure spread to government and the nonprofits. Writing in the tradition of Max Weber, Perrow concludes that the driving force of our history is not technology, politics, or culture, but large, bureaucratic organizations.

Perrow, the author of award-winning books on organizations, employs his witty, trenchant, and graceful style here to maximum effect. Colorful vignettes abound: today's headlines echo past battles for unchecked organizational freedom; socially responsible alternatives that were tried are explored along with the historical contingencies that sent us down one road rather than another. No other book takes the role of organizations in America's development as seriously. The resultant insights presage a new historical genre.

The Rise Of Regulatory Capitalism:: The Global Diffusion Of A New Order (The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science Series) by David Levi-Faur, Jacint Jordana (Editors) - March 31, 2005

As the papers in this issue of The Annals suggest, the current economic order is anything but free of regulation. Indeed, many policy changes seem to have expanded and extended regulation – in a global sense. The international arena is increasingly legalized, and new layer of regulatory controls is being created at still another level of policymaking as regulatory solutions adopted in North America and Europe have spread across continents.
Instead of accepting the position of a neo-liberal hegemony, this volume of the annals examines the complex relationship between markets, regulation, private property, and public institutions and closely studies the reasons for policy changes in the environment of regulatory capitalism.
Going beyond the national case based approach, the authors in this issue take diffusion approaches, which hold a combination of horizontal, international and domestic explanations that will give readers a new understanding of how the global move to regulatory capitalism occurred and what the sources of its success are.
Divided into three major parts, this issue includes articles covering globalization and diffusion in the following areas of analysis:
Theoretical Frameworks: The Diffusion of Regulatory Capitalism
The Diffusion of Economic Regulations
The Diffusion of Social Regulations
Taken together, these topics create a comprehensive image of the many dimensions of the world-wide regulatory capitalism and a clearer understanding of its emerging characteristics. Scholars and policymakers in political science, sociology, and economics will find this an invaluable resource in understanding the enormous impact that increased regulation has had on the global social and economic fabric.

Stefan Bruggemann: Capitalism and Schizophrenia
by Stefan Bruggemann, Alexandra Garcia - March 30, 2005

Ah, capitalism and schizophrenia. Everyone's favorite two topics, or at least Deleuze and Guattari's--and now Stefan Br�ggemann's, too. Br�ggemann, a young contemporary artist of the Mexican variety, makes witty text installations and other conceptual projects, as if Jenny Holzer and Bruce Nauman got together south of the border and had a baby. One text piece, installed in the form of a neon sign at the Lisson Gallery in London, proclaims, "I Can't Explain And I Won't Even Try." A wall piece in silver block text notes, "Everybody Is Thinking Outside This Room." Capitalism and Schizophrenia, the book, is divided into three sections, the first of which represents Br�ggemann's artwork in a format as close as possible to the artist's actual work. Included are his Notes (magazine pages and A4 sheets on which he writes), various truisms, and stills from his Video Notes. The second section includes critical texts, an interview with the artist, Hans Ulrich Obrist, and Pedro Reyes, a visual intervention by Martin Creed, and a photo essay . The third section offers documentation of the artists exhibition installations.

The Origins Of Nonliberal Capitalism: Germany And Japan In Comparison (Cornell Studies in Political Economy) March 1, 2005
by Wolfgang Streeck (Editor), Kozo Yamamura (Editor)
"There have been many observations of and conjectures about the similarities and differences of Japanese and German capitalism, but few systematic and interdisciplinary analyses of the subject. The Origins of Nonliberal Capitalism takes us a long way in that direction."--Masahiko Aoki, Stanford University
Why was the rise of capitalism in Germany and Japan associated not with liberal institutions and democratic politics, but rather with statist controls and authoritarian rule? A stellar group of international scholars addresses this classic issue in political development.
In The Origins of Nonliberal Capitalism, German sociologists and American and Japanese political scientists draw extensively on the work of economists and historians from their home countries, as well as from the United Kingdom and France. The contributors discuss the potential disappearance, evolution, and reconstitution of nonliberal capitalism in Germany and Japan by analyzing its historical origins from two perspectives: the emergence and survival of nonliberal capitalism, and the causes of differences between the systems of Germany and Japan. They also outline the requirements for internally coherent national models of an embedded capitalist economy. The histories of German and Japanese capitalism demonstrate that capitalism's structural forms and functional relations evolve by means of different processes with different goals.--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Rescuing Capitalism From Corporatism: Greed And The American Corporate Culture
by John David Rose - January 31, 2005

