Sociology Index

CAPITALISM

Capitalism is an economic system in which capital, that is, goods or wealth used to produce other goods for profit, is owned privately and profit is reinvested to facilitate capital accumulation. Human capital accumulation is now regarded as a prime engine of growth. Spirit of Capitalism is methodical and calculating in the pursuit of profit. Karaoke Capitalism is institutionalized imitation, where copycat firms dominate. Crony Capitalism arises when political cronyism extends into the business domain. State Capitalism merely substituted bureaucratic domination by the state and state officials for that of owners of capital. Why was the rise of capitalism in Germany and Japan associated not with liberal institutions and democratic politics, but rather with statist controls and authoritarianism?

Nations maintain different varieties of capitalism because of economic globalization because of diverse domestic settings. Unlike capitalism, in a barter system of economic activity a producer may grow a particular produce and barter it for an equivalent value of another produce produced by someone else. In capitalism, a person uses capital to produce goods and then sells those goods for an amount of cash. The cash received in capitalism is greater than the value of the goods produced.

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 of the market' is just as apt to push present chiefs of industry into fraud as honest productivity."

Marxist theory has abandoned the notion of the ‘mode of production’ and has encouraged a trend to naturalize capitalist categories. Weber and Schumpeter argue that a healthy capitalism requires economic and non-economic institutions. An absence of this may lead to capitalist petrification or collapse, according to them.

The Political Economy of Post-Industrial Capitalism - George Liagouras. 
We are entering a new era of information or ‘post-industrial capitalism’. Information capitalism can be either post-Fordist (see Fordism), or post-industrial.

Turning Modes of Production Inside Out - Or, Why Capitalism is a Transformation of Slavery - David Graeber.
A notion of a mode of production that recognizes the primacy of human production might show us 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.
 

The Problem of Crony Capitalism - Modernity and the Encounter with the Perverse - Joel S. Kahn, Francesco Formosa. 
Taking an ethnographic research it is argued that the continual attempt to relocate such phenomena precludes the possibility of serious analysis or assessment of these phenomena.

BOOKS ON CAPITALISM

Understanding Capitalism: Competition, Command, And Change
by Samuel Bowles, Richard Edwards, Frank Roosevelt.

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

The Rise Of Regulatory Capitalism:: The Global Diffusion Of A New Order by David Levi-Faur, Jacint Jordana (Editors) -

Stefan Bruggemann: Capitalism and Schizophrenia
by Stefan Bruggemann, Alexandra Garcia.

The Origins Of Nonliberal Capitalism: Germany And Japan In Comparison (Cornell Studies in Political Economy)
by Wolfgang Streeck (Editor), Kozo Yamamura (Editor)

Rescuing Capitalism From Corporatism: Greed And The American Corporate Culture by John David Rose.

Globalization and Change : The Transformation of Global Capitalism - by Berch Berberoglu.

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

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

Culture, Capitalism, and Democracy in the New America by Richard Brown.

Multinationals And Global Capitalism: From The Nineteenth To The Twenty-first Century by Geoffrey Jones.

Varieties Of Capitalism, Varieties Of Approaches - by David Coates (Editor).

A Civil Republic: Beyond Capitalism And Nationalism by Severyn T. Bruyn.

Capitalism at the Crossroads : The Unlimited Business Opportunities in Solving the World's Most Difficult Problems Stuart L. Hart.

Making Globalization Good: The Moral Challenges of Global Capitalism by John H. Dunning (Editor).

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

Karaoke Capitalism: Management For Mankind - by Jonas Ridderstrale, Kjell Nordstrom.