Revision as of 03:07, 7 January 2006 editCrotalus horridus (talk | contribs)Rollbackers7,850 edits Laissez-faire refers only to unregulated capitalism - most people would consider the modern US economy capitalist, but it certainly is not laissez-faire.← Previous edit | Latest revision as of 21:26, 24 December 2024 edit undoRodw (talk | contribs)Autopatrolled, Event coordinators, Extended confirmed users, New page reviewers, Pending changes reviewers, Rollbackers766,313 editsm Disambiguating links to French (link changed to French people) using DisamAssist. | ||
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{{Short description|Economic system based on private ownership}} | |||
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{{About|an economic system}} | |||
{{dablink|The page is about the economic system. For the card game sometimes called Capitalism, see ].}} | |||
{{Redirect|Capitalist|other uses|Capitalist (disambiguation)}} | |||
{{dablink|"Free enterprise" redirects here; for the 1998 film, see ].}} | |||
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{{Use American English|date=January 2014}} | |||
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2020}} | |||
{{Capitalism sidebar}} | |||
{{Economics sidebar}} | |||
{{Economic systems sidebar|expanded=by ideology}} | |||
{{Liberalism sidebar}} | |||
{{Neoliberalism sidebar}} | |||
'''Capitalism''' is an ] based on the ] of the ] and their operation for ].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Zimbalist |last2=Sherman |last3=Brown |first1=Andrew |first2=Howard J. |first3=Stuart |title=Comparing Economic Systems: A Political-Economic Approach |publisher=] |date=October 1988 |isbn=978-0-15-512403-5 |pages= |quote=Pure capitalism is defined as a system wherein all of the means of production (physical capital) are privately owned and run by the capitalist class for a profit, while most other people are workers who work for a salary or wage (and who do not own the capital or the product). |url=https://archive.org/details/comparingeconomi0000zimb_q8i6/page/6}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Rosser |first1=Mariana V. |last2=Rosser |first2=J Barkley |title=Comparative Economics in a Transforming World Economy |publisher=] |date=23 July 2003 |isbn=978-0-262-18234-8 |page=7 |quote=In capitalist economies, land and produced means of production (the capital stock) are owned by private individuals or groups of private individuals organized as firms.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Chris |last=Jenks |title=Core Sociological Dichotomies |quote=Capitalism, as a mode of production, is an economic system of manufacture and exchange which is geared toward the production and sale of commodities within a market for profit, where the manufacture of commodities consists of the use of the formally free labor of workers in exchange for a wage to create commodities in which the manufacturer extracts surplus value from the labor of the workers in terms of the difference between the wages paid to the worker and the value of the commodity produced by him/her to generate that profit. |location=London; Thousand Oaks, CA; New Delhi |publisher=] |page=383}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=The Challenge of Global Capitalism : The World Economy in the 21st Century |last=Gilpin |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Gilpin |isbn=978-0-691-18647-4 |oclc=1076397003 |date=2018|publisher=Princeton University Press }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Sternberg |first1=Elaine |title=Defining Capitalism |journal=] |date=2015 |volume=35 |issue=3 |pages=380–396 |doi=10.1111/ecaf.12141|s2cid=219373247 | issn = 0265-0665}}</ref> The defining characteristics of capitalism include ], ], ]s, ]s, recognition of ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], a ] that makes possible ] and ], ], ], ], ], production of ] and ]s, and a strong emphasis on ] and ].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Heilbroner |first1=Robert L. |title=The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics |date=2018 |publisher=] |location=London |isbn=978-1-349-95189-5 |pages=1378–1389 |url=https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5_154 |language=en |chapter=Capitalism |doi=10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5_154}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Hodgson |first1=Geoffrey M. |title=Conceptualizing Capitalism: Institutions, Evolution, Future |date=2015 |publisher=] |location=Chicago |isbn=9780226168142 |url=https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/C/bo18523749.html}}</ref><ref name = "harris">{{cite journal |last1=Harris |first1=Neal |last2=Delanty |first2=Gerard |title=What is capitalism? Toward a working definition |journal=] |date=2023 |volume=62 |issue=3 |pages=323–344 |doi=10.1177/05390184231203878 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Berend |first1=Ivan T. |title=Capitalism |journal=] |date=2015 |pages=94–98 |doi=10.1016/B978-0-08-097086-8.62003-2|isbn=978-0-08-097087-5 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Antonio |first1=Robert J. |last2=Bonanno |first2=Alessandro |title=Capitalism |journal=The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Globalization |date=2012 |doi=10.1002/9780470670590.wbeog060|isbn=978-1-4051-8824-1 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Beamish |first1=Rob |chapter=Capitalism |title=Core Concepts in Sociology |date=2018 |pages=17–22 |doi=10.1002/9781394260331.ch6|isbn=978-1-119-16861-4 }}</ref> In a ], decision-making and investments are determined by owners of wealth, property, or ability to maneuver capital or production ability in ] and ]s—whereas prices and the distribution of goods and services are mainly determined by competition in goods and services markets.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Gregory |first1=Paul |last2=Stuart |first2=Robert |year=2013 |title=The Global Economy and its Economic Systems |publisher=] |page=41 |isbn=978-1-285-05535-0 |quote=Capitalism is characterized by private ownership of the factors of production. Decision making is decentralized and rests with the owners of the factors of production. Their decision making is coordinated by the market, which provides the necessary information. Material incentives are used to motivate participants.}}</ref> | |||
In common usage, the word '''capitalism''' means an ] in which all or most of the ] are ] and operated for ], and the ] of ] is privately determined; and in which ], ], and ]s of ], ], and ] are determined mainly through the influence of the forces of ] in the operation of a ] . | |||
Economists, historians, political economists, and sociologists have adopted different perspectives in their analyses of capitalism and have recognized various forms of it in practice. These include '']'' or ], ], ], and ]. Different ] feature varying degrees of ]s, ],<ref name="gregorystuart">{{cite book|last1=Gregory |first1=Paul |last2=Stuart |first2=Robert |title=The Global Economy and its Economic Systems |publisher=] |date=2013 |isbn=978-1-285-05535-0 |page=107 |quote=Real-world capitalist systems are mixed, some having higher shares of public ownership than others. The mix changes when privatization or nationalization occurs. Privatization is when property that had been state-owned is transferred to private owners. ] occurs when privately owned property becomes publicly owned.}}</ref> obstacles to free competition, and state-sanctioned ]. The degree of ] in ] and the role of ] and ], as well as the scope of state ownership, vary across different models of capitalism.<ref name="Modern Economics 1986, p. 54">{{cite book |title=Macmillan Dictionary of Modern Economics |edition=3rd |date=1986 |pages=54}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |last=Bronk |first=Richard |title=Which model of capitalism?|url=http://oecdobserver.org/news/archivestory.php/aid/345/Which_model_of_capitalism_.html |url-status=live |magazine=] |publisher=] |date=Summer 2000 |volume=1999 |issue=221–222 |pages=12–15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180406200423/http://oecdobserver.org/news/archivestory.php/aid/345/Which_model_of_capitalism_.html |archive-date=6 April 2018 |access-date=6 April 2018}}</ref> The extent to which different markets are free and the rules defining private property are matters of politics and policy. Most of the existing capitalist economies are ] that combine elements of free markets with state intervention and in some cases ].<ref name="Stilwell">{{cite book |last=Stilwell |first=Frank |author-link=Frank Stilwell (economist) |title=Political Economy: the Contest of Economic Ideas |edition=1st |publisher=] |location=Melbourne, Australia |date=2002}}</ref> | |||
Capitalism has also been called the ''] economy'', ''free enterprise system'', '']'', and ''economic individualism''. Strict, unalloyed capitalism is often referred to as '']''. Most modern ] economies are ], largely capitalist, but with some degree of government involvement in economic activity. | |||
Capitalism in its modern form emerged from ] in ], as well as ] practices by European countries between the 16th and 18th centuries. The Industrial Revolution of the 18th century established ], characterized by ] and a complex ]. Through the process of ], capitalism spread across the world in the 19th and 20th centuries, especially before World War I and after the end of the Cold War. During the 19th century, capitalism was largely unregulated by the state, but became more regulated in the post–] period through ], followed by a return of more unregulated capitalism starting in the 1980s through ]. | |||
==Etymology== | |||
The word ''capital'' has roots in the trade and ownership of animals. The ] root of the word is ''capitalis'', from the ] ''kaput'', which means "head", this being how wealth was measured. The more heads of cattle, the better. The terms '']'' (meaning goods, animals, or ]) and even '']'' itself also derive from this same origin. | |||
The existence of market economies has been observed under many ] and across a vast array of ], ]s, and cultural contexts. The modern industrial capitalist societies that exist today developed in Western Europe as a result of the Industrial Revolution. The accumulation of capital is the primary mechanism through which capitalist economies promote ]. However, it is a characteristic of such economies that they experience a ] of ] followed by recessions.<ref name = "HP">{{cite journal |last1=Hodrick |first1=R. |last2=Prescott|first2= E. |year=1997 |title=Postwar US business cycles: An empirical investigation |journal=Journal of Money, Credit and Banking|volume=29|issue=1 |pages=1–16|doi=10.2307/2953682 |jstor=2953682 |s2cid=154995815 | url = http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/research/math/papers/451.pdf}}</ref> | |||
The lexical connections between animal trade and economics can also be seen in the names of many currencies and words about money: fee (''faihu''), rupee (''rupya''), buck (a deerskin), pecuniary (''pecu''), stock (''livestock''), and peso (''pecu'' or ''pashu'') all derive from animal-trade origins. | |||
== Etymology == | |||
] | |||
The first use of the word ''Kapitalist'' was in 1848 in the ] by Marx and Engels; however, "kapitalismus," the german word for "capitalism" was not used. The first use of the word ''capitalism'' is by novelist ] in 1854, by which he meant ownership of a large amount of capital. | |||
The term "capitalist", meaning an owner of ], appears earlier than the term "capitalism" and dates to the mid-17th century. "Capitalism" is derived from ''capital'', which evolved from {{lang|la|capitale}}, a late ] word based on {{lang|la|caput}}, meaning "head"—which is also the origin of "]" and "]" in the sense of movable property (only much later to refer only to livestock). {{lang|la|Capitale}} emerged in the 12th to 13th centuries to refer to funds, stock of merchandise, sum of money or money carrying interest.<ref name="Braudel-1979">{{cite book |last=Braudel |first=Fernand |author-link=Fernand Braudel |title=The Wheels of Commerce: Civilization and Capitalism 15th–18th Century |publisher=] |date=1979}}</ref>{{rp|232}}<ref name="OED-93">]. "Capital". . ''Oxford English Press''. {{abbr|Vol.|Volume}} 2. p. 93.</ref> By 1283, it was used in the sense of the capital assets of a trading firm and was often interchanged with other words—wealth, money, funds, goods, assets, property and so on.<ref name="Braudel-1979" />{{rp|233}} | |||
In 1867 ] used the term ''capitalist'' to refer to owners of capital, and Marx and Engels refer to the "capitalist form of production" ("''kapitalistische Produktionsform''") and in '']'' to ''"Kapitalist"'', "capitalist" (meaning a private owner of capital). By the early ] the term had become widespread, as evidenced by ]'s use of the term in his '']'' in 1904, and ]'s 1902 ''Modern Capitalism''. | |||
The ''Hollantse ({{langx|de|holländische}}) Mercurius'' uses "capitalists" in 1633 and 1654 to refer to owners of capital.<ref name="Braudel-1979" />{{rp|234}} In French, ] referred to ''capitalistes'' in 1788,<ref>E.g., "L'Angleterre a-t-elle l'heureux privilège de n'avoir ni Agioteurs, ni Banquiers, ni Faiseurs de services, ni Capitalistes ?" in (1788) ''De la foi publique envers les créanciers de l'état : lettres à M. Linguet sur le n° CXVI de ses annales'' {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150319071130/http://books.google.com/books?id=ESMVAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA19 |date=19 March 2015 }}</ref> four years before its first recorded English usage by ] in his work ''Travels in France'' (1792).<ref name="OED-93" /><ref>Arthur Young. .</ref> In his '']'' (1817), ] referred to "the capitalist" many times.<ref>Ricardo, David. Principles of Political Economy and Taxation. 1821. John Murray Publisher, 3rd edition.</ref> English poet ] used "capitalist" in his work ''Table Talk'' (1823).<ref>Samuel Taylor Coleridge. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200223123202/https://books.google.com/books?id=ma-4W-XiGkIC |date=23 February 2020 }}. p. 267.</ref> ] used the term in his first work, '']'' (1840), to refer to the owners of capital. ] used the term in his 1845 work '']''.<ref name="OED-93" /> ] used "capitalist" in his ] presented to the United States Congress in 1791. | |||
The ] cites the use of the term "private capitalism" by ], German-American ] and ] in the late ], in an 1877 work entitled "Better Times", and a citation by an unknown author in 1884 in the pages of ] magazine. | |||
The initial use of the term "capitalism" in its modern sense is attributed to ] in 1850 ("What I call 'capitalism' that is to say the appropriation of capital by some to the exclusion of others") and Pierre-Joseph Proudhon in 1861 ("Economic and social regime in which capital, the source of income, does not generally belong to those who make it work through their labor").<ref name="Braudel-1979" />{{rp|237}} ] frequently referred to the "]" and to the "capitalist mode of production" in '']'' (1867).<ref>{{cite book |last=Saunders |first=Peter |date=1995 |title=Capitalism |publisher=] |page=1}}</ref><ref name=":0">MEW, 23, & Das Kapital. Kritik der politischen Oekonomie. Erster Band-Verlag von Otto Meissner (1867)</ref> Marx did not use the form ''capitalism'' but instead used ], ''capitalist'' and ''capitalist mode of production'', which appear frequently.<ref name=":0" /><ref>The use of the word "capitalism" appears in ''Theories of Surplus Value'', volume II. ToSV was edited by Kautsky.</ref> Due to the word being coined by socialist critics of capitalism, economist and historian ] stated that the term "capitalism" itself is a term of disparagement and a misnomer for ].<ref>Hessen, Robert (2008) "Capitalism", in Henderson, David R. (ed.) ''The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics'' p. 57</ref> ] agrees with the statement that the term is a misnomer, adding that it misleadingly suggests that there is such a thing as "]" that inherently functions in certain ways and is governed by stable economic laws of its own.<ref>Harcourt, Bernard E. (2020) ''For Coöperation and the Abolition of Capital, Or, How to Get Beyond Our Extractive Punitive Society and Achieve a Just Society'', Rochester, NY: Columbia Public Law Research Paper No. 14-672, p. 31</ref> | |||
The definition of capitalism given in dictionaries has changed over time. For example, the 1909 ] defined capitalism as: | |||
# The state of having capital or property; possession of capital. | |||
# The concentration or massing of capital in the hands of a few; also, the power or influence of large or combined capital. | |||
In the ], the term "capitalism" first appears, according to the '']'' (OED), in 1854, in the novel '']'' by novelist ], where the word meant "having ownership of capital".<ref name="OED-94">]. "Capitalism" p. 94.</ref> Also according to the OED, ], a ] ] and ], used the term "private capitalism" in 1863. | |||
The contemporary definition, however, refers to an ''economic system''. For example, the ] refers to capitalism as: " an economic system characterized by private or corporation ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined by private decision rather than by state control, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly in a free market." Hence, "capitalism" today commonly refers to what was called ] and ] in the 18th and 19th centuries. | |||
Other terms sometimes used for capitalism are: | |||
According to some ] theories regarding ], a dominant economic ] disseminates an ideology serving its class interests. Therefore the ideology of the capitalist class (previously known as the ]) also came to be known as "capitalism", giving the word a meaning which is distinct, albeit closely related to, the economic system. This usage has been adopted outside of leftist circles, and many ]s describe themselves as "capitalists", even if they are not personally involved in business investment and/or the ownership of the means of production. | |||
* ]<ref>{{cite book |last=Mandel |first=Ernst |author-link=Ernst Mandel |title=An Introduction to Marxist Economic Theory |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pf9Jd1sIMJ0C&pg=PA24 |year=2002 |publisher=] |isbn=978-1-876646-30-1 |page=24 |access-date=29 January 2017 |archive-date=15 February 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170215160137/https://books.google.com/books?id=Pf9Jd1sIMJ0C&pg=PA24 |url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
* ]<ref>{{cite journal |title=Adam Smith and His Legacy for Modern Capitalism |last=Werhane |first=P. H. |journal=The Review of Metaphysics |volume=47 |year=1994 |issue=3}}</ref> | |||
* Free enterprise<ref name="rogetfreeenterprise">{{cite encyclopedia |title=Free enterprise |encyclopedia=Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus |edition=Third |publisher=Philip Lief Group |date=2008}}</ref>{{page needed|date=July 2021}} | |||
* Free enterprise economy<ref name="britannica" /> | |||
* ]<ref name="rogetfreeenterprise" />{{page needed|date=July 2021}} | |||
* Free market economy<ref name="britannica" /> | |||
* '']''<ref name=Barrons>{{cite book |title=Barrons Dictionary of Finance and Investment Terms |date=1995 |page=74}}</ref> | |||
* ]<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/market%20economy |title=Market economy |dictionary=Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary}}</ref> | |||
* Profits system<ref>{{cite book |last=Shutt |first=Harry |title=Beyond the Profits System: Possibilities for the Post-Capitalist Era |publisher=] |year=2010 |isbn=978-1-84813-417-1}}</ref>{{page needed|date=July 2021}} | |||
* Self-regulating market<ref name="rogetfreeenterprise" />{{page needed|date=July 2021}} | |||
== Definition == | |||
==Capitalist theory== | |||
There is no universally agreed upon definition of capitalism; it is unclear whether or not capitalism characterizes an entire society, a specific type of social order, or crucial | |||
components or elements of a society.<ref name="wolf">{{cite encyclopedia |last=Wolf |first=Harald |editor1-last=Ritzer |editor1-first=George|title=Capitalism |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Social Theory|pages=76–80|date=2004 |publisher=Sage Publications|isbn=978-1-4522-6546-9}}</ref> Societies officially founded in opposition to capitalism (such as the ]) have sometimes been argued to actually exhibit characteristics of capitalism.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Howard |first1=M.C. |last2=King |first2=J.E. |title='State Capitalism' in the Soviet Union |journal=History of Economics Review |date=January 2001 |volume=34 |issue=1 |pages=110–126 |doi=10.1080/10370196.2001.11733360 |s2cid=42809979 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/10370196.2001.11733360 |language=en |issn=1037-0196}}</ref> ] describes usage of the term "capitalism" by many authors as "mainly rhetorical, functioning less as an actual concept than as a gesture toward the | |||
need for a concept".<ref name="harris"/> Scholars who are uncritical of capitalism rarely actually use the term "capitalism".<ref name="delacroix">{{cite encyclopedia |last=Delacroix |first=Jacques |editor1-last=Ritzer |editor1-first=George |title=Capitalism |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Social Theory|date=2007 |publisher=Wiley|doi=10.1002/9781405165518.wbeosc004 |isbn=978-1-4051-2433-1|url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781405165518.wbeosc004}}</ref> | |||