A refreshing, clear-eyed assessment of our highly flawed corporate culture, how it got that way and what we can do about it. A "must read" for any investor, student of business, director, CEO and political leaders. Highly readable, entertaining and challenging of conventional wisdom.
The United States clearly identifies itself as a capitalist nation, begins this heavily documented, extensively researched deconstruction of the corporate institution by John David Rose.
Popularly, if not constitutionally, the right to "do business" is given equal weight to freedom of speech and religion.
Most Americans, if not all business people, believe that "corporate America is America." They view the growth of corporations into globe-spanning giants of commerce as the natural order; see them as shedding conveniences and opportunities on the many even as they lavish Pharaoh-size riches on the few.
Noting that Americans enjoy a higher standard of living than most nations, Rose asks, "what's the problem?" then answers with several examples of un-repentant corporate criminals to initiate his argument.
Most of the public's assumptions about corporations are wrong, asserts Rose: that corporations were blessed by our founding fathers; that stockholders own the corporation; that corporations encourage competition.
Rose challenges multi-million compensation packages with, "If stockholders own a corporation and CEOs are employed to manage it, why do the hired hands come out so far ahead and the owners so far behind?"
What could be heavy subject matter in other hands is made easily digestible with Rose's clear exposition and unpretentious tone. As much sociology as economic philosophy, he frequently drives home his points with a Dilbert or New Yorker cartoon. Stimulated by the Enron, World Com, Global Crossing scandals, Fortune magazine's Shawn Tully wrote: "You can’t trust companies. Can’t trust auditors. Can’t trust analysts."
But "trust is essential to capitalism," Rose stresses. "Without it no rational person will give a portion of his or her wealth to another to manage."
Quoting extensively from historical and contemporary business sources, Rose builds a compelling case that the problems of corporatism stem not from "bad apples," but from the corporate creation itself.
Quoting capitalism's icon, Rose points out that "Adam Smith's famous 'invisible hand' is just as apt to push present chiefs of industry into fraud as honest productivity."
Capitalism requires governance, Rose explains, "that trumps the human motivations and temptations of corporate managers ... encourages pursuit of industry while minimizing the damage overzealous pursuit may cause."
Clearly a lover of free enterprise and small business, Rose compares the morality of corporate executives with business people dealing face to face with their customers, suppliers, employees, and stockholders. "Pressure to stay within the community’s code of ethics does not exist for executives of corporations dealing with people at a distance. They make their decisions shielded by the wall of corporate anonymity, with enormous legal resources, political, and financial power to keep them from seeing or sensing the human costs."
More than an anti-corporate screed, Rose concludes his extensively footnoted, 300 page book with six Limits on corporate power he believes critical to the rescue of capitalism, then finishes up with Seven Proposals to move from laissez faire to free enterprise.