Some doubt that the term "capitalism" possesses valid scientific dignity,<ref name="wolf"/> and it is generally not discussed in ],<ref name="harris"/> with economist ] suggesting that the term "capitalism" should be abandoned entirely.<ref>{{cite book |last=Acemoglu |first=Daron |date=2017 |editor1-last=Frey |editor1-first=Bruno S.|editor2-last = Iselin|editor2-first = David |title=Economic Ideas You Should Forget |publisher=Springer|pages=1–3 |chapter=Capitalism|doi=10.1007/978-3-319-47458-8_1 |isbn=978-3-319-47457-1|chapter-url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-47458-8_1}}</ref> Consequently, understanding of the concept of capitalism tends to be heavily influenced by opponents of capitalism and by the followers and critics of Karl Marx.<ref name="delacroix"/> | |||
== History == | |||
Some emphasize the private ownership of ] as being the essence of capitalism, or emphasize the importance of a ] as a mechanism for the movement and accumulation of capital. Others measure capitalism through class analysis, including the class structure of society and relations between ] and the capitalist class. Some note the growth of a ] system. | |||
{{Main|History of capitalism}} | |||
] (pictured in a 16th-century portrait by ]) built an international financial empire and was one of the first ]ers.]] | |||
], the centre of early capitalism<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last1=Behringer |first1=Wolfgang |contribution=Core and Periphery: The Holy Roman Empire as a Communication(s) Universe |title=The Holy Roman Empire, 1495–1806 |date=2011 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-960297-1 |pages=347–358|url=https://perspectivia.net/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/pnet_derivate_00004689/behringer_core.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://perspectivia.net/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/pnet_derivate_00004689/behringer_core.pdf |archive-date=9 October 2022 |url-status=live |access-date=7 August 2022}}</ref>]] | |||
Capitalism, in its modern form, can be traced to the emergence of agrarian capitalism and mercantilism in the early ], in city-states like ].<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.economist.com/node/13484709 |title=Cradle of capitalism |newspaper=] |date=16 April 2009 |access-date=9 March 2015 |archive-date=18 January 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180118055643/http://www.economist.com/node/13484709 |url-status=live}}</ref> ] has existed incipiently on a small scale for centuries<ref name="WarburtonDavid">{{cite book |last=Warburton |first=David |title=Macroeconomics from the beginning: The General Theory, Ancient Markets, and the Rate of Interest |location=Paris |publisher=Recherches et Publications |date=2003 |pages=49}}</ref> in the form of merchant, renting and lending activities and occasionally as small-scale industry with some wage labor. Simple ] exchange and consequently simple commodity production, which is the initial basis for the growth of capital from trade, have a very long history. During the ], ] promulgated capitalist economic policies such as free trade and banking. Their use of ] facilitated ]. These innovations migrated to Europe through trade partners in cities such as Venice and Pisa. Italian ] traveled the Mediterranean talking to Arab traders and returned to popularize the use of Indo-Arabic numerals in Europe.<ref name="Koehler, Benedikt">{{cite book |last=Koehler |first=Benedikt |title=Early Islam and the Birth of Capitalism |quote=In Baghdad, by the early tenth century a fully-fledged banking sector had come into being... |pages=2 |publisher=] |date=2014}}</ref> | |||
Others focus on the application of the market to human labor. Still others, such as Hayek, note the ] character of economies which are not centrally-planned by government. Many, such as Adam Smith, point to what is believed to be the value of individuals pursuing their ] as opposed to altruistically working to serve the "]." | |||
=== Agrarianism === | |||
Many of these theories call attention to various ] practices that became institutionalized in ] between the ] and ] centuries, especially involving the right of individuals and groups of individuals acting as "legal persons" (or ]) to buy and sell ]s, as well as ], labor, and ] (see ] and ]), in a ] (see ]), and relying on the state for the enforcement of ] rights rather than on a system of feudal protection and obligations. | |||
The economic foundations of the feudal agricultural system began to shift substantially in 16th-century England as the ] had broken down and land began to become concentrated in the hands of fewer landlords with increasingly large estates. Instead of a ]-based system of labor, workers were increasingly employed as part of a broader and expanding money-based economy. The system put pressure on both landlords and tenants to increase the productivity of agriculture to make profit; the weakened coercive power of the ] to extract peasant ] encouraged them to try better methods, and the tenants also had incentive to improve their methods in order to flourish in a competitive ]. Terms of rent for land were becoming subject to economic market forces rather than to the previous stagnant system of custom and feudal obligation.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Brenner |first1=Robert |title=The Agrarian Roots of European Capitalism |journal=] |date=1 January 1982 |issue=97 |pages=16–113 |doi=10.1093/past/97.1.16 |jstor=650630}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://monthlyreview.org/1998/07/01/the-agrarian-origins-of-capitalism |title=The Agrarian Origins of Capitalism |access-date=17 December 2012 |date=July 1998 |archive-date=11 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191211183143/https://monthlyreview.org/1998/07/01/the-agrarian-origins-of-capitalism/ |url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
=== Mercantilism === | |||
Due to the vagueness of the term, debates and controversies have emerged. In particular, there is contention on whether capitalism is an actual system, or an ideal, i.e. on whether it has actually been implemented in particular economies, or if not, then to what degree capitalism exists in them (see '']''). From a historic point of view, there is an argument on whether capitalism is specific to a particular era or geographic region or if it is a universally valid system that may exist throughout various times and spaces. Some interpret capitalism as a purely economic system; others however contend that capitalism is a political, social, and cultural system as well. | |||
{{Main|Mercantilism}} | |||
]]] | |||
] with the ] after the ] which began the British rule in ]]] | |||
The economic doctrine prevailing from the 16th to the 18th centuries is commonly called ].<ref name=GSGB>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pf9Jd1sIMJ0C |title=An Introduction to Marxist Economic Theory |date= 2002 |publisher=] |via=] |isbn=978-1-876646-30-1 |access-date=27 August 2016 |archive-date=11 December 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161211173733/https://books.google.com/books?id=Pf9Jd1sIMJ0C |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Burnham">{{cite book |last=Burnham |first=Peter |author-link=Peter Burnham |title=Capitalism: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics |publisher=] |year=2003}}</ref> This period, the ], was associated with the geographic exploration of foreign lands by merchant traders, especially from England and the ]. Mercantilism was a system of trade for profit, although commodities were still largely produced by non-capitalist methods.<ref name="Scott" /> Most scholars consider the era of merchant capitalism and mercantilism as the origin of modern capitalism,<ref name="Burnham"/><ref name="Encyclopædia Britannica 2006">''Encyclopædia Britannica'' (2006)</ref> although ] argued that the hallmark of capitalism is the establishment of generalized markets for what he called the "fictitious commodities", i.e. land, labor and money. Accordingly, he argued that "not until 1834 was a competitive labor market established in England, hence industrial capitalism as a social system cannot be said to have existed before that date".<ref>{{cite book |last=Polanyi |first=Karl |author-link=Karl Polanyi |title=The Great Transformation |publisher=] |location=Boston |date=1944 |pages=87}}</ref> | |||
England began a large-scale and integrative approach to mercantilism during the ] (1558–1603). A systematic and coherent explanation of balance of trade was made public through ]'s argument ''England's Treasure by Forraign Trade, or the Balance of our Forraign Trade is The Rule of Our Treasure.'' It was written in the 1620s and published in 1664.<ref>{{cite book |first1=David |last1=Onnekink |first2=Gijs |last2=Rommelse |title=Ideology and Foreign Policy in Early Modern Europe (1650–1750) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M1QdbzdTimsC&pg=PA257 |year=2011 |publisher=] |page=257 |isbn=978-1-4094-1914-3 |access-date=27 June 2015 |archive-date=19 March 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150319130220/http://books.google.com/books?id=M1QdbzdTimsC&pg=PA257 |url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
===Contrasts with capitalism=== | |||
European ]s, backed by state controls, subsidies and ], made most of their profits by buying and selling goods. In the words of ], the purpose of mercantilism was "the opening and well-balancing of trade; the cherishing of manufacturers; the banishing of idleness; the repressing of waste and excess by sumptuary laws; the improvement and husbanding of the soil; the regulation of prices...".<ref>Quoted in {{cite book |first=George |last=Clark |title=The Seventeenth Century |location=New York |publisher=] |date=1961 |page=24}}</ref> | |||
Capitalism contrasts with ], where a ] holds both law-making power and the ability to claim ownership over the ] rather than having to purchase it; the monarch loans the land to ]s in exchange for various services, and the vassals, in turn, use ]s to work the land. In contrast, under capitalism title to land may only be transferred through trade or gift. In capitalism, there is a clear separation between legislative power and private ownership of land, and workers are employed through ] rather than serfdom. | |||
After the period of the ], the ] and the ], after massive contributions from the ],<ref name="Prakash">], "", ''History of World Trade Since 1450'', edited by ], vol. 1, Macmillan Reference USA, 2006, pp. 237–240, ''World History in Context''. Retrieved 3 August 2017</ref><ref name="ray">{{cite book |first=Indrajit |last=Ray |year=2011 |title=Bengal Industries and the British Industrial Revolution (1757–1857) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CHOrAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA57 |publisher=] |pages=57, 90, 174 |isbn=978-1-136-82552-1 |access-date=20 June 2019 |archive-date=29 May 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160529021839/https://books.google.com/books?id=CHOrAgAAQBAJ |url-status=live}}</ref> inaugurated an expansive era of commerce and trade.<ref name=Banaji>{{cite journal |last=Banaji |first=Jairus |year=2007 |title=Islam, the Mediterranean and the rise of capitalism |journal=] |volume=15 |pages=47–74 |doi=10.1163/156920607X171591 |url=http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/15983/1/Islam%20and%20capitalism.pdf |access-date=20 April 2018 |archive-date=29 March 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180329015002/http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/15983/1/Islam%20and%20capitalism.pdf |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="britannica2">{{cite book |title=Economic system:: Market systems |url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/178493/economic-system/61117/Market-systems#toc242146 |publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica |year=2006 |access-date=4 January 2009 |archive-date=24 May 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090524075921/https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/178493/economic-system/61117/Market-systems#toc242146 |url-status=live}}</ref> These companies were characterized by their ] and ] powers given to them by nation-states.<ref name="Banaji" /> During this era, merchants, who had traded under the previous stage of mercantilism, invested capital in the East India Companies and other colonies, seeking a ]. | |||
Capitalism contrasts with ], where the means of production are owned and run by popular collectives (such as the state) for the people. It contrasts with ] where the means of production are owned collectively, rather than privately, by the workers themselves and the produce of labor is collectivized, resulting in the "abolition of ] property" ("private property") . In addition, as suggested by ], the products of labour are directly distributed "to each according to his need" , and "buying and selling" is abolished (''Communist Manifesto''). This differs from capitalism, where workers are paid some sort of monetery compensation (usually a ]) in return for their labour, and the products are distributed by trade in a market. | |||
=== Industrial Revolution === | |||
Capitalism also contrasts with ], where private business works in a close relationship with the government in an attempt to serve the interests of the nation. In addition, capitalism can be contrasted with various kinds of ], where private ownership of the means of production co-exists with some degree of public ownership, economic planning by government, and possibly a ]. | |||
{{Main|Industrial Revolution}} | |||
], fuelled primarily by ], propelled the ] in ].<ref>Watt steam engine image located in the lobby of the Superior Technical School of Industrial Engineers of the ]{{clarify|date=April 2016}} (]).</ref>]] | |||
In the mid-18th century a group of economic theorists, led by ] (1711–1776)<ref>{{cite book |last=Hume |first=David |author-link=David Hume |title=Political Discourses |url=https://archive.org/details/McGillLibrary-125702-2590 |location=Edinburgh |publisher=A. Kincaid & A. Donaldson |year=1752}}</ref> and ] (1723–1790), challenged fundamental mercantilist doctrines—such as the belief that the world's wealth remained constant and that a state could only increase its wealth at the expense of another state. | |||
During the ], ] replaced merchants as a dominant factor in the capitalist system and effected the decline of the traditional handicraft skills of ]s, guilds and ]. Industrial capitalism marked the development of the ] of manufacturing, characterized by a complex ] between and within work process and the routine of work tasks; and eventually established the domination of the ].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Burnham |first1=Peter |author1-link=Peter Burnham |year=1996 |chapter=Capitalism |editor1-last=McLean |editor1-first=Iain |editor2-last=McMillan |editor2-first=Alistair |title=The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8JkyAwAAQBAJ |series=Oxford Quick Reference |edition=3 |location=Oxford |publisher=] |publication-date=2009 |isbn=978-0-19-101827-5 |access-date=14 September 2019 |quote=Industrial capitalism, which Marx dates from the last third of the eighteenth century, finally establishes the domination of the capitalist mode of production. |archive-date=27 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200727163404/https://books.google.com/books?id=8JkyAwAAQBAJ |url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
==History of capitalism== | |||
===Capitalism as a theory=== | |||
''Main article: ]'' | |||
Industrial Britain eventually abandoned the ] policy formerly prescribed by mercantilism. In the 19th century, ] (1804–1865) and ] (1811–1889), who based their beliefs on the ], initiated a movement to lower ].<ref name="laissezf">{{cite web |title=Laissez-faire |url=http://www.bartleby.com/65/la/laissezf.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081202050426/http://www.bartleby.com/65/la/laissezf.html |archive-date=2 December 2008}}</ref> In the 1840s Britain adopted a less protectionist policy, with the 1846 repeal of the ] and the 1849 repeal of the ].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Burnham |first1=Peter |author1-link=Peter Burnham |year=1996 |chapter=Capitalism |editor1-last=McLean |editor1-first=Iain |editor2-last=McMillan |editor2-first=Alistair |title=The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8JkyAwAAQBAJ |series=Oxford Quick Reference |edition=3 |location=Oxford |publisher=] |publication-date=2009 |isbn=978-0-19-101827-5 |access-date=14 September 2019 |quote=For most analysts, mid- to late-nineteenth century Britain is seen as the apotheosis of the laissez-faire phase of capitalism. This phase took off in Britain in the 1840s with the repeal of the Corn Laws, and the Navigation Acts, and the passing of the Banking Act. |archive-date=27 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200727163404/https://books.google.com/books?id=8JkyAwAAQBAJ |url-status=live}}</ref> Britain reduced tariffs and ], in line with David Ricardo's advocacy of ]. | |||
] was first to propose free trade and industry and to lay out the principles of liberalism in his 1765 book '']'', eleven years before Adam Smith]] | |||
]'s more complete ] earned him fame as the intellectual father of capitalism]] | |||
=== Modernity === | |||
Most theories of what has come to be called capitalism developed in the ], ] and ], for instance in the context of the ] and ] (e.g. ], ], ], ]), ] (e.g.]) and the ] (e.g. ], ]). | |||
] formed the financial basis of the international economy from 1870 to 1914.]] | |||
Broader processes of ] carried capitalism across the world. By the beginning of the nineteenth century, a series of loosely connected market systems had come together as a relatively integrated global system, in turn intensifying processes of economic and other globalization.<ref name="SAGE Publications">{{cite book |year=2007 |last1=James |first1=Paul |author-link=Paul James (academic) |last2=Gills |first2=Barry |title=Globalization and Economy, Vol. 1: Global Markets and Capitalism |url=https://www.academia.edu/4199690 |publisher=] |location=London |page=xxxiii}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |title=Impact of Global Capitalism on the Environment of Developing Economies |url=http://s-space.snu.ac.kr/bitstream/10371/93716/1/04_Osariyekemwen%20Igiebor.pdf |journal=Impact of Global Capitalism on the Environment of Developing Economies: The Case of Nigeria |pages=84 |access-date=31 July 2020 |archive-date=20 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200320071239/http://s-space.snu.ac.kr/bitstream/10371/93716/1/04_Osariyekemwen%20Igiebor.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref> Late in the 20th century, capitalism overcame a challenge by ] and is now the encompassing system worldwide,<ref name="britannica">{{cite book |title=Capitalism |publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/93927/capitalism |date=10 November 2014 |access-date=24 March 2015 |archive-date=29 June 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629021539/https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/93927/capitalism |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=James |first=Fulcher |title=Capitalism, A Very Short Introduction |quote=In one respect there can, however, be little doubt that capitalism has gone global and that is in the elimination of alternative systems |pages=99 |publisher=] |date=2004 |isbn=978-0-19-280218-7}}</ref> with the ] as its dominant form in the industrialized Western world. | |||
These theorists characterise capitalism as an economic system in which capital is owned by private individuals (sometimes referred to as "capitalists") and economic decisions are determined in a market - that is, by trades that occur as a result of agreement between buyers and sellers; where a market mentality and ] spirit exists; and where specific, legally enforceable, notions of ] and ] are instituted. Such theories typically try to explain why capitalist economies are likely to generate more economic growth than those subject to a greater degree of governmental intervention (see ], ], ]). | |||
] allowed cheap production of household items using ], while rapid ] created sustained demand for commodities. The ] of the 18th-century decisively shaped globalization.<ref name="SAGE Publications" /><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Thomas |first1=Martin |last2=Thompson |first2=Andrew |date=1 January 2014 |title=Empire and Globalisation: from 'High Imperialism' to Decolonisation |journal=The International History Review |volume=36 |issue=1 |pages=142–170 |doi=10.1080/07075332.2013.828643 |s2cid=153987517 |issn=0707-5332|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |title=Globalization and Empire |url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/47230635.pdf |journal=Globalization and Empire |access-date=31 July 2020 |archive-date=23 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200923063531/https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/47230635.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |title=Europe and the causes of globalization |url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/7045619.pdf |journal=Europe and the Causes of Globalization, 1790 to 2000 |access-date=31 July 2020 |archive-date=7 December 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171207091124/https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/7045619.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