Globalization and Change : The Transformation of Global Capitalism
by Berch Berberoglu - December 28, 2004. "This sterling collection of essays by premier political economists exposes
the real nature of globalization and capitalism. Well analyzed, well edited,
and much needed, this book will benefit laypersons and academics alike."
-- Michael Parenti, author of THE ASSASSINATION OF JULIUS
CAESAR and SUPERPATRIOTISM
"This book, highlighting the capitalist nature of globalization and the exploitativenature of the reorganization of
production and labor on a world scale, provides an excellent analysis of the globalization process and is a welcome
contribution to the current literature." --Martha Gimenez, Professor of Sociology, University of Colorado,
Boulder.
"The daily shockwaves of war, poverty, environmental devastation, protest and revolt leave many of us at a loss to
understand, let alone take action, against capitalist globalization. This collection of superb essays provides a succinct
framework to expose the contradictions of this process, the human cost of global capitalist expansion, and the
mobilization of millions of people to confront the global empire." -- Judy Aulette, Professor of Sociology, University of North Carolina, Charlotte and University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa
This book examines the origins, development and transformation of global capitalism from a critical perspective. It analyzes the dynamics and contradictions of the global political economy through a comparative-historical approach based on the class analysis model. After providing a brief overview of the historic context within which capitalism has developed and expanded throughout the world, the book examines the class forces that have come to define the nature of class relations and class struggles and thereby set the stage for the emergence of the contradictions and crises of global capitalism throughout the course of the twentieth century. These contradictions, focused on the exploitation of labor under capitalist globalization, have come to define the nature and scope of the class struggle between labor and capital on a world scale and have led to the worldwide popular resistance against capital. The book contends that, these developments are creating the conditions for the transformation of capitalist relations of production across the world which, in turn, will eventually politically challenge and transform the entire global capitalist system.

Karaoke Capitalism : Daring to Be Different in a Copycat World
by Jonas Ridderstrale, Kjell A. Nordstrom - March 30, 2005

We all know that the rules by which business is conducted have changed. But by how much? The dot.commers who threw out the playbook and tried to reinvent everything crashed and burned. "Back-to-basics" and "execution" are refrains reverberating down corporate hallways. And yet there is still a sense of unease. Jonas Ridderstrale and Kjell Nordstrom, the outspoken authors of the international bestseller, Funky Business, present a provocative analysis of the social and cultural forces that are defining the business landscape--in particular, the fundamental relationships between employers and employees and between companies and customers. Covering a huge terrain--from the impact of high tech to the ever-widening gaps between the haves and the have-nots, and with references from Adam Smith to Janis Joplin--the authors bring into focus the challenges of business leadership in a world increasingly defined by individualism. "Karaoke" capitalism refers to the philosophy of imitation, engrained into the corporate mindset by such popular concepts as benchmarking and best practice. For Ridderstrale and Nordstrom, the only way to survive is to chuck convention, to embrace your company's individual personality and promote it through everything you do, constantly honing what works and abandoning what doesn't. Ultimately, the authors argue that armed with imagination it is possible to sustain profitable businesses while contributing to the well-being of customers, communities, and the society at large.

Culture, Capitalism, and Democracy in the New America
by Richard Brown - April 10, 2005

“Richard Brown is one of the few thinkers in the United States who could credibly undertake this important subject. He has produced a masterpiece.”—Ronnie Dugger, cochairman and founder of the Alliance for Democracy and founding editor of The Texas Observer

The United States is in transit from an industrial to a postindustrial society, from a modern to postmodern culture, and from a national to a global economy. In this book Richard Harvey Brown asks how we can distinguish the uniquely American elements of these changes from more global influences. His answer focuses on the ways in which economic imperatives give shape to the shifting experience of being American.

Drawing on a wide knowledge of American history and literature, the latest social science, and contemporary social issues, Brown investigates continuity and change in American race relations, politics, religion, conception of selfhood, families, and the arts. He paints a vivid picture of contemporary America, showing how postmodernism is perceived and felt by individuals and focusing attention on the strengths and limitations of American democracy.