In his 1765 book '']'', ], a ] parlamentarian, became the first to propose freedom of trade and industry and the principles of ], 11 years before ] in '']'' (1776). | |||
After the ] and ]s (1839–60) by ] and ] and the completion of the ] conquest of India by 1858 and the ] conquest of ], ] and ] by 1887, vast populations of Asia became consumers of European exports. Europeans colonized areas of Africa and the Pacific islands. Colonisation by Europeans, notably of Africa by the British and French, yielded valuable natural resources such as ], ] and ] and helped fuel trade and investment between the European imperial powers, their colonies and the United States: | |||
The conception of what constitutes capitalism has changed significantly over time, as well as varying depending on the political perspective and analytical approach taken. ]'s advocacy of ] focused on the role of enlightened self-interest (the "invisible hand") and the role of ] in making capital accumulation efficient. | |||
{{blockquote|The inhabitant of London could order by telephone, sipping his morning tea, the various products of the whole earth, and reasonably expect their early delivery upon his doorstep. Militarism and imperialism of racial and cultural rivalries were little more than the amusements of his daily newspaper. What an extraordinary episode in the economic progress of man was that age which came to an end in August 1914.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/commandingheights/shared/minitext/tr_show01.html |title=Commanding Heights: Episode One: The Battle of Ideas |publisher=] |date=24 October 1929 |access-date=31 July 2010 |archive-date=30 March 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100330093746/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/commandingheights/shared/minitext/tr_show01.html |url-status=live}}</ref>}} | |||
Some proponents of capitalism (like ], ] and ]) emphasize the role of ]s, which they claim promote ] between individuals, innovation, economic growth, as well as ]. For many (like ]), capitalism hinges on the elaboration of an economic system in which ] and ]s are traded in ]s, and capital goods belong to non-state entities, onto a global scale. | |||
From the 1870s to the early 1920s, the global financial system was mainly tied to the ].<ref>{{cite book|last=Eichengreen|first=Barry|author-link=Barry Eichengreen|date=6 August 2019|title=Globalizing Capital: A History of the International Monetary System|edition=3rd|publisher=]|doi=10.2307/j.ctvd58rxg|isbn=978-0-691-19458-5|s2cid=240840930 |lccn=2019018286}}{{page needed|date=December 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Eichengreen|first1=Barry|author-link=Barry Eichengreen|last2=Esteves|first2=Rui Pedro|date=2021|editor1-last=Fukao|editor1-first=Kyoji|editor2-last=Broadberry|editor2-first=Stephen|editor2-link=Stephen Broadberry|section=International Finance|title=The Cambridge Economic History of the Modern World|publisher=]|volume=2: ''1870 to the Present''|pages=501–525|isbn=978-1-107-15948-8}}</ref> The United Kingdom first formally adopted this standard in 1821. Soon to follow were ] in 1853, ] in 1865, the United States and Germany ('']'') in 1873. New technologies, such as the ], the ], the ], the ] and ]s allowed goods and information to move around the world to an unprecedented degree.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nber.org/papers/w7195 |last1=Bordo |first1=Michael D. |author1-link=Michael D. Bordo |last2=Eichengreen |first2=Barry |author2-link=Barry Eichengreen |last3=Irwin |first3=Douglas A. |title=Is Globalization Today Really Different than Globalization a Hundred Years Ago? |series=NBER |number=Working Paper No. 7195 |date=June 1999|doi=10.3386/w7195 }}</ref> | |||
For others (like ]), capitalism is defined by historically unprecedented social relations resulting from the creation of a ] in which most people have to sell their ] in order to survive. As Marx argued (see also ]), capitalism is also distinguished from other market economies with private ownership by the concentration of the means of production in the hands of individuals. | |||
In the United States, the term "capitalist" primarily referred to powerful businessmen<ref>{{Cite book |last=Andrews |first=Thomas G. |title=Killing for Coal: America's Deadliest Labor War |publisher=] |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-674-03101-2 |location=Cambridge |page=64 |author-link=Thomas G. Andrews (historian)}}</ref> until the 1920s due to widespread societal skepticism and criticism of capitalism and its most ardent supporters. | |||
The economists of the ] expound that an economy that is not planned or guided by governmental authority will be superior in efficiency and organization due to the phenomenon of ]. Many others use capitalism as a synonym for a ]. | |||
] ] (1963)]] | |||
===Capitalism as a practice=== | |||
See the ''Main article: ]'' for the system's history in practice (as opposed to theory). | |||
Contemporary capitalist societies developed in the West from 1950 to the present and this type of system continues throughout the world—relevant examples started in the ], ], ], ], and others. At this stage most capitalist markets are considered{{by whom|date=July 2021}} developed and characterized by developed private and public markets for equity and debt, a high ] (as characterized by the ] and the ]), large institutional investors and a well-funded ]. A significant ] has emerged{{when|date=July 2021}} and decides on a significant proportion of investments and other decisions. A different future than that envisioned by Marx has started to emerge—explored and described by ] in the United Kingdom in his 1956 book '']''<ref>{{cite book |last=Crosland |first=Anthony |title=The Future of Socialism |publisher=Jonathan Cape |year=1956 |location=United Kingdom}}{{page needed|date=December 2023}}</ref> and by ] in North America in his 1958 book '']'',<ref>{{cite book |last=Galbraith |first=John Kenneth |title=The Affluent Society |publisher=] |year=1958 |location=United States}}{{page needed|date=December 2023}}</ref> 90 years after Marx's research on the state of capitalism in 1867.<ref>{{cite book |last=Shiller |first=Robert |title=Finance and The Good Society |publisher=] |year=2012 |location=United States}}{{page needed|date=December 2023}}</ref> | |||
==Characteristics of capitalist economies== | |||
A set of broad characteristics are generally agreed on by both advocates and critics of capitalism. These are a ], ], free enterprise, ], unequal distribution of ], competition, ] (or '']''), the existence of ] (including the ]) and the pursuit of ]. | |||
The ] ended in the late 1960s and early 1970s and the economic situation grew worse with the rise of ].<ref>{{cite book |last=Barnes |first=Trevor J. |title=Reading economic geography |publisher=] |isbn=978-0-631-23554-5 |page=127 |year=2004}}</ref> ], a modification of ] that is more compatible with ''laissez-faire'' analyses, gained increasing prominence in the capitalist world, especially under the years in office of ] in the United States (1981–1989) and of ] in the United Kingdom (1979–1990). Public and political interest began shifting away from the so-called ] concerns of Keynes's managed capitalism to a focus on individual ], called "remarketized capitalism".<ref name="Fulcher, James 2004">{{cite book |last=Fulcher |first=James |title=Capitalism |edition=1st |location=New York |publisher=] |date=2004}}{{page needed|date=December 2023}}</ref> | |||
An economy with a large amount of intervention - which may include state ownership of some of the means of production - in combination with some free market characteristics is sometimes referred to as a '']'', rather than a capitalist one. If intervention occurs to such a degree that it overwhelms private decision, such an economy is often referred to as ]. Some economists, such as ], oppose all or almost all such state control over an economy. However, such distinctions are disputed. By some definitions, all of the economies in the ] are capitalist, or are mixed economies based in capitalism. Others see the world integrated into a global capitalist system, and even those nations which today resist capitalism, operate within a globalized capitalist economy. | |||
The end of the ] and the ] allowed for capitalism to become a truly global system in a way not seen since before ]. The development of the ] global economy would have been impossible without the fall of ].<ref>{{cite book |last=Gerstle |first=Gary |author-link=Gary Gerstle |date=2022 |title=The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order: America and the World in the Free Market Era |url=https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-neoliberal-order-9780197519646?cc=us&lang=en& |location= |publisher=] |pages=10–12 |isbn=978-0-19-751964-6}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Bartel |first=Fritz |date=2022 |title=The Triumph of Broken Promises: The End of the Cold War and the Rise of Neoliberalism |url=https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=978-0-674-97678-8 |location= |publisher=] |pages=5–6, 19 |isbn=978-0-674-97678-8}}</ref> | |||
===Private ownership of the means of production=== | |||
] | |||
] | |||
An essential characteristic of capitalism is the institution of rule of law in establishing and protecting private property, including, most notably, private ownership of the ]. Private property was embraced in some earlier legal systems, such as in ancient Rome , but protection of these rights was sometimes difficult, especially since Rome had no police . This system and some earlier systems often forced the weak to accept the leadership of a strong patron or lord and pay him for protection. It has been argued that a strong formal property and legal system made possible a) greater independence; b) clear and provable protected ownership; c) the standardization and integration of property rules and property information in the country as a whole; d) increased trust arising from a greater certainty of punishment for cheating in economic transactions; e) more formal and complex written statements of ownership that permitted the easier assumption of shared risk and ownership in companies, and the insurance of risk; f) greater availability of loans for new projects, since more things could be used as collateral for the loans; g) easier access to and more reliable information regarding such things as credit history and the worth of assets; h) an increased fungibility, standardization and transferability of statements documenting the ownership of property, which paved the way for structures such as national markets for companies and the easy transportation of property through complex networks of individuals and other entities. All of these things enhanced economic growth. | |||
Harvard Kennedy School economist Dani Rodrik distinguishes between three historical variants of capitalism:<ref>{{citation |last=Rodrik |first=Dani |title=Capitalism 3.0 |date=2009 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46mtqx.23 |work=Aftershocks |volume= |pages=185–193 |editor-last=Hemerijck |editor-first=Anton |publisher=] |jstor=j.ctt46mtqx.23 |isbn=978-90-8964-192-2 |access-date=14 January 2021 |editor2-last=Knapen |editor2-first=Ben |editor3-last=van Doorne |editor3-first=Ellen}}</ref> | |||
Capitalism is often contrasted to ] in that besides embracing private property in terms of personal possessions, it supports private ownership of the means of production. Those who support capitalism often credit the lack of control over the means of production by government as crucial to maximizing economic output. ], in ''Liberalism'', says that the "history of private ownership of the means of production coincides with the history of the development of mankind from an animal-like condition to the highest reaches of modern civilization." In all modern economies some of the means of production are owned by the state, however an economy is not considered capitalism unless the bulk of ownership is private. Some characterize those that have a mixture of state and private ownership as "]." | |||
* Capitalism 1.0 during the 19th century entailed largely unregulated markets with a minimal role for the state (aside from national defense, and protecting property rights); | |||
* Capitalism 2.0 during the post-World War II years entailed Keynesianism, a substantial role for the state in regulating markets, and strong welfare states; | |||
* Capitalism 2.1 entailed a combination of unregulated markets, globalization, and various national obligations by states. | |||
==== Relationship to democracy ==== | |||
Many governments extend the concept of private property to ideas, in the form of "]." It has been argued that the introduction of the ] system was a crucial factor behind the rapid development and widespread use of new technology and ] during and following the industrial revolution. . Some oppose the establishment of intellectual property as being counterproductive or coercive. Others argue that some intellectual property rights may be too rigid or constraining to innovation, and favor weaker protections. | |||
The relationship between ] and capitalism is a contentious area in theory and in popular political movements.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Milner |first1=Helen V |title=Is Global Capitalism Compatible with Democracy? Inequality, Insecurity, and Interdependence |journal=] |date=2021 |volume=65 |issue=4 |pages=1097–1110 |doi=10.1093/isq/sqab056 |doi-access=free}}</ref> The extension of adult-male ] in 19th-century Britain occurred along with the development of industrial capitalism and ] became widespread at the same time as capitalism, leading capitalists to posit a causal or mutual relationship between them. However, according to some authors in the 20th-century, capitalism also accompanied a variety of political formations quite distinct from liberal democracies, including ] regimes, ] and ].<ref name="Burnham" /> ] asserts that democracies seldom fight other democracies, but others suggest this may be because of political similarity or stability, rather than because they are "democratic" or "capitalist". Critics argue that though economic growth under capitalism has led to democracy, it may not do so in the future as ] régimes have been able to manage economic growth using some of capitalism's competitive principles<ref>{{cite magazine |first=Gady |last=Epstein |title=The Winners And Losers in Chinese Capitalism |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/gadyepstein/2010/08/31/the-winners-and-losers-in-chinese-capitalism/ |magazine=] |access-date=28 October 2015 |archive-date=5 November 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151105210914/http://www.forbes.com/sites/gadyepstein/2010/08/31/the-winners-and-losers-in-chinese-capitalism/ |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=The rise of state capitalism |url=http://www.economist.com/node/21543160 |newspaper=] |access-date=24 October 2015 |issn=0013-0613 |archive-date=15 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200615124603/https://www.economist.com/leaders/2012/01/21/the-rise-of-state-capitalism |url-status=live}}</ref> without making concessions to greater ].<ref>{{cite web |last=Mesquita |first=Bruce Bueno de |url=http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20050901faessay84507/bruce-bueno-de-mesquita-george-w-downs/development-and-democracy.html |title=Development and Democracy |date=September 2005 |access-date=26 February 2008 |work=] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080220154505/http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20050901faessay84507/bruce-bueno-de-mesquita-george-w-downs/development-and-democracy.html |archive-date=20 February 2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Siegle |first1=Joseph |last2=Weinstein |first2=Michael |last3=Halperin |first3=Morton |date=1 September 2004 |title=Why Democracies Excel |url=http://www.mafhoum.com/press7/212S28.pdf |journal=] |volume=83 |issue=5 |pages=57 |doi=10.2307/20034067 |jstor=20034067 |access-date=26 August 2018 |archive-date=12 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190412055541/http://www.mafhoum.com/press7/212S28.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
Political scientists ] and ] see democracy and capitalism as mutually supportive.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Iversen |first1=Torben |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv4g1r3n |title=Democracy and Prosperity: Reinventing Capitalism through a Turbulent Century |last2=Soskice |first2=David |date=2019 |publisher=] |jstor=j.ctv4g1r3n |isbn=978-0-691-18273-5}}</ref> ] argued in ''On Democracy'' that capitalism was beneficial for democracy because economic growth and a large middle class were good for democracy.<ref name=":0a">{{cite book |last=Dahl |first=Robert A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZG4JEAAAQBAJ |title=On Democracy |date=2020 |publisher=] |isbn=978-0-300-25799-1 |language=en}}</ref> He also argued that a market economy provided a substitute for government control of the economy, which reduces the risks of tyranny and authoritarianism.<ref name=":0a" /> | |||
==="Free" market=== | |||
The notion of a "]" where all economic decisions regarding transfers of money, goods, and services take place on a voluntary basis, free of coercive influence, is commonly considered to be an essential characteristic of capitalism. Some contend that in systems where individuals are prevented from owning the means of production (including the profits), or coerced to share them, not ''all'' economic decisions are free of coercive influence, and, hence, are not free markets. In an ideal free market system none of these economic decisions involve coercion. Instead, they are determined in a decentralized manner by individuals trading, bargaining, cooperating, and competing with each other. In a free market, government may act in a defensive mode to forbid coercion among market participants but does not engage in proactive interventionist coercion; this state of affairs is also called '']''. Nevertheless, some authorities claim that capitalism is perfectly compatible with interventionist ] governments, and/or that a free market can exist without capitalism (see ]). | |||
In his book '']'' (1944), ] (1899–1992) asserted that the free-market understanding of ] as present in capitalism is a requisite of ]. He argued that the market mechanism is the only way of deciding what to produce and how to distribute the items without using coercion. ] and ] also promoted this view.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Pryor |first1=Frederic L. |title=Capitalism and freedom? |journal=Economic Systems |date=2010 |volume=34 |issue=1 |pages=91–104 |doi=10.1016/j.ecosys.2009.09.003}}</ref> Friedman claimed that centralized economic operations are always accompanied by ]. In his view, transactions in a market economy are voluntary and the wide diversity that voluntary activity permits is a fundamental threat to repressive ]s and greatly diminishes their power to coerce. Some of Friedman's views were shared by ], who believed that capitalism was vital for freedom to survive and thrive.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Friedrich |last=Hayek |author-link=Friedrich Hayek |title=The Road to Serfdom |journal=] |volume=154 |issue=3911 |pages=473–474 |publisher=] |year=1944 |isbn=978-0-226-32061-8 |bibcode=1944Natur.154..473C |doi=10.1038/154473a0 |s2cid=4071358}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Bellamy |first=Richard |title=The Cambridge History of Twentieth-Century Political Thought |publisher=] |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-521-56354-3 |page=60}}</ref> ], an American ] that conducts international research on, and advocates for, democracy, political freedom and ], has argued that "there is a high and statistically significant correlation between the level of political freedom ] and economic freedom ]".<ref>{{cite book |first=Adrian |last=Karatnycky |title=Freedom in the World: The Annual Survey of Political Rights and Civil Liberties |publisher=] |date=2001 |isbn=978-0-7658-0101-2 |page=11}}</ref> | |||
A legal system that grants and protects property rights provides property owners the entitlement to sell their property in accordance to their own valuation of that property; if there are no willing buyers at their offered price they have the freedom to retain it. According to standard capitalist theory, as explained by Adam Smith in ''Wealth of Nations'', when individuals make a trade they value what they are purchasing more than they value what they are giving in exchange for a commodity. If this were not the case, then they would not make the trade but retain ownership of the more valuable commodity. This notion underlies the concept of mutually-beneficial trade where it is held that both sides tend to benefit by an exchange. | |||
In '']'' (2013), ] of the ] asserted that inequality is the inevitable consequence of economic growth in a capitalist economy and the resulting ] can destabilize democratic societies and undermine the ideals of social justice upon which they are built.<ref>{{cite book |author-link=Thomas Piketty |last=Piketty |first=Thomas |date=2014 |title=Capital in the Twenty-First Century |publisher=] |isbn=978-0-674-43000-6 |page=571}}</ref> | |||
]. A free market consists of voluntary trade without interventionist regulation. Prices, for example, are determined by trade rather than by government.]] | |||
In regard to pricing of goods and services in a free market, rather than this being ordained by government it is determined by trades that occur as a result of price agreement between buyers and sellers. The prices buyers are willing to pay for a commodity and the prices at which sellers are willing to part with that commodity are directly influenced by ] (as well as the quantity to be traded). In abstract terms, the price is thus defined as the equilibrium point of the demand and the supply curves, which represent the prices at which buyers would buy (and sellers sell) certain quantities of the good in question. A price above the equilibrium point will lead to oversupply (the buyers wish to buy fewer goods at that price than the sellers are willing to produce), while a price below the equilibrium point will lead to the opposite situation. When the price a buyer is willing to pay coincides with the price a seller is willing to offer, a trade occurs and price is determined. | |||
States with capitalistic economic systems have thrived under political regimes deemed to be authoritarian or oppressive. ] has a successful open market economy as a result of its competitive, business-friendly climate and robust rule of law. Nonetheless, it often comes under fire for its style of government which, though democratic and consistently one of the least corrupt,<ref>{{cite web |title=Transparency International Corruption Measure 2015 |url=https://www.transparency.org/country/#SGP |website=Transparency International Corruption Measure 2015 – By Country / Territory |publisher=Transparency International |access-date=20 September 2016 |archive-date=31 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160331114640/http://www.transparency.org/country/#SGP |url-status=dead}}</ref> operates largely under a one-party rule. Furthermore, it does not vigorously defend freedom of expression as evidenced by its government-regulated ], and its penchant for upholding laws protecting ethnic and religious harmony, judicial dignity and personal reputation. The private (capitalist) sector in the People's Republic of China has grown exponentially and thrived since its inception, despite having an authoritarian government. ]'s ] led to economic growth and high levels of inequality<ref>] (2008). ''].'' ]. {{ISBN|0-312-42799-9}} {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150319071518/http://books.google.com/books?id=PwHUAq5LPOQC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA105 |date=19 March 2015 }}.</ref> by using authoritarian means to create a safe environment for investment and capitalism. Similarly, ]'s authoritarian reign and ] of the ] allowed for the expansion of capitalism in ].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Farid |first=Hilmar |date=2005 |title=Indonesia's original sin: mass killings and capitalist expansion, 1965–66 |journal=] |volume=6 |issue=1 |pages=3–16 |doi=10.1080/1462394042000326879 |s2cid= 145130614}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Robinson |first=Geoffrey B. |date=2018 |title=The Killing Season: A History of the Indonesian Massacres, 1965–66 |url=https://press.princeton.edu/titles/11135.html |publisher=] |page=177 |isbn=978-1-4008-8886-3 |access-date=1 August 2018 |archive-date=19 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190419011656/https://press.princeton.edu/titles/11135.html |url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
However, not everyone believes that a free or even a relatively-free market is a good thing. One reason proffered by many to justify economic intervention by government into what would otherwise be a free market is ]. A ] is a case in which a market fails to efficiently provide or allocate goods and services (for example, a failure to allocate goods in ways some see as socially or morally preferable). Some believe that the lack of "perfect information" or "perfect competition" in a free market is grounds for government intervention (see ]). Other situations or activities often perceived as problems with a free market may appear, such as ], ], information inequalities (e.g. ]), or ]. Wages determined by a free market mechanism are also commonly seen as a problem by those who would claim that some wages are unjustifiably low or unjustifiably high. Another critique is that free markets usually fail to deal with the problem of ], where an action by an agent positively or negatively affects another agent without any compensation taking place. The most widely known externality is ]. More generally, the free market allocation of resources in areas such as health care, unemployment, wealth inequality, and education are considered market failures by some. Also, governments overseeing economies typically labeled as capitalist have been known to set mandatory ] or ] at times, thereby interfering with the free market mechanism. This usually occurred either in times of crises, or relating to goods and services which were viewed as strategically important. ], for example, is a good that was or is subject to price ceilings in many countries. Many eminent economists have analysed market failures, and see governments as having a legitimate role as mitigators of these failures, for example through regulation and compensation schemes. | |||
The term "capitalism" in its modern sense is often attributed to ].<ref name="Scott">{{cite book |title=Industrialism: A Dictionary of Sociology |last=Scott |first=John |publisher=] |year=2005}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title="capitalism, n.2". OED Online |url=http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/27454?rskey=ZVI1hr&result=2&isAdvanced=false |access-date=19 January 2013 |archive-date=23 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200923063611/https://www.oed.com/start;jsessionid=A9CBE07460C68ED291D7D6CDCE84A1B1?authRejection=true&url=%2Fview%2FEntry%2F27454%3Frskey%3DZVI1hr%26result%3D2%26isAdvanced%3Dfalse |url-status=live}}</ref> In his '']'', Marx analyzed the "]" using a method of understanding today known as ]. However, Marx himself rarely used the term "capitalism" while it was used twice in the more political interpretations of his work, primarily authored by his collaborator ]. In the 20th century, defenders of the capitalist system often replaced the term "capitalism" with phrases such as free enterprise and private enterprise and replaced "capitalist" with ] and ] in reaction to the negative connotations associated with capitalism.<ref name="Williams 1983 51">{{cite book |last=Williams |first=Raymond |title=Keywords: A vocabulary of culture and society, revised edition |publisher=] |year=1983 |isbn=978-0-19-520469-8 |page= |chapter=Capitalism |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/keywordsvocabula00willrich/page/51}}</ref> | |||
] is a noted advocate of free markets]] | |||
However, some economists, such as ]-winning economist ] as well as those of the ], oppose intervention into free markets. They argue that government should limit its involvement in economies to protecting freedom rather than diminishing it for the sake of remedying "market failure." They tend to regard the notion of market failure as a misguided contrivance wrongly used to justify coercive government action to further various political agendas, such as ] goals. These economists believe that government intervention creates more problems than it is supposed to solve - as well-meaning as some of these interventions may be. ] advocates do not oppose monopolies unless they maintain their existence through coercion to prevent competition (see ]), and often assert that monopolies have historically only developed ''because'' of government intervention rather than due to a lack of intervention. They may argue that ] laws cause unnecessary unemployment, that laws against insider trading reduce market efficiency and transparency, or that government-enforced price-ceilings cause shortages. While economists tend to offer pragmatic arguments, some individuals put forth moral justifications for opposing coercion in favor of free markets. | |||
== Characteristics == | |||
Some believe that free markets and capitalism are not synonymous, arguing that particular aspects of capitalist entitlement or property enforcement violate the ability of individuals to trade in the absence of coercion. Others dismiss the whole idea of "free markets", claiming that markets are exploitative or coercive in essence. For example, some say that wages set by a free market rather than by government decree is exploitative since capitalists have appropriated private ownership of resources, thereby putting individuals in a position to accept low wages in order to survive. However, many believe that decreases in wage rates are the result of the same thing as deflation in any other market: the price of labour falls due to either a lower demand for labour or a larger supply thereof. | |||
{{further|Academic perspectives on capitalism}} | |||
In general, capitalism as an economic system and mode of production can be summarized by the following:<ref>{{cite web|url=http://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft3n39n8x3&chunk.id=d0e1212&toc.id=&brand=ucpress |title=Althusser and the Renewal of Marxist Social Theory |access-date=24 March 2015 |archive-date=2 April 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402094835/http://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft3n39n8x3&chunk.id=d0e1212&toc.id=&brand=ucpress |url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
* ]:<ref name=ch32>{{cite book|url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch32.htm |title=Economic Manuscripts: Capital Vol. I |chapter=Thirty Two |first=Karl |last=Marx |author-link=Karl Marx |access-date=24 March 2015 |via=] |archive-date=21 February 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150221104326/https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch32.htm |url-status=live}}</ref> production for profit and accumulation as the implicit purpose of all or most of production, constriction or elimination of production formerly carried out on a common social or private household basis.<ref name=xxx31 /> | |||
* ]: production for exchange on a market; to maximize ] instead of ]. | |||
* Exchange of goods or services, can be enabled by ]s.<ref name="y015">{{cite book | last=Goldberg | first=Victor P. | title=The Oxford Handbook of Capitalism | chapter=Contracts | publisher=Oxford University Press | date=21 November 2012 | isbn=978-0-19-539117-6 | doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195391176.013.0010 | pages=250–274}}</ref> Exchange of services can be in form of ].<ref name="Steinfeld 2009 3"/> | |||
* ] of the means of production:<ref name="Modern Economics 1986, p. 54" /> | |||
* The ] of money to make a profit.<ref>James Fulcher, ''Capitalism A Very Short Introduction'', "the investment of money in order to make a profit, the essential feature of capitalism", p. 14, Oxford, 2004, {{ISBN|978-0-19-280218-7}}.</ref> | |||
* The use of the ] to allocate resources between competing uses.<ref name="Modern Economics 1986, p. 54" /> | |||
* Economically efficient use of the ] and raw materials due to maximization of value added in the production process.<ref>{{cite book|title=Capitalism: A complete understanding of the nature and value of human economic life |last=Reisman |first=George |year=1998 |isbn=0-915463-73-3 |publisher=Jameson Books}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=History of Economic Thought: A Critical Perspective |last1=Hunt |first1=E.K. |last2=Lautzenheiser |first2=Mark |year=2014 |publisher=PHI Learning |isbn=978-0-7656-2599-1}}</ref> | |||
* Freedom of capitalists to act in their self-interest in managing their business and investments.<ref>{{cite book|title=Capitalism: A complete understanding of the nature and value of human economic life |last=Reisman |first=George |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-915463-73-2 |publisher=Jameson Books}}</ref> | |||
* Capital suppliance by "the single owner of a firm, or by ]s in the case of a ]."<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |title=The Desk Encyclopedia of World History |publisher=] |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-7394-7809-7 |editor-last=Wright |editor-first=Edmund |location=New York |pages=111–112}}</ref> | |||
=== Market === | |||
], though some of these markets are far from being free due to heavy regulation, allow the large scale, standardized, and easy trading of ], ], and ownership of companies (see ]). Similar changes have taken place for products from ], ], and ] production. Standardized markets have even appeared for ] rights and for the prediction of future events like future ] and political elections. | |||
In ] and '']'' forms of capitalism, markets are used most extensively with minimal or no regulation over the pricing mechanism. In mixed economies, which are almost universal today,<ref>James Fulcher, ''Capitalism A Very Short Introduction'', "...in the wake of the 1970 crisis, the neoliberal model of capitalism became intellectually and ideologically dominant", p. 58, Oxford, 2004, {{ISBN|978-0-19-280218-7}}.</ref> markets continue to play a dominant role, but they are regulated to some extent by the state in order to correct ]s, promote ], conserve ]s, fund ] and ] or other rationale. In ] systems, markets are relied upon the least, with the state relying heavily on ] or indirect economic planning to accumulate capital. | |||
Competition arises when more than one producer is trying to sell the same or similar products to the same buyers. Adherents of the capitalist theory believe that competition leads to innovation and more affordable prices. ] or ] can develop, especially if there is no competition. A monopoly occurs when a firm has exclusivity over a market. Hence, the firm can engage in ] behaviors such as limiting output and raising prices because it has no fear of competition. | |||
Markets have, of course, existed throughout human history. Hunter-gatherers used to exchange their goods in ]. The appearance of money in ] facilitated exchanges, permitting the flowering of trade fairs in the ]. Nevertheless, many regulations existed, and the influence of the ]s prevented truly free markets. In modern economies, governments likewise do not allow unfettered market operation in many areas, but the price restrictions are much smaller than those imposed by guilds. | |||
Governments have implemented legislation for the purpose of preventing the creation of monopolies and cartels. In 1890, the ] became the first legislation passed by the United States Congress to limit monopolies.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/monopoly.asp|title=Monopoly|author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.-->|date=24 November 2003|work=Investopedia|access-date=2 March 2017|language=en-US|archive-date=22 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170222204011/http://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/monopoly.asp|url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
===Profit=== | |||
] is one characteristic of capitalism]] | |||
=== Wage labor === | |||
The pursuit and realization of ] is an essential characteristic of capitalism. Profit is derived by selling a product for more than the cost required to produce or acquire it. Some consider the pursuit of profit to be the essence of capitalism. Sociologist and economist, Max Weber, says that "capitalism is identical with the pursuit of profit, and forever renewed profit, by means of conscious, rational, capitalistic enterprise." However, it is not a unique characteristic for capitalism, some hunter-gatherers practiced profitable barter and monetary profit has been known since antiquity. | |||
{{Main|Wage labor}} | |||
Wage labor, usually referred to as paid work, paid employment, or paid labor, refers to the ] relationship between a ] and an ] in which the worker sells their labor power under a formal or informal ].<ref name="Steinfeld 2009 3">{{Harvnb|Steinfeld|2009|p=3}}: "All labor contracts were/are designed legally to bind a worker in one way or another to fulfill the labor obligations the worker has undertaken. That is one of the principal purposes of labor contracts."</ref> These transactions usually occur in a ] where ]s or ] are ].<ref>{{Harvnb|Deakin|Wilkinson|2005}}</ref> | |||
In exchange for the money paid as wages (usual for short-term work-contracts) or salaries (in permanent employment contracts), the work product generally becomes the ] of the employer. A wage laborer is a person whose primary means of income is from the selling of their labor in this way.<ref>{{cite book|page=278|title=Concise Dictionary of Economics|isbn=978-93-5057-032-6|publisher=V&S Publishers|year=2013|author=Editorial Board|chapter=W}}</ref> | |||
Opponents of capitalism often protest that private owners of capital do not remunerate laborers the full value of their production but keep a portion as profit, claiming this to be exploitative. | |||
=== Profit motive === | |||
However, defenders of capitalism argue that when a worker is paid the wage for which he agreed to work, there is no exploitation, even in a free market where no one else is making an offer more desirable to the worker. They argue that "the full value of a worker's production" is based on his work, not on how much profit is created (which they claim is something that depends almost entirely on factors that are independent of the worker's performance), and that profit is a critical measure of how much ] is created by the production process. They argue that private owners are the ones who should decide how much of the profit is to be used to increase the compensation of the workers; and that profit provides the capital for further growth and innovation. | |||
{{Main|Profit motive}} | |||
The ], in the theory of capitalism, is the desire to earn income in the form of profit. Stated differently, the reason for a business's existence is to turn a profit.<ref> | |||
Compare: | |||
{{cite book | |||
| last1 = Duska | |||
| first1 = Ronald F. | |||
| year = 1997 | |||
| chapter = The Why's of Business Revisited | |||
| title = Contemporary Reflections on Business Ethics | |||
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=dANmdJHsqu0C | |||
| series = Issues in Business Ethics | |||
| volume = 23 | |||
| location = Dordrecht | |||
| publisher = Springer Science & Business Media | |||
| publication-date = 2007 | |||
| page = 41 | |||
| isbn = 978-1-4020-4984-2 | |||
| access-date = 8 July 2019 | |||
| quote = In microeconomics courses, profit maximization is frequently given as the goal of the firm. ... In microeconomics, profit maximization functions largely as a theoretical goal, with economists using it to prove how firms behave rationally to increase profit. Unfortunately, it ignores many real-world complexities. | |||
}} | |||
</ref> The profit motive functions according to ], or the theory that individuals tend to pursue what is in their own best interests. Accordingly, businesses seek to benefit themselves and/or their shareholders by maximizing profit. | |||
In capitalist theoretics, the profit motive is said to ensure that resources are being allocated efficiently. For instance, ] ] explains: "If there is no profit in making an article, it is a sign that the labor and capital devoted to its production are misdirected: the value of the resources that must be used up in making the article is greater than the value of the article itself".<ref>Hazlitt, Henry. "The Function of Profits". ''Economics in One Lesson''. Ludwig Von Mises Institute. Web. 22 April 2013.</ref> | |||
===Self interest=== | |||
] was probably the most outspoken advocate of the role of ] in capitalism]] | |||
Socialist theorists note that, unlike mercantilists, capitalists accumulate their profits while expecting their profit rates to remain the same. This causes problems as earnings in the rest of society do not increase in the same proportion.<ref>"What is capitalism" ''Australian Socialist'' https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.818838886883514</ref> | |||
The pursuit of self-interest is commonly regarded as playing an essential role in capitalism. Many writers, such as ] and ], point to what they believe to be the benefit of individuals trading for their ] rather than ''altruistically'' attempting to serve the "common good." Smith, widely considered to be the intellectual father of capitalism, says in '']'': | |||