Multinationals And Global Capitalism: From The Nineteenth To The Twenty-first Century
by Geoffrey Jones - March 31, 2005

This book provides a unique contribution to contemporary globalization debates by providing an accessible survey of the growth and role of multinational enterprises in the world economy over the last two hundred years. The author shows how entrepreneurs built a global economy in the nineteenth century by creating firms that pursued resources and markets across borders. It demonstrates how multinationals shifted strategies as the first global economy disintegrated in the political and economic chaos between the two world wars, and how they have driven the creation of the contemporary global economy. Many of the issues of the global economy have been encountered in the past. This book shows how entrepreneurs and managers met the political, ethical, cultural and organizational challenges of operating across national borders at different times and in different environments. The role of multinationals is placed within their wider political and economic context. There are chapters on the impact of multinationals, and on relations with governments. The focus on the shifting roles of firms and industries over time rather than abstract trade and capital flows provides compelling evidence on the diversity and discontinuities of the globalization process. The book explains the history of multinationals across a wide spectrum of manufacturing, service and natural resource industries from an international perspective, which ranges widely across different countries. It provides an essential historical framework for understanding global business. An accessible survey of the history of international business worldwide, this book will be key reading for students taking courses in International Business, Business History, Multinationals, and Entrepreneurship; and of interest to academics and researchers working in these areas.

Varieties Of Capitalism, Varieties Of Approaches - by David Coates (Editor) - March 16, 2005

Though the emerging sub-discipline of comparative political economy is now rich in studies of different advanced capitalisms, it still lacks a systematic consideration of the organizing frameworks and methodologies underpinning those studies. This definitive volume outlines the two great debates currently shaping the analysis of advanced capitalism. It makes the case for a greater awareness of underlying theoretical issues in the design of empirical research, and demonstrates the value of exploring the interconnections between competing intellectual approaches.
PART 1: THE APPROACHES EXPLAINED
PART 2: THE APPROACHES APPLIED
PART 3: THE APPROACHES EVALUATED

A Civil Republic: Beyond Capitalism And Nationalism
by Severyn T. Bruyn - March 1, 2005

"A welcome illumination of the boundary between civil society and the social economy." --Jon Van Til
Rutgers University, Camden
"Since human beings live in communities, which are shaped by tradition and values, they need to participate, engage, contribute. Only an economy and a polity which makes this possible can be truly human. Bruyn shows that such a society is not just a utopian dream, but is possible an doable." --Harvey Cox, Harvard Divinity School
Evokes a realistic vision of globalization that fuses the core human values of "civil society" and the market aspects of "political economy."
Investigates how components of civil society are indebted to corporate interests, and how they can move beyond conventions of capitalism and nationalism.
In A Civil Republic, Severyn T. Bruyn argues that the United States, and the world at large, is on the verge of a radical shift--dangerous but also full of opportunity. In a world of injustice, ecological destruction, violence and instability, weapons of mass destruction, and the rise of authoritarian government, our ability to craft a secure future lies in creating a "civil republic."
Bruyn envisions a system of governance that merges core human values of civil society into a political economy that has reigned supreme since the end of the Cold War. He sees a world in which religious institutions, health-care systems, businesses, media, and governments could support values of honesty, justice, and public health rather than stand subservient to corporate interests and those of markets and nation-states. He explores ways to implement a new model--one of public policy that builds a civil society beyond the conventions of capitalism and nationalism.

Capitalism at the Crossroads : The Unlimited Business Opportunities in Solving the World's Most Difficult Problems - February 15, 2005
by Stuart L. Hart

Global capitalism stands at a crossroads—facing international terrorism, worldwide environmental change, and an accelerating backlash against globalization. Today's global companies are at a crossroads, too: finding new strategies for profitable growth has never been more challenging. Both sets of problems are intimately linked, says Stuart L. Hart—and so are the solutions.

In Capitalism at the Crossroads, Hart shows companies how to identify sustainable products that can drive new growth as they also help solve today's most crucial social problems. Drawing on his experience consulting with top companies and NGOs worldwide, Hart shows how to integrate new technology to deliver profitable solutions that reduce poverty and protect the environment at the same time. Along the way, you'll learn how to become truly indigenous to all your markets—and avoid the pitfalls of traditional "greening" and "sustainability" strategies.