=== Private property === | |||
:"By pursuing his own interest frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it. I have never known much good done by those who affected to trade for the good." | |||
{{Main|Private property}} | |||
The relationship between the ], its formal mechanisms, and capitalist societies has been debated in many fields of social and political theory, with active discussion since the 19th century. ] is a contemporary Peruvian economist who has argued that an important characteristic of capitalism is the functioning state protection of property rights in a formal property system where ownership and transactions are clearly recorded.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2001/03/desoto.htm|title=The mystery of capital|author=Hernando de Soto|access-date=26 February 2008|archive-date=8 February 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080208180121/http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2001/03/desoto.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
According to de Soto, this is the process by which physical assets are transformed into capital, which in turn may be used in many more ways and much more efficiently in the market economy. A number of Marxian economists have argued that the ]s in England and similar legislation elsewhere were an integral part of capitalist ] and that specific legal frameworks of private land ownership have been integral to the development of capitalism.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch27.htm|title=Capital, v. 1. Part VIII: primitive accumulation|author=Karl Marx|access-date=26 February 2008|archive-date=3 March 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080303162047/http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch27.htm|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |author=N.F.R. Crafts |title=Enclosure and labor supply revisited |journal=Explorations in Economic History |issue=2 |date=April 1978 |pages=172–183 |doi=10.1016/0014-4983(78)90019-0 |volume=15}}</ref> | |||
Ayn Rand, probably the most outspoken advocate of the role of self-interest in capitalism, says in ''Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal'': | |||
Private property rights are not absolute, as in many countries the state has the power to seize private property, typically for public use, under the powers of ]. | |||
:"America's abundance was created not by public sacrifices to the common good, but by the productive genius of free men who pursued their own personal interests and the making of their own private fortunes." | |||
=== Market competition === | |||
Nobel-economist ] also embraces the role of self-interest in capitalism. In his famous article ''The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase Profits'', as he asserts that business has no ] other than to increase profits and refrain from engaging in "deception or fraud." He maintains that when business seeks to maximize profits, while respecting the guidelines of a ] by not defrauding or deceiving, it almost always incidentally does what is good for society. Friedman does not argue that business should not help the community but that it may indeed be in the long-run self-interest of a business to "devote resources to providing amenities to community..." in order to "generate goodwill" and thereby increase profits. Some, including some supporters of capitalism, dislike the focus on self-interest. For example, self-described "free market libertarian" founder and CEO of ], ], claims in an article in ''Reason'' magazine that he is serving customers and society out of "love" rather than self-interest while he boasts the profitability of his company in that article. ('''', ] October 2005). | |||
{{Main|Competition (economics)}} | |||
In capitalist economics, market competition is the rivalry among sellers trying to achieve such goals as increasing profits, market share and sales volume by varying the elements of the ]: price, product, distribution and promotion. Merriam-Webster defines competition in business as "the effort of two or more parties acting independently to secure the business of a third party by offering the most favourable terms".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://m-w.com/dictionary/competition |title=Definition of COMPETITION |access-date=24 March 2015 |archive-date=4 July 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080704114809/http://m-w.com/dictionary/competition |url-status=dead}}</ref> It was described by ] in '']'' (1776) and later economists as allocating productive ]s to their most highly valued uses<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |first=George J. |last=Stigler |author-link=George J. Stigler |date=2008 |title=competition |dictionary=] |edition=2nd |url=http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_C000261&q=competition&topicid=&result_number=6 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150215032134/http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_C000261&q=competition&topicid=&result_number=6 |archive-date=15 February 2015}}</ref> and encouraging ]. Smith and other ]s before ] were referring to price and non-price rivalry among producers to sell their goods on best terms by bidding of buyers, not necessarily to a large number of sellers nor to a market in final ].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |first=Mark |last=Blaug |author-link=Mark Blaug |date=2008 |title=Invisible hand |dictionary=] |edition=2nd |volume=4 |page=565 |url=http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_I000220&edition=current&q=Invisible%20hand&topicid=&result_number=1 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130605204024/http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_I000220&edition=current&q=Invisible%20hand&topicid=&result_number=1 |archive-date=5 June 2013}}</ref> Competition is widespread throughout the ]. It is a condition where "buyers tend to compete with other buyers, and sellers tend to compete with other sellers".<ref name=ewot2014 /><!-- p. 102 --> In offering goods for exchange, buyers competitively bid to purchase specific quantities of specific goods which are available, or might be available if sellers were to choose to offer such goods. Similarly, sellers bid against other sellers in offering goods on the market, competing for the attention and exchange resources of buyers. Competition results from ], as it is not possible to satisfy all conceivable human wants, and occurs as people try to meet the criteria being used to determine allocation.<ref name=ewot2014>{{cite book |last1=Heyne |first1=Paul |last2=Boettke |first2=Peter J. |last3=Prychitko |first3=David L. |title=The Economic Way of Thinking |date=2014 |publisher=Pearson |isbn=978-0-13-299129-2 |pages=102–106 |edition=13th}}<!--|access-date=24 December 2014 --></ref>{{rp|105}} | |||
In the works of Adam Smith, the idea of capitalism is made possible through competition which creates growth. Although capitalism had not entered mainstream economics at the time of Smith, it is vital to the construction of his ideal society. One of the foundational blocks of capitalism is competition. Smith believed that a prosperous society is one where "everyone should be free to enter and leave the market and change trades as often as he pleases."<ref name="W.W. Norton">{{cite book |last1=Warsh |first1=David |title=Knowledge and the Wealth of Nations |date=2007 |publisher=] |page=42}}</ref> He believed that the freedom to act in one's self-interest is essential for the success of a capitalist society. In response to the idea that if all participants focus on their own goals, society's well-being will be water under the bridge, Smith maintains that despite the concerns of intellectuals, "global trends will hardly be altered if they refrain from pursuing their personal ends."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lippit |first1=Victor |title=Capitalism |date=2005 |publisher=] |location=ProQuest |page=2}}</ref> He insisted that the actions of a few participants cannot alter the course of society. Instead, Smith maintained that they should focus on personal progress instead and that this will result in overall growth to the whole. | |||
===Private enterprise=== | |||
Competition between participants, "who are all endeavoring to justle one another out of employment, obliges every man to endeavor to execute his work" through competition towards growth.<ref name="W.W. Norton"/> | |||
In capitalist economies, a predominant proportion of productive capacity has belonged to ], in the sense of for-profit organizations. This include many forms of organisations that existed in earlier economic systems, such as ]s and ]. Non-profit organizations existing in capitalism include ]s, ] and ]. | |||
=== Economic growth === | |||
More unique to capitalism is the form of organization called ], which can be both for-profit and non-profit. This entity can act as a virtual person in many matters before the law. This gives some unique advantages to the owners, such as ] of the owners and perpetual lifetime beyond that of current owners. | |||
{{further|Economic growth}} | |||
{{expand section|date=January 2021}} | |||
] is a characteristic tendency of capitalist economies.<ref name=joff>{{cite journal|title=The root cause of economic growth under capitalism |journal=] |year=2011 |issue=5 |pages=873–896 |first=Michael |last=Joff |volume=35 |quote=The tendency for capitalist economies to grow is one of their most characteristic properties. |doi=10.1093/cje/beq054}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Baumol |first1=William J. |title=The Free-Market Innovation Machine: Analyzing the Growth Miracle of Capitalism |date=2004 |publisher=] |location=Princeton |isbn=9780691116303}}</ref> However, capitalist economies may experience fluctuations in growth that cannot be accounted for by demographic or technological changes. These fluctuations, which involve sustained periods of economic growth and recession, are referred to as business cycles in macroeconomics. Economic growth is measured as growth in investment, economic output, and economic consumption per capita. Changes in hours of employment on their own are not considered as a factor of economic growth.<ref name = "HP"/> | |||
A special form of corporation is a corporation owned by ] who can sell their ] in a market. One can view shares as converting company ownership into a commodity - the ownership rights are divided into units (the shares) for ease of trading in them. Such share trading first took place widely in Europe during the 17th century and continued to develop and spread thereafter. When company ownership is spread among many shareholders, the shareholders generally have votes in the exercise of authority over the company in proportion to the size of their share of ownership. | |||
=== As a mode of production === | |||
To a large degree, authority over productive capacity in capitalism has resided with the owners of companies. Within legal limits and the financial means available to them, the owners of each company can decide how it will operate. In larger companies, authority is usually delegated in a hierarchical or ] system of ]. | |||
{{further|Mode of production}} | |||
The capitalist mode of production refers to the systems of organising production and distribution within capitalist ]. Private money-making in various forms (renting, banking, merchant trade, production for profit and so on) preceded the development of the capitalist mode of production as such. | |||
The term capitalist mode of production is defined by ] of the ], extraction of ] by the owning class for the purpose of ], ] and, at least as far as ] are concerned, being ].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.marxists.org/glossary/terms/c/a.htm#capitalism |title=Capitalism |publisher=] |access-date=8 July 2011 |author=Encyclopedia of Marxism at marxism.org |archive-date=7 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190507154837/https://www.marxists.org/glossary/terms/c/a.htm#capitalism |url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
]: Banks act as merchants of money and suppliers of capital in capitalist economies.]] | |||
Capitalism in the form of money-making activity has existed in the shape of merchants and money-lenders who acted as intermediaries between consumers and producers engaging in ] (hence the reference to "]") since the beginnings of civilisation. What is specific about the "capitalist mode of production" is that most of the inputs and outputs of production are supplied through the market (i.e. they are commodities) and essentially all production is in this mode.<ref name="Modern Economics 1986, p. 54" /> By contrast, in flourishing feudalism most or all of the factors of production, including labor, are owned by the feudal ruling class outright and the products may also be consumed without a market of any kind, it is production for use within the feudal social unit and for limited trade.<ref name=ch32 /> This has the important consequence that, under capitalism, the whole organisation of the production process is reshaped and re-organised to conform with economic ] by capitalism, which is expressed in price relationships between inputs and outputs (wages, non-labor factor costs, sales and profits) rather than the larger rational context faced by society overall—that is, the whole process is organised and re-shaped in order to conform to "commercial logic". Essentially, capital accumulation comes to define economic rationality in capitalist production.<ref name=xxx31>{{cite web|url=http://www.dsp.org.au/node/31 |title=The contradictions of capitalism – Democratic Socialist Perspective |publisher=dsp.org.au |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150406094810/http://www.dsp.org.au/node/31 |archive-date=6 April 2015}}</ref> | |||
Importantly, the owners receive some of the profits or proceeds generated by the company, sometimes in the form of ], sometimes from selling their ownership at higher price than their initial cost. They may also re-invest the profit in the company which may increase future profits and value of the company. They may also liquidate the company, selling all of the equipment, land, and other assets, and split the proceeds between them. The price at which ownership of productive capacity sells is generally the maximum of either the ] of the expected future stream of profits or the value of the assets, net of any obligations. There is therefore a financial incentive for owners to exercise their authority in ways that increase the productive capacity of what they own. Various owners are motivated to various degrees by this incentive -- some give away a proportion of what they own, others seem very driven to increase their holdings. Nevertheless the incentive is always there, and it is credited by many as being a key aspect behind the remarkably consistent growth exhibited by capitalist economies. Meanwhile, some critics of capitalism claim that the incentive for the owners is exaggerated and that it results in the owners receiving money that rightfully belongs to the workers, while others point to the fact that the incentive only motivates owners to make a profit - something which may not necessarily result in a positive impact on society. Others note that in order to get a profit in a non-violent way, one must satisfy some need among other persons that they are willing to pay for. Also, most people in practice prefer to work for and buy products from for-profit organizations rather than to buy from or work for non-profit and communal production organizations which are legal in capitalist economies and which anyone can start or join. | |||
A society, region or ] is capitalist if the predominant source of incomes and products being distributed is capitalist activity, but even so this does not yet mean necessarily that the capitalist mode of production is dominant in that society.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Capitalism|url=https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/capitalism.asp|access-date=14 February 2022|website=Investopedia|language=en}}</ref> | |||
When starting a ], the initial owners or investors typically provide some money (the ]) which is used by the business to buy or ] some means of production. For example, the enterprise may buy or ] a piece of land and a building; it may buy machinery and hire workers (]), or the capitalist may provide the labor himself. The commodities produced by the workers become the property of the capitalist ("capitalist" in this context refers to a person who has capital, rather than a person who favors capitalism), and are sold by the workers on behalf of the capitalist or by the capitalist himself. The money from sales also becomes the property of the capitalist. The capitalist pays the workers a portion of this profit for their labor, pays other overhead costs, and keeps the rest. This profit may be used in a variety of ways, it may be consumed, or it may be used in pursuit of more profit such as by investing it in the development of new products or technological innovations, or expanding the business into new geographic territories. If more money is needed than the initial owners are willing or able to provide, the business may need to borrow a limited amount of extra money with a promise to pay it back with interest. In effect, it may rent more capital. | |||
] rely on the nation they are in to provide some goods or services, while the free market produces and maintains the rest.<ref name=":1" /> | |||
===Economic growth=== | |||
One of the primary objectives in a social system in which commerce and property have a central role is to promote the growth of capital. The standard measures of growth are Gross Domestic Product or ], ], and 'standard of living'. | |||
The ability of capitalist economies to sustainably increase and improve their stock of capital was central to the argument which ] advanced for a free market setting production, price and resource allocation. It has been argued that GDP per capita was essentially flat until the industrial revolution and the emergence of the capitalist economy, and that it has since increased rapidly in capitalist countries . It has also been argued that a higher GDP per capita promotes a higher standard of living, including the adequate or improved availability of food, housing, clothing, health care, reduced working hours and freedom from work for children and the elderly. These are reduced or unavailable if the GDP per capita is too low, so that most people are living a marginal existence. | |||
Economic growth is, however, not universally viewed as an unequivocal good. The downside of such growth is referred to by economists as the 'externalization of costs' (see ]). Among other things, these effects include pollution, the disruption of traditional living patterns and cultures, the spread of pathogens, wars over resources or market access, and the creation of underclasses. | |||
=== Role of government === | |||
In defense of capitalism, liberal philosopher ] has claimed that all of these ills are neither unique to capitalism, nor are they its inevitable consequences. | |||
Government agencies regulate the standards of service in many industries, such as airlines and broadcasting, as well as financing a wide range of programs. In addition, the government regulates the flow of capital and uses financial tools such as the interest rate to control such factors as inflation and unemployment.<ref>"Capitalism." World Book Encyclopedia. 1988. p. 194.</ref> | |||
== Supply and demand == | |||
See also the "Sustainability" section below. | |||
{{Main|Supply and demand}} | |||
] at each price (demand D): the diagram shows a positive shift in demand from D<sub>1</sub> to D<sub>2</sub>, resulting in an increase in price (P) and quantity sold (Q) of the product.]] | |||
In capitalist economic structures, supply and demand is an ] of ] in a ]. It postulates that in a ], the ] for a particular ] will vary until it settles at a point where the quantity demanded by consumers (at the current price) will equal the quantity supplied by producers (at the current price), resulting in an ] for price and ]. | |||
The "basic laws" of ] and ], as described by David Besanko and Ronald Braeutigam, are the following four:<ref name="besanko-and-braeutigam-2010">{{cite book |last1=Besanko |first1=David |last2=Braeutigam |first2=Ronald |year=2010 |title=Microeconomics |publisher=] |edition=4th}}</ref>{{rp|37}} | |||
===Economic mobility=== | |||
# If demand increases (demand curve shifts to the right) and supply remains unchanged, then a shortage occurs, leading to a higher equilibrium price. | |||
One of the key markers of entrepreneurial economies and 'growth' in a society is its economic mobility, defined as the existence of large changes in the make-up of its socio-economic strata. This is manifested as the occurrence of large fluctuations in the various ]s or ] of income and wealth among the population, and the existence of large changes over a person's lifetime in relation to their real earning power. In standard economics, a capitalist system provides more opportunities for an individual to rise faster in the world by entering new professions or establishing a business venture. The instability of economic strata is contrasted with traditional ] or ] societies, which are considered to have more stable wealth relationships, and with the ] that exists in socialist societies, which distribute more of their wealth in the form of social benefits and therefore reduce income mobility, particularly among those who own capital and wish to trade it. | |||
# If demand decreases (demand curve shifts to the left) and supply remains unchanged, then a surplus occurs, leading to a lower equilibrium price. | |||
# If demand remains unchanged and supply increases (supply curve shifts to the right), then a surplus occurs, leading to a lower equilibrium price. | |||
# If demand remains unchanged and supply decreases (supply curve shifts to the left), then a shortage occurs, leading to a higher equilibrium price. | |||
=== Supply schedule === | |||
However, the existence of large fluctuations in income deciles does not always represent income mobility - with individuals receiving regular wage increases over their working lives and then retiring, such fluctuations alone do not show that there is 'mobility' ''per se''. Moreover, it is argued by many labor economists that wage instability represents the transfer of risk to workers and particular sectors of the economy such as agriculture, and away from the holders of capital. | |||
A supply schedule is a table that shows the relationship between the price of a good and the quantity supplied.<ref name="Boundless Economics 2017">{{cite web |title=Supply |website=Boundless Economics |date=13 June 2017 |url=https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-economics/chapter/supply/ |access-date=27 October 2021}}</ref> | |||
=== |
=== Demand schedule === | ||
A demand schedule, depicted graphically as the ], represents the amount of some ] that buyers are willing and able to purchase at various prices, assuming all determinants of demand other than the price of the good in question, such as income, tastes and preferences, the price of ]s and the price of ]s, remain the same. According to the ], the demand curve is almost always represented as downward sloping, meaning that as price decreases, consumers will buy more of the good.<ref name="axes">Unlike most ], supply & demand curves are plotted with the independent variable (price) on the vertical axis and the dependent variable (quantity supplied or demanded) on the horizontal axis.</ref> | |||
] advocated allowing an economy to ], maintaining that government cannot access or coordinate the widespread distribution of information possessed by millions of individuals.]] | |||
While a great deal of planning is undertaken among individual companies and other organisations in capitalist economies, few significant mechanisms for imposing overall direction are available to governments. There is also a scarcity of reliable predictive tools and foreknowledge of how an economy is likely to behave or perform more than a year or two into the future. While most transactions may be planned and agreed by the actors involved, many society-wide phenomena that emerge from the markets and its transactions are often not planned, predicted, approved or authorised by anyone. Nevertheless, such an economic system can organize itself into a complex system without an external guidance or planning mechanism. This phenomenon is called "]." ] coined the term "]" as a market where "spontaneous order" emerges when no centralized control source (government) overrides decisions of individuals pursuing their own ends. However, in all large-scale modern economies the State conducts a degree of ] (using such tools as allowing the country's ] to set base ]), ostensibly as an attempt to improve efficiency, attenuate cyclical volatility, and further particular social goals. | |||
Just like the supply curves reflect ] curves, demand curves are determined by ] curves.<ref>{{cite web|title=Marginal Utility and Demand |url=http://www.amosweb.com/cgi-bin/awb_nav.pl?s=wpd&c=dsp&k=marginal+utility+and+demand |access-date=9 February 2007 |archive-date=6 November 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061106121422/http://www.amosweb.com/cgi-bin/awb_nav.pl?s=wpd&c=dsp&k=marginal+utility+and+demand |url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
Some economists use ] to argue that it is impossible to make accurate long-term economic predictions. They view the decentralized nature of economic planning and development that occurs in capitalism as one of its greatest strengths, arguing that it permits many solutions to be tried, and that real-world competition generally finds a good solution to emerging challenges. This is opposed to the ] approach to the running of a society, which often selects inappropriate solutions as a result of faulty forecasting. One possible example is the experience in Somalia where the previously regulated telecommunications industry is reported to be "thriving" now that, and reportedly because, the country lacks a government. | |||
=== Equilibrium === | |||
Capitalist economies typically contain numerous companies, and people are free to enter into many different types of arrangement with each other. Such an economy reacts to technological change, new discoveries and other developments through continual readjustments in the relationships which exist among companies and individuals. In this way the economy's control mechanisms and how information flows through it evolve over time, and are characterised by a kind of "survival of the fittest" selection and evolution process which is not dissimilar to that exhibited in natural systems and their component relationships. | |||
{{further|Economic equilibrium}} | |||
In the context of supply and demand, economic equilibrium refers to a state where economic forces such as ] are balanced and in the absence of external influences the (]) values of economic variables will not change. For example, in the standard text-book model of ] equilibrium occurs at the point at which quantity demanded and quantity supplied are equal.<ref>{{cite book |author-link=Hal Varian |first=Hal R. |last=Varian |title=Microeconomic Analysis |edition=Third |publisher=Norton |location=New York |year=1992 |isbn=978-0-393-95735-8 |url=https://archive.org/details/microeconomicana00vari_0}}</ref> Market equilibrium, in this case, refers to a condition where a market price is established through competition such that the amount of goods or services sought by ] is equal to the amount of goods or services produced by ]. This price is often called the competitive price or ] price and will tend not to change unless demand or supply changes. | |||
=== Partial equilibrium === | |||
Ancient ] and China under the ] are examples of societies that had some of the characteristics of capitalism, like no feudal ], (weak) property rights, economic growth, and for their times advanced technology. It is much debated why these societies did not have their own "industrial revolution" and thus achieve industrial capitalism in the modern sense. It has been suggested that these states formed monopolies in their parts of the world with very limited competition from other states. The ruling class then become complacent and the successful institutions were overturned in order to enrich certain special interest groups. Much innovation has historically taken place when there where many competing states, like in the city states of ancient ] and ] ]. | |||
{{Main|Partial equilibrium}} | |||
Partial equilibrium, as the name suggests, takes into consideration only a part of the market to attain equilibrium. Jain proposes (attributed to ]): "A partial equilibrium is one which is based on only a restricted range of data, a standard example is price of a single product, the prices of all other products being held fixed during the analysis".<ref>{{cite book |last=Jain |first=T.R. |title=Microeconomics and Basic Mathematics |year=2006 |publisher=VK Publications |location=New Delhi |isbn=978-81-87140-89-4 |page=28 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fUUoFwco2Z8C }}{{Dead link|date=January 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> | |||
=== History === | |||
Analysis of the networks of connections and arrangements in the economy has shown a degree of similarity to other networks such as phone systems or the Internet. contains examples of networks of company board members. Networks of customer links and monetary flows exhibit similar characteristics. | |||
According to Hamid S. Hosseini, the "power of supply and demand" was discussed to some extent by several early Muslim scholars, such as fourteenth century ] scholar ], who wrote: "If desire for goods increases while its availability decreases, its price rises. On the other hand, if availability of the good increases and the desire for it decreases, the price comes down".<ref name=Hosseini>{{cite book |title=A Companion to the History of Economic Thought |chapter=Contributions of Medieval Muslim Scholars to the History of Economics and their Impact: A Refutation of the Schumpeterian Great Gap |last=Hosseini |first=Hamid S. |editor1-last=Biddle |editor1-first=Jeff E. |editor2-last=Davis |editor2-first=Jon B. |editor3-last=Samuels |editor3-first=Warren J. |year=2003 |publisher=Blackwell |location=Malden, Massachusetts |isbn=978-0-631-22573-7 |doi=10.1002/9780470999059.ch3 |pages=28–45 }} (citing Hamid S. Hosseini, 1995. "Understanding the Market Mechanism Before Adam Smith: Economic Thought in Medieval Islam," ''History of Political Economy'', Vol. 27, No. 3, 539–561).</ref> | |||
]]] | |||
===Which economies are "capitalist"?=== | |||
]'s 1691 work ''Some Considerations on the Consequences of the Lowering of Interest and the Raising of the Value of Money''<ref>John Locke (1691) {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150324135856/https://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/economics/locke/contents.htm |date=24 March 2015 }}</ref> includes an early and clear description{{primary source inline|date=February 2022}} of supply and demand and their relationship. In this description, demand is ]: "The price of any commodity rises or falls by the proportion of the number of buyer and sellers" and "that which regulates the price... is nothing else but their quantity in proportion to their rent". | |||
Some believe that it is inaccurate to call any or some of the major industrialized economies "capitalist" because of the level of government intervention. For example, some assert that the market in the United States of America is significantly less than "free", and that therefore it is more appropriately termed a '']'' that is merely skewed more toward capitalism than most national economies, rather than being a true representation of capitalism. Still others might say that the U.S. economy is capitalist, but the U.K. economy is a "mixed economy," or the Hong Kong economy is capitalist and the U.S. economy is mixed and so on, depending upon their perception of how much economic freedom exists in those locales. According to economic and business historian ] of ]: | |||
] titled one chapter of his 1817 work '']'' "On the Influence of Demand and Supply on Price".<ref name=Humphrey>Thomas M. Humphrey, 1992. "Marshallian Cross Diagrams and Their Uses before Alfred Marshall", ''Economic Review'', Mar/Apr, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, pp. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121019100824/http://www.richmondfed.org/publications/research/economic_review/1992/pdf/er780201.pdf |date=19 October 2012 }}.</ref> | |||
:"a fully free economy (true ]) never has existed, but governmental authority over economic activity has sharply increased since the eighteenth century, and especially since the Great Depression...Today the United States, once the citadel of capitalism, is a "mixed economy" in which government bestows favors and imposes restrictions with no clear or consistent principle in mind." | |||
In ''Principles of Political Economy and Taxation'', Ricardo more rigorously laid down the idea of the assumptions that were used to build his ideas of supply and demand. | |||
In his 1870 essay "On the Graphical Representation of Supply and Demand", ] in the course of "introduc the diagrammatic method into the English economic literature" published the first drawing of supply and demand curves therein,<ref>A.D. Brownlie and M.F. Lloyd Prichard, 1963. "Professor Fleeming Jenkin, 1833–1885 Pioneer in Engineering and Political Economy", ''Oxford Economic Papers'', 15(3), p. 211.</ref> including ] from a shift of supply or demand and application to the labor market.<ref>Fleeming Jenkin, 1870. "The Graphical Representation of the Laws of Supply and Demand, and their Application to Labour", in Alexander Grant, ed., ''Recess Studies'', Edinburgh. Ch. VI, pp. 151–185. Edinburgh. Scroll to chapter {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200716052536/https://books.google.com/books?id=NC5BAAAAIAAJ |date=16 July 2020 }}.</ref> The model was further developed and popularized by ] in the 1890 textbook '']''.<ref name="Humphrey" /> | |||
A similar classification, associated largely with the ] of economics, regards most present economic systems as a perversion of capitalism, sometimes called ], and envisages a de-cronied capitalist ideal. Similarly, some use the phrase "]" to distinguish between "ordinary capitalism," believing that there is a difference. Others find the phrase "laissez-faire capitalism" redundant, pointing out that the common definition of capitalism explicitly refers to trade occurring in a "free market". | |||
== Types == | |||
Many ], ]s and ]s agree that the governments in capitalist societies, that is to say societies where a capitalist class is the ruling class, are not serving in the role of protecting "the free market", but would go on to say that these governments are, in fact, acting to protect the owners of capital and corporations as their first priority. Voluble leftist ] says that "''There's nothing remotely like capitalism in existence. To the extent there ever was, it had disappeared by the 1920s or '30s''." (interview with Detroit Metro Times). Libertarians and other free-market advocates may also share this opinion regarding some or all of the major economies. However, in the 18th century in America, production and distribution of goods were regulated by government ministries. Also, government subsidies were granted to agriculture. Economic intervention continued throughout the 19th century. | |||
{{more citations needed section|date=March 2020}} | |||
There are many variants of capitalism in existence that differ according to country and region.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hall |first1=Peter A. |last2=Soskice |first2=David |title=Varieties Of Capitalism: The Institutional Foundations of Comparative Advantage |date=20 September 2001 |publisher=Oxford University Press, U.S.A. |isbn=0-19-924775-7}}</ref> They vary in their institutional makeup and by their economic policies. The common features among all the different forms of capitalism are that they are predominantly based on the private ownership of the means of production and the production of goods and services for profit; the market-based allocation of resources; and the accumulation of capital. | |||
They include advanced capitalism, corporate capitalism, finance capitalism, free-market capitalism, mercantilism, social capitalism, state capitalism and welfare capitalism. Other theoretical variants of capitalism include ], ], ], ], ], and ]. | |||
Proponents of the world-system perspective suggest that the whole globe has been incorporated into a single capitalist world-economy. Even though a state (such as Cuba) may be socialist, it works in relation to a much larger, overarching capitalist world-economy. | |||
=== Advanced === | |||
Mainstream economists, for their part, admit that the present economic systems have diverged from earlier forms labeled "capitalism", but many believe that some of the modern economies are still best described as being "capitalism". | |||
{{Main|Advanced capitalism}} | |||
Advanced capitalism is the situation that pertains to a society in which the capitalist model has been integrated and developed deeply and extensively for a prolonged period. Various writers identify ] as an influential early theorist of advanced capitalism, even if he did not use the term himself. In his writings, Gramsci sought to explain how capitalism had adapted to avoid the revolutionary overthrow that had seemed inevitable in the 19th century. At the heart of his explanation was the decline of raw coercion as a tool of class power, replaced by use of ] institutions to manipulate public ideology in the capitalists' favour.<ref>Lears, T.J. Jackson (1985) "The Concept of Cultural Hegemony"</ref><ref>Holub, Renate (2005) ''Antonio Gramsci: Beyond Marxism and Postmodernism''</ref><ref>] (2012) ''Ecology and Revolution: Global Crisis and the Political Challenge''</ref> | |||
] has been a major contributor to the analysis of advanced-capitalistic societies. Habermas observed four general features that characterise advanced capitalism: | |||
==Criticisms of capitalism== | |||
# Concentration of industrial activity in a few large firms. | |||
===Unequal distribution of wealth and income=== | |||
# Constant reliance on the state to stabilise the economic system. | |||
''Main article: ]'' | |||
# A formally democratic government that legitimises the activities of the state and dissipates opposition to the system. | |||
# The use of nominal wage increases to pacify the most restless segments of the work force.<ref>Habermas, 1988: 37, 75.</ref> | |||
=== Corporate === | |||
It is reasonable to expect that some disparity in wealth and income among individuals would exist in a capitalist system as this is determined through market forces rather than by centralized governmental authority. Some view a significant disparity and concentration of wealth to be problem and that such is endemic to capitalism, while others do not have such egalitarian concerns. Some opponents of capitalism assert that there should be no inequality in wealth and earnings among individuals commensurate to their inheritance, skills, abilities or efforts. Defenders of capitalism respond that since free market capitalism distributes wealth and earnings among individuals commensurate to their inheritance, skills, abilities and efforts, it provides inherent incentives for human beings to hone their skills, improve their abilities, and make strong efforts to meet the needs of each other, incentives that are missing or significantly less present in any other type of economic/political system. | |||
{{Main|Corporate capitalism}} | |||
{{See also|Crony capitalism|State monopoly capitalism}} | |||
Corporate capitalism is a free or mixed-market capitalist economy characterized by the dominance of hierarchical, bureaucratic corporations. | |||
=== |
=== Finance === | ||
{{Main|Finance capitalism}} | |||
Other critics argue that inequality may be necessary but that the distribution of wealth and earnings is unfair, dysfunctional, or immoral in capitalism. In the capitalist economies, the distributions of earnings and, especially, of wealth are concentrated and skewed to the right. In the US, the shares of earnings and wealth of the households in the top 1 percent of the corresponding distributions are 15 percent and 30 percent, respectively . | |||
{{See also|Capitalist mode of production (Marxist theory)}} | |||
Finance capitalism is the subordination of processes of ] to the accumulation of ] profits in a ]. In their critique of capitalism, ] and ] both emphasise the role of ] as the determining and ] interest in capitalist society, particularly in the ].<ref>] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402214909/https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1916/imp-hsc/ch03.htm |date=2 April 2015 }}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://monthlyreview.org/2009/10/01/monopoly-finance-capital-and-the-paradox-of-accumulation/|title= Monopoly-Finance Capital and the Paradox of Accumulation |first1=John Bellamy |last1=Foster |author1-link=John Bellamy Foster |first2=Robert W. |last2=McChesney |author2-link=Robert W. McChesney |date=1 October 2009 |magazine=] |access-date=27 August 2016 |archive-date=28 August 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160828081218/http://monthlyreview.org/2009/10/01/monopoly-finance-capital-and-the-paradox-of-accumulation/ |url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
] is credited with first bringing the term finance capitalism into prominence through ''Finance Capital'', his 1910 study of the links between German trusts, banks and monopolies—a study subsumed by ] into '']'' (1917), his analysis of the imperialist relations of the great world powers.<ref>Frederic Jameson, 'Culture and Finance Capital', in ''The Jameson Reader'' (2005) p. 257</ref> Lenin concluded that the banks at that time operated as "the chief nerve centres of the whole capitalist system of national economy".<ref>Quoted in E.H. Carr, ''The Bolshevik Revolution 2'' (1971) p. 137</ref> For the ] (founded in 1919), the phrase "dictatorship of finance capitalism"<ref>Quoted in F.A Voight, ''Unto Caesar'' (1938) p. 22</ref> became a regular one. | |||