This book transcends yesterday's stale debates about globalization, pointing the way toward a capitalism that's more inclusive, more welcome, and far more successful. But great ideas aren't enough. Hart presents on-the-ground techniques for transforming them into reality, helping leaders re-ignite innovation, growth, and profitability in their own businesses, starting today.

Making Globalization Good: The Moral Challenges of Global Capitalism
by John H. Dunning (Editor) - January 30, 2005

Gordon Brown, Jonathan Sacks, Joseph Stiglitz, Hans Kung, Shirley Williams, and a dozen other leading thinkers in international business and ethics identify the pressing moral issues which global capitalism must answer. How can we develop a global economic architecture, which is efficient, morally acceptable, geographically inclusive and sustainable over time? If global capitalism-arguably the most efficient wealth creating system currently known to man-is to be both economically viable and socially acceptable, each of its four constituent institutions (markets, governments, supranational agencies and civil society) must not only be technically competent, but also be buttressed and challenged by a strong moral ethos. The book includes contributions from leading academics, politicians, and moralists. Recognizing that solutions will not come from any one quarter, and that any serious discussion of a just and equitable system will touch on questions of ethics and faith, the book approaches the issues from a range of different disciplines and forums.

Bruges, Cradle of Capitalism, 1280-1390
by James M. Murray - January 20, 2005

Medieval Bruges provides an early model of a great capitalist city. This book examines the factors which contributed to Bruges' economic success such as the shift to sea-borne commerce and the efforts of the city's population to fashion a great commercial center. With its study of diverse topics such as the city's political history, its advantageous communications position, the wool, cloth and gold trade and the role of women in the market, the volume offers a case-study in medieval economic history as well as a social and cultural history of medieval Bruges.

Karaoke Capitalism: Management For Mankind
by Jonas Ridderstrale, Kjell Nordstrom - December 31, 2004

"If you loved Funky Business as much as I did, you'll love Karaoke Capitalism. Weird? Most certainly. Different? Most definitely. But, if you want to re-imagine your organization and your career it's a thought-provoking place to start."
Tom Peters
In the long-awaited follow up to their internationally acclaimed Funky Business, Kjell Nordstr�m and Jonas RidderstrSle have delivered a thought-provoking, workout for the wits in Karaoke Capitalism. A book that challenges individuals, businesses and nations to create originals rather than cover versions. Management guru Tom Peters said "If you loved Funky Business as much as I did, you’ll love Karaoke Capitalism."
The karaoke economy is dominated by individuals with endless choice. The trouble for business is that the karaoke club is also home to institutionalized imitation. Copy-cats abound. Only imagination and innovation place societies, organizations and individuals center-stage.
Karaoke Capitalism is a call to arms. Kjell and Jonas are rebels with a cause. With their unorthodox combination of academic rigor, forceful logic and funky free-thinking they once again re-write the rules for revolutionaries. This is a true work-out for the wits.
The book teaches us how to successfully compete on competencies, create capitalism with character, and how to have a great life while also making a living. It is required reading for all those wanting to be a first-rate version of themselves rather than a second-rate version of someone else.

Capitalism, Social Privilege and Managerial Ideologies
by ERNESTO R. GANTMAN - February 1, 2005

This book analyzes the evolution of administrative thought from the
nineteenth century to the present, considering it as ideological discourse.
Rather than merely being a succession of fads, Gantman shows how each
successive discourse about the organization of work serves to legitimate
social interests.
The book's compelling conclusion is that instead of a tendency towards
increasing theoretical refinement, what is more evident is a trend towards
fictionalization, which ends in the contemporary paradigm of flatter, more
participative and democratic organizational forms.
Students and scholars interested in organization theory, management history,
the sociology of work or critical management will gain many new insights
from this historical reconstruction of the evolution of management thought.