Some critics note that there are very few people who are twice as tall as average, or who can run twice as fast, or have twice as high an IQ. They argue that the fact capitalism doesn't distribute wealth in a similar fashion means that something is fundamentally wrong with the system. Supporters argue that human contributions vary much more than humans vary in height or IQ (as can be illustrated, for example, by comparing the contributions of an arsonist and an inventor/producer of antibiotics). | |||
] would later point to two earlier periods when finance capitalism had emerged in human history—with the Genoese in the 16th century and with the Dutch in the 17th and 18th centuries—although at those points it developed from commercial capitalism.<ref>C. J.Calhoun/G. Derluguian, ''Business as Usual'' (2011) p. 57</ref>{{request quotation|date=December 2016}} ] extended Braudel's analysis to suggest that a predominance of finance capitalism is a recurring, long-term phenomenon, whenever a previous phase of commercial/industrial capitalist expansion reaches a plateau.<ref>Jameson, pp. 259–260</ref> | |||
Critics also note that there are many people who have no wealth. If wealth followed a bell shaped curve (]), as many other human characteristics and it might be surmised people's ability to be productive, then there should be very few people with no wealth. Supporters might argue that human productivity and especially the tendency to save wealth is not bell-shaped. | |||
=== Free market === | |||
An untamed capitalist system may have inherent biases favoring those who already possess greater resources. For example, rich people can give their children a better education and inherited wealth. This can create or even increase large differences in wealth between people who do not differ in ability or effort. For example, in the U.S., 43.35% of the people in the ] magazine "400 richest individuals" list were already rich enough at birth to qualify. , or a study that indicates that in the US wealth, race, and schooling are important to the inheritance of economic status, but IQ is not a major contributor and the genetic transmission of IQ is even less important . On the other hand, at least some of the difference in wealth between people of equal ability may be explained by that some people voluntarily, maybe because they see other things as more valuable, make life choices that make them earn or save less than other people with the same ability. Defenders respond that since 30.1% of the individuals on the Forbes list of the 400 richest did not inherit great wealth (meaning they did not inherit at least $1 million in assets) this shows that even such people can gain the very highest level of wealth in capitalist economies. For opposing views of IQ and income, see ]. There are also some data indicating that income inequality for the world as a whole is diminishing, see below in "Marxist critique of capitalism". | |||
{{Main|Free-market capitalism}} | |||
{{See also|Laissez-faire}} | |||
{{More citations needed|section|date=December 2021}} | |||
A capitalist free-market economy is an economic system where prices for goods and services are set entirely by the forces of ] and are expected, by its adherents, to reach their point of ] without intervention by government policy. It typically entails support for highly ] and ] of the ]. ''Laissez-faire'' capitalism is a more extensive form of this free-market economy, but one in which the role of the state is limited to protecting ]. In ] theory, property rights are protected by private firms and market-generated law. According to anarcho-capitalists, this entails property rights without statutory law through market-generated tort, contract and property law, and self-sustaining private industry. | |||
] argued that free market exchange and capitalism are to some degree opposed; free market exchange involves ] public transactions and a large number of ], while capitalism involves a small number of participants using their capital to control the market via private transactions, control of information, and limitation of competition.<ref name="Braudel Ranum Ranum Johns Hopkins University 1977 p. 47-63">{{cite book |last1=Braudel |first1=F. |author-link=Fernand Braudel |last2=Ranum |first2=P.M. |last3=Ranum |first3=P.P. |title=Afterthoughts on Material Civilization and Capitalism |publisher=] |series=Johns Hopkins symposia in comparative history |year=1977 |isbn=978-0-8018-1901-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1eVdAAAAIAAJ |access-date=6 April 2022 |pages=47–63}}</ref> | |||
Supporters argue that a problem with using "distribution of wealth" as a standard to measure economic systems is that such a standard can produce seemingly irrational judgments. Under the "distribution of wealth" standard, a system where everyone has nothing is judged as equal to a system where everyone has enormous wealth since the distribution of wealth in the two systems is equal. The claim is made that capitalist economics are not ] games and that more wealth for most people is actually "created" through innovation, entrepreneurship and risk-taking. Rewards for this may cause a necessary inequality. Regarding the inheritance of wealth, this may be necessary so that the most productive people continue to do productive work and save money when they get older. Thus, people who see uneven wealth distribution as a lesser or unavoidable problem tend to argue that if inequality leads to higher average wealth and higher wealth and income for most people, then wealth inequality may be acceptable. Several ] studies show that the relative income share of the poorest do not decrease with higher ], but their absolute income increases. For example, one study found that the poorest 10% earn $823 per year in the quintile of nations with the lowest economic freedom, but earn $6877 per year in the quintile of nations with the highest economic freedom. . | |||
=== Mercantile === | |||
Some advocates of capitalism may partly agree with the critics but think that the problem can be resolved with solutions like ], ], and/or ]. They note that such taxes are already implemented in most capitalist states. The best extent of such taxes and how much inequality there should be is much discussed and researched, but these variables can be changed without abandoning capitalism. The American Historian David Hackett Fisher, in his 1996 book "The Great Wave" argues that some characteristics of society commonly blamed on Capitalism may in fact be the indirect result on decades-long inflation. | |||
{{Main|Mercantilism}} | |||
{{See also|Protectionism}} | |||
] in the early 19th century]] | |||
Mercantilism is a nationalist form of early capitalism that came into existence approximately in the late 16th century. It is characterized by the intertwining of national business interests with state-interest and imperialism. Consequently, the state apparatus is used to advance national business interests abroad. An example of this is colonists living in America who were only allowed to trade with and purchase goods from their respective mother countries (e.g., United Kingdom, France and Portugal). Mercantilism was driven by the belief that the wealth of a nation is increased through a positive balance of trade with other nations—it corresponds to the phase of capitalist development sometimes called the ]. | |||
=== Social === | |||
Other points of view on capitalism's unequal wealth distribution include: | |||
{{Main|Social market economy}} | |||
* Pro-Capitalist: | |||
{{See also|Nordic model}} | |||
** ] has argued that no condition of perfect equality could be maintained for very long. If all agents possess the same amount of wealth, they will immediately begin investing it in different ventures which will pay off to varying degrees. But if voluntary economic exchange is seen as leaving both parties (since both would not be trading unless the outcome of the trade was mutually beneficial), even if the resulting distribution is not even, it is better than if there were no trading. | |||
A social market economy is a free-market or mixed-market capitalist system, sometimes classified as a ], where government intervention in price formation is kept to a minimum, but the state provides significant services in areas such as social security, health care, unemployment benefits and the recognition of ] through national ] arrangements. | |||
** Lack of established property rights force the poor to operate in extralegal markets, keeping them from unlocking the capital in their assets. When only the politically privileged can leverage capital, the division between formally and informally owned property is an unbalancing barrier to the benefits of a modern market economy. | |||
** Wealth tends to be directed toward individuals in proportion to how productive they are in terms of creating and providing goods and services that others value, therefore the possibility of becoming wealthier than others can be seen as an incentive to benefit society. A limit on freedom of individuals to reap a disproportionate amount of wealth would dampen incentive. Technological progress would stagnate, and, as a result, the standard of living would suffer. | |||
**The inequality of consumption is far less than the inequality in wealth, since there is no way most of the wealthy could consume all their wealth. To the extent that they consume their wealth, they are redistributing it to others. To the extent that they are not consuming it, they are generally either managing it to create more wealth or giving it away. | |||
** Many rich give significantly to ] (see also ]). Some argue that charity is more efficient than state welfare. | |||
** The economist ] has attributed factors such as geography, climate, culture, and natural resources as contributing factors to inequality inside of and between nations. | |||
** The income share of the poorest 10% do not decrease with higher economic freedom but the absolute income of the 10% poorest, prosperity, economic growth, democracy, and freedom from corruption increase, see . | |||
This model is prominent in Western and Northern European countries as well as Japan, albeit in slightly different configurations. The vast majority of enterprises are privately owned in this economic model. | |||
* Anti-Capitalist: | |||
** The capitalists gather their wealth by ] the workers. A worker is not paid the entire produce of his labor, as the employer retains a portion as profit. Profiting in this way tends to further enrich those with capital while not significantly enhancing the material well-being of workers. This perpetuates concentration of wealth in the hands of a few. | |||
** Wealth and unequal distribution can create social problems (such as higher ] rates). These problems affect both poor and rich. | |||
** Government interference in markets can be skewed to benefit the wealthy. In particular, wealthy people have the financial means and incentives to influence or corrupt government officials and to lobby for favourable legislation. | |||
** Many people have little wealth left over after living expenses, so they can't make it grow quickly. | |||
** Persistent long-term inequality of wealth undermines the motivation of the poor to improve their stance. | |||
** Wealthy people save relatively more than poor people. Hence some economists believe that an unequal distribution of wealth undermines an economy's mass buying power, effectively leading to lower aggregate sales, reduced wealth production, unemployment and crises. (see ]) Economists, however, argue that saving is also necessary in an economy, since it provides the means for investment into new technologies and processes. | |||
** Wealth is defined and judged incorrectly, in many different ways. In particular, people may attach value to things for seemingly irrational reasons (sentimental value). Some may also value spiritual development more than material wealth. | |||
** The wealthy may not put their wealth to productive use. For example, they may buy land just to deny access to it to others, for personal or environmental reasons. Other critics of capitalism, however, would ask whether or not capitalistic production narrowly-defined is a good thing, especially if it is seen as damaging the environment, and such an action of denial may be seen as the lesser of two evils. | |||
] is the contemporary model of capitalism and adaptation of the social market model that exists in continental Western Europe today. | |||
===Employment/unemployment=== | |||
Since individuals typically earn their incomes from working for companies whose requirements are constantly changing, it is quite possible that at any given time not all members of a country's potential work force will be able to find an employer that needs their labor. This would be less problematic in an economy in which such individuals had unlimited access to resources such as land in order to provide for themselves, but when the ownership of the bulk of its productive capacity resides in relatively few hands, most individuals will be dependent on employment for their economic well-being. It is typical for true capitalist economies to have rates of ] that fluctuate between 3% and 15%. Some economists have used the term "]" to describe this phenomenon. | |||
=== State === | |||
Depressed or stagnant economies have been known to reach unemployment rates as high as 30%, while events such as military mobilization (a good example is that of ]) have resulted in just 1-2% unemployment, a level that is often termed "full employment". Typical unemployment rates in Western economies range between 5% and 10%. Some economists consider that a certain level of unemployment is necessary for the proper functioning of capitalist economies. Equally, some politicians have claimed that the "natural rate of unemployment" highlights the inefficiency of a capitalist economy, since not all its resources -- in this case human labor -- are being allocated efficiently. | |||
{{Main|State capitalism}} | |||
State capitalism is a capitalist market economy dominated by state-owned enterprises, where the state enterprises are organized as commercial, profit-seeking businesses. The designation has been used broadly throughout the 20th century to designate a number of different economic forms, ranging from state-ownership in market economies to the command economies of the former ]. According to Aldo Musacchio, a professor at Harvard Business School, state capitalism is a system in which governments, whether democratic or autocratic, exercise a widespread influence on the economy either through direct ownership or various subsidies. Musacchio notes a number of differences between today's state capitalism and its predecessors. In his opinion, gone are the days when governments appointed bureaucrats to run companies: the world's largest state-owned enterprises are now traded on the public markets and kept in good health by large institutional investors. Contemporary state capitalism is associated with the ], ] and the economy of Norway.<ref>{{cite news |last=Musacchio |first=Aldo |url=http://www.economist.com/debate/days/view/802 |title=Economist Debates: State capitalism: Statements |newspaper=The Economist |access-date=20 June 2012 |archive-date=16 July 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120716050641/http://economist.com/debate/days/view/802 |url-status=live }}</ref> Alternatively, ] defines state capitalism as "an economic system in which private capitalism is modified by a varying degree of government ownership and control".<ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150703131303/http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/state%20capitalism |date=3 July 2015 }}. ]. Retrieved 7 July 2015.</ref> | |||
In ''Socialism: Utopian and Scientific'', ] argued that state-owned enterprises would characterize the final stage of capitalism, consisting of ownership and management of large-scale production and communication by the ].<ref>{{cite web |first=Frederick |last=Engels |author-link=Friedrich Engels |url=http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1880/soc-utop/ch03.htm |title=Socialism: Utopian and Scientific (Chpt. 3) |publisher=] |access-date=8 January 2014 |archive-date=9 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200509191523/https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1880/soc-utop/ch03.htm |url-status=live}}</ref> In his writings, ] characterized the economy of Soviet Russia as state capitalist, believing state capitalism to be an early step toward the development of socialism.<ref>V.I. Lenin. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150907043921/https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1921/apr/21.htm |date=7 September 2015 }}. ''Lenin's Collected Works'', 1st English ed., Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1965, vol. 32, pp. 329–365.</ref><ref>V.I. Lenin. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150618071802/https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1922/nov/14b.htm |date=18 June 2015 }}. ''Lenin Collected Works'', Progress Publishers, 1971, Moscow, vol. 42, pp. 425c–427a.</ref> | |||
Some ] economists, such as ], argue that higher unemployment rates are in part the result of ] laws, as well as in part the result of misguided ], and are not inevitable in a capitalist economy. In "]", Hazlitt argues that if the value of the work of some potential employees is lower than the minimum wage, it would penalise the employer to employ them. Accordingly, if the value of the productive capacity of a given employee is worth less to the employer than the minimum wage, that person will become unemployed, and therefore unemployment will exist whenever the legal minimum wage exceeds the true economic value of the least productive members of the ]. Likewise, if the amount of money a person can obtain on ] approaches or equals what they could make by working, that person's incentive to work will be reduced. | |||
Some economists and left-wing academics including ] and ], as well as many Marxist philosophers and revolutionaries such as ] and ], argue that the economies of the former ] and Eastern Bloc represented a form of state capitalism because their internal organization within enterprises and the system of wage labor remained intact.<ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190728140836/https://www.hetsa.org.au/pdf/34-A-08.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.hetsa.org.au/pdf/34-A-08.pdf |archive-date=9 October 2022 |url-status=live |date=28 July 2019 }}, M.C. Howard and J.E. King</ref><ref>] (1986). {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924051230/http://www.chomsky.info/articles/1986----.htm |date=24 September 2015 }}. ''Our Generation''. Retrieved 9 July 2015.</ref><ref>] (27 June 2015). {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180311070639/http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/31567-socialism-means-abolishing-the-distinction-between-bosses-and-employees |date=11 March 2018 }}. ''].'' Retrieved 9 July 2015.</ref><ref>{{cite web|first1=Raya |last1=Dunayevskaya |author-link1=Raya Dunayevskaya |date=1941 |url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/dunayevskaya/works/1941/ussr-capitalist.htm |title=The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is a Capitalist Society |website=] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191207212742/https://www.marxists.org/archive/dunayevskaya/works/1941/ussr-capitalist.htm |archive-date=7 December 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|first1=C.L.R. |last1=James |author-link1=C.L.R. James |first2=Raya |last2=Dunayevskaya |author-link2=Raya Dunayevskaya |first3=Grace Lee |last3=Boggs |author-link3=Grace Lee Boggs |date=1950 |url=https://libcom.org/files/State%20capitalism%20and%20world%20revolution%20-%20CLR%20James.pdf |title=State Capitalism and World Revolution |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200619014753/https://libcom.org/files/State%20capitalism%20and%20world%20revolution%20-%20CLR%20James.pdf |archive-date=19 June 2020}}</ref> | |||
Some unemployment is voluntary, such as when a potential job is turned down because the unemployed person is seeking a better job, is voluntarily living on savings, or has a non-wage-earning role, such as in the case of a traditional ]. Some measures of employment disregard these categories of unemployment, counting only people who are actively seeking work and have been unable to find any. | |||
The term is not used by ] economists to describe state ownership of the means of production. The economist ] argued that the designation of state capitalism was a new label for the old labels of state socialism and planned economy and differed only in non-essentials from these earlier designations.<ref>{{cite book|first=Ludwig |last=Von Mises |author-link=Ludwig Von Mises |title=Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis |publisher=LibertyClassics |place=Indianapolis |year=1979 |isbn=978-0-913966-63-1 |url=https://archive.org/details/socialismeconomi00vonm |access-date=31 May 2007 |quote=The socialist movement takes great pains to circulate frequently new labels for its ideally constructed state. Each worn-out label is replaced by another which raises hopes of an ultimate solution of the insoluble basic problem of Socialism—until it becomes obvious that nothing has been changed but the name. The most recent slogan is 'State Capitalism.' It is not commonly realized that this covers nothing more than what used to be called Planned Economy and State Socialism, and that State Capitalism, Planned Economy, and State Socialism diverge only in non-essentials from the "classic" ideal of egalitarian Socialism. |url-access=registration}}</ref> | |||
===Marxist critique of capitalism=== | |||
''Main article: ], ]'' | |||
=== Welfare === | |||
] saw the existence of capital as the source of social ills]] | |||
{{Main|Welfare capitalism}} | |||
Marxists define ] as "a social, economic relation" between people (rather than between people and things). In this sense they seek to abolish capital. They believe that private ownership of the means of production enriches capitalists (owners of capital) at the expense of workers ("the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer"), and that this is the cause of social ills. Supporters of capitalism counter this criticism by claiming that ownership of productive capacity provides motivation to owners to increase productive capacity and so generally increase the average material wealth ("we all get richer"). Opponents of capitalism counter this by pointing out the unchanged after-tax income of the poorest quintile of the U.S. population during the last two decades. While at the same time the average income and especially the income of the rich have increased. . According to "United for a Fair Economy," in 1982 CEOs of major corporations in the U.S. earned 42 times the annual wages of the average worker; in 2002 the ratio stood at 282:1 . Supporters of capitalism point out that the percentage of people in developing countries living below $1 per day have halved in only twenty years, especially in countries like China that have embraced capitalism . Life expectancy has almost doubled in the developing world since WWII and the gap to the developed world is starting to close . Looking at the world as a whole and not only the U.S. shows that income inequality is in fact diminishing . | |||
{{See also|Economic interventionism|Mixed economy}} | |||
Welfare capitalism is capitalism that includes social welfare policies. Today, welfare capitalism is most often associated with the models of capitalism found in Central Mainland and Northern Europe such as the ], ] and ]. In some cases, welfare capitalism exists within a mixed economy, but welfare states can and do exist independently of policies common to mixed economies such as ] and extensive regulation. | |||
A mixed economy is a largely market-based capitalist economy consisting of both private and public ownership of the means of production and ] through macroeconomic policies intended to correct ]s, reduce unemployment and keep inflation low. The degree of intervention in markets varies among different countries. Some mixed economies such as France under ] also featured a degree of ] over a largely capitalist-based economy. | |||
Marxists believe that capitalism allows capitalists — the owners of capital — to ] workers. The private ownership of the means of production is seen as a restriction on freedom, whereas supporters of capitalism believe that private ownership is essential to enriching society as well as preserving personal freedom. Marxists also argue that capitalism has inherent contradictions that will inevitably lead to its collapse. Capitalism is seen as just one stage in the evolution of the economy of a society. | |||
Most modern capitalist economies are defined as mixed economies to some degree<ins>,</ins> however French economist ] state that capitalist economies might shift to a much more ''laissez-faire'' approach in the near future.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Piketty |first=Thomas |title=Le capital au XXIe siècle |year=2013 |isbn=978-2-02-108228-9 |pages=799, 800 |language=fr |chapter=Repenser l'impôt progressif sur le revenu |publisher=Éditions du Seuil |trans-chapter=To rethink income tax progressivity |quote=Si cette régressivité fiscale au sommet de la hiérarchie sociale devait se confirmer et s'amplifier à l'avenir, il est bien évident qu'une telle sécession fiscale des plus riches est potentiellement extrêmement dommageable pour le consentement fiscal dans son ensemble s'en trouve amoindri . Il est vital pour l'État social moderne que le système fiscal qui le sous-tend conserve un minimum de progressivité. |trans-quote=If tax regressivity on top of the social hierarchy may settle in and escalate in the future, it is obvious that such a tax secession between the richest and the other classes will be highly harmful towards the agreement over the taxation system which will weaken. It is essential for the modern social system that the taxation system preserve a sort of tax progressivity.}}</ref> | |||
Marxists also often argue that the structure of capitalism necessarily leads to unjust exploitation of workers, regardless of whether or not the political system is one of a bourgeois democracy. For this reason Marxists typically emphasise the capitalist economic system of Western countries rather than the democratic political system. A capitalist system is an economic system - although often associated with democratic political systems, they are independent from each other. Capitalist systems have often functioned under unelected governments: the classic case is the ], where less than 20% of adult males could vote prior to ], and women did not receive the vote until ]. Some recent examples include ], ], and ] under the rule of General ]. It is also argued by Marxists that governments espousing ] (or "]") rhetoric do not make substantive changes to the capitalist economies when they assume power. | |||
=== Eco-capitalism === | |||
In ] differences in terminology sometimes confuse and complicate discussions of ]. Under ], which is the official state ideology, capitalism refers to a stage of history in which there is a class system in which the proletariat is exploited by the bourgeoisie. In the official Chinese ideology, China is currently in the primary stage of ]. However, because of ]'s dictum to ], this view does not prevent China from undertaking policies which in the West would be considered capitalistic including employing wage labor, increasing unemployment to motivate those who are still working, transforming state owned enterprises into joint stock companies, and encouraging the growth of the joint venture and private capitalist sectors. | |||
], also known as "environmental capitalism" or (sometimes<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/24/b-corps-captalism-for-an-environmentally-endangered-age |title=Green capitalism sometimes also referring to sustainable businesses |first=Oliver |last=Balch |date=24 November 2019 |work=]}}</ref>) "green capitalism", is the view that ] exists in nature as "]" (]s that have ]) on which all ] depends. Therefore, governments should use ] ] (such as a ]) to resolve ]s.<ref>{{cite web|title=Definition of Eco-Capitalism |url=https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/eco-capitalism |website=collinsdictionary.com |access-date= 27 November 2015}}</ref> | |||
The term "Blue Greens" is often applied to those who espouse eco-capitalism. Eco-capitalism can be thought of as the right-wing equivalent to ].<ref>{{cite web|title=The rise of green capitalism |url=http://roadtoparis.info/top-list/rise-green-capitalism/ |website=roadtoparis.info |access-date=27 November 2015}}</ref>{{request quotation|date=August 2019}} | |||
===Capitalism in decline or on the rise?=== | |||
Citing the ideal of a ], many consider an economy with lower taxes, smaller government and fewer regulations to be more capitalistic. If government spending is used as a gauge of government expansion, the last century saw a very large increase in the role of government in Western countries. Combined U.S. government spending increased from 3-4% of GDP to 33% flattening somewhat since 1983 when the sharp upward trend was broken during President Ronald Reagan's term. An average for 16 industrial nations jumped from 8% of GDP to 45%. ''Non-defense'' spending in the U.S. as a percentage of net income increase from 11.5% in 1945 to 30% in 1983, remaining stable through 2003 (some exclude defense spending when gauging government expansion). Compliance with more regulations is increasingly costly . Thus it can be argued that the degree of capitalism has seen a remarkable ''decline'' in Western nations. However, since 1983 the percentage of non-defense government spending in the U.S. has stabilized, leading some such as Milton Friedman to express some hope that the tide may reverse toward more capitalism . Alan Greenspan, in a speech in 2005, expressed his belief that "free-market capitalism" is being rediscovered through deregulation after a period of stifling regulation brought about by ]. | |||
=== Sustainable capitalism === | |||
One explanation for this is that the Western nations have increasingly averted or regulated various market failures such as pollution, health care, unemployment, wealth inequality, and education. Supporters of less state interference, such as ], ], and financial ], would instead argue that the regulations restrict competition, that the taxes go to the special interest groups with the most political clout, that governments do things less efficiently than the private sector, and that market failures are actually caused by government regulations, such as the minimum wage, and public schools. | |||
] is a conceptual form of capitalism based upon ] practices that seek to preserve humanity and the planet, while reducing ] and bearing a resemblance of capitalist ]. A capitalistic economy must expand to survive and find new markets to support this expansion.<ref>{{cite book |doi=10.1109/IPCC.2011.6087226 |chapter=The convergence of sustainable capitalism |title=2011 IEEE International Professional Communication Conference |pages=1–7 |year=2011 |last1=Mitra |first1=Basavadatta |last2=Gadhok |first2=Saagar |last3=Salhotra |first3=Shivam |last4=Agarwal |first4=Sakshi |isbn=978-1-61284-779-5 |s2cid=31292223 }}</ref> Capitalist systems are often destructive to the environment as well as certain individuals without access to proper representation. However, sustainability provides quite the opposite; it implies not only a continuation, but a ].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Schweickart |first1=David |title=Is Sustainable Capitalism an Oxymoron? |journal=Perspectives on Global Development and Technology |date=1 January 2009 |volume=8 |issue=2–3 |pages=559–580 |doi=10.1163/156914909X424033 }}</ref> Sustainability is often thought of to be related to ], and sustainable capitalism applies sustainable principles to economic governance and social aspects of capitalism as well. | |||
The importance of sustainable capitalism has been more recently recognized, but the concept is not new. Changes to the current economic model would have heavy social environmental and economic implications and require the efforts of individuals, as well as compliance of local, state and federal governments. Controversy surrounds the concept as it requires an increase in sustainable practices and a marked decrease in current consumptive behaviors.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |title=Sustainable Capitalism and the Pursuit of Well-Being.|last=E.|first=Harrison, Neil|date=1 January 2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-306-21804-7|oclc=866837827}}{{page needed|date=March 2019}}</ref> | |||
===Sustainability=== | |||
An economic system that causes strong economic growth may have a large effect on the environment. Some question the continued ] of this, arguing that many aspects of the environment have been degraded since the industrial revolution. Defenders of capitalism note the many environmental disasters in communist states. Yet this argument constitutes an evasion more than a defense. While it may be true that state-communist governments in economic competition with capitalism tended to mindlessly ape its industrial processes, sometimes producing more environmentally destructive results, it hardly lets capitalism off the hook. | |||
This is a concept of capitalism described in ] and ]'s manifesto for the ] to describe a long-term political, economic and social structure which would mitigate current threats to the planet and society.<ref name="genfound">{{Cite web |last1=Gore |first1=Al |last2=Blood |first2=David |title=A Manifesto for Sustainable Capitalism |url=https://www.genfound.org/media/pdf-wsj-manifesto-sustainable-capitalism-14-12-11.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140124005644/https://www.genfound.org/media/pdf-wsj-manifesto-sustainable-capitalism-14-12-11.pdf |archive-date=24 January 2014 |access-date=24 October 2022 |website=Generation Foundation}}</ref> According to their manifesto, sustainable capitalism would integrate the environmental, social and governance (]) aspects into risk assessment in attempt to limit externalities.<ref name=":0b">{{Cite web|url=https://www.generationim.com/media/pdf-generation-sustainable-capitalism-v1.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.generationim.com/media/pdf-generation-sustainable-capitalism-v1.pdf |archive-date=9 October 2022 |url-status=live|title=Sustainable Capitalism|access-date=18 February 2017}}</ref> Most of the ideas they list are related to economic changes, and social aspects, but strikingly few are explicitly related to any environmental policy change.<ref name="genfound" /> | |||
Some defenders note that many aspects of the environment in developed nations have improved recently, after the dangers of certain pollutants have become known. Examples include greatly reduced emissions of ] affecting the ], removal of ] from gasoline and other products, greatly improved cleaning of emissions from fossil fuel power plants, and much stricter control of emissions into rivers, lakes, and oceans. However, some leading ] organizations such as the ] and The ] argue that the impact of humanity on Earth is continually increasing. They in 2004 jointly reported that "humanity's Ecological Footprint grew by 150% between 1961 and 2000" and that most of this growth occurred in the 27 wealthiest countries of the world, in other words, the leading capitalist countries . Critics note that the statistical methods used in calculating ] have been criticized and some find the whole concept of counting how much land is used to be flawed, arguing that there is nothing intrinsically negative about using more land to improve living standards. | |||
== Capital accumulation == | |||
This view, however, does not recognize ] as an intrinsic good. ], paving and other human activities reduce the amount of earth's surface available to support diverse communities of life. | |||
{{Main|Capital accumulation}} | |||
The accumulation of capital is the process of "making money" or growing an initial sum of money through investment in production. Capitalism is based on the accumulation of capital, whereby ] is invested in order to make a profit and then reinvested into further production in a continuous process of accumulation. In Marxian economic theory, this dynamic is called the ]. Capital accumulation forms the basis of capitalism, where economic activity is structured around the accumulation of ], defined as investment in order to realize a financial profit.<ref name="Economist definition">{{cite news | title = Economics A–Z: ''Capital'' | url = http://www.economist.com/economics-a-to-z/c#node-21529870 | website = ] | access-date = 25 March 2015 | archive-date = 7 August 2017 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170807235225/http://www.economist.com/economics-a-to-z/c#node-21529870 | url-status = live }}</ref> In this context, "capital" is defined as money or a financial asset invested for the purpose of making more money (whether in the form of profit, rent, interest, royalties, capital gain or some other kind of return).<ref name="MIA definition">{{cite web | title = Encyclopedia of Marxism – Glossary of terms: ''Capital'' | url = http://marxists.org/glossary/terms/c/a.htm#capital | website = ] | access-date = 25 March 2015 | archive-date = 18 June 2015 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150618083941/https://www.marxists.org/glossary/terms/c/a.htm#capital | url-status = live }}</ref> | |||
In mainstream ], ] and ], capital accumulation is often equated with ] of profit income or savings, especially in ] capital goods. The concentration and centralisation of capital are two of the results of such accumulation. In modern ] and ], the phrase "]" is often used in preference to "accumulation", though the ] (UNCTAD) refers nowadays to "accumulation". The term "accumulation" is occasionally used in ]. | |||
Supporters of capitalism argue that in many cases environmental problems are greatest when a common exists and there is no clear owner. See ], ], and a proposal to have . Defenders of capitalism also note that world population has greatly expanded due to higher living standards since the industrial revolution. However, this growth is declining due to the ] and the world population is expected to stabilize at nine billion. | |||
== Wage labor == | |||
Yet many environmentalists have long argued that the real dangers are due to the world's current social institutions that they claim promote environmentally irresponsible consumption and production. Under what they call the "grow or die" imperative of capitalism, they claim there is little reason to expect hazardous consumption and production practices to change in a timely manner. They also claim that markets and states invariably drag their feet on substantive environmental reform, and are notoriously slow to adopt viable sustainable technologies. . ], referring to the as the "dirty secret" of capitalism, claims that there are built-in limits to ecological reform, the costs of doing business in the world capitalist economy are ratcheting upward because of deruralization and democratization, he therefore sees no exit from our dilemmas within the framework of the capitalist world-system. | |||
{{Main|Wage labour}} | |||
], ], {{Circa|1995}}–2000)]] | |||
Wage labor refers to the sale of ] under a formal or informal ] to an ].<ref name="Steinfeld 2009 3"/> These transactions usually occur in a ] where ]s are market determined.<ref>{{Harvnb|Deakin|Wilkinson|2005}}.<br />{{Harvnb|Marx|1990|p=1005}}, defines wage labour succinctly as "the labour of the worker who sells his own labour-power."</ref> In Marxist economics, these owners of the means of production and suppliers of capital are generally called capitalists. The description of the role of the capitalist has shifted, first referring to a useless intermediary between producers, then to an employer of producers, and finally to the owners of the means of production.<ref name="Williams 1983 51" /> ] includes all physical and mental human resources, including entrepreneurial capacity and management skills, which are required to produce products and services. ] is the act of making goods or services by applying ].<ref>Ragan, Christopher T.S.; Lipsey, Richard G. ''Microeconomics''. 12th Canadian ed. Toronto, Pearson Education, 2008. {{ISBN|978-0-321-31491-8}}</ref><ref>Robbins, Richard H. ''Global problems and the culture of capitalism''. Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 2007. {{ISBN|978-0-205-52487-7}}</ref> | |||
== Criticism == | |||
Strong economic growth also requires increasingly greater amounts of natural resources and energy and some question whether this can continue in the future. Those arguing for continued growth note that numerous past predictions of shortages have failed since new technology has continuously allowed exploitation of previously unavailable resources. That this continues in the future is of critical importance, especially for energy which may face a peak in fossil fuel production. Since 1970, each 1% increase in world GDP has yielded a 0.64% increase in energy consumption. See ]. | |||
{{Main|Criticism of capitalism}} | |||
] poster "]" (1911)]] | |||
Criticism of capitalism comes from various political and philosophical approaches, including ], ], ] and ] viewpoints.<ref>{{cite book|last=Tormey|first=Simon|title=Anticapitalism|publisher=One World Publications|year=2004|page=10|isbn=978-1-78074-250-2}}</ref> Of those who oppose it or want to modify it, some believe that capitalism should be removed through ] while others believe that it should be changed slowly through ].<ref>{{cite book|title=Book: Sociology (Boundless)|chapter=16.1C: The Marxist Critique of Capitalism|url=https://socialsci.libretexts.org/@go/page/8462|date=16 December 2020|publisher=LibreTexts|access-date=21 October 2021|quote=Revolutionary socialists believe that capitalism can only be overcome through revolution. Social democrats believe that structural change can come slowly through political reforms to capitalism.}}</ref><ref name="The Cambridge History of Communism p.">{{cite book | editor-last=Pons | editor-first=Silvio | editor-last2=Smith | editor-first2=Stephen A. | title=The Cambridge History of Communism | publisher=Cambridge University Press | date=21 September 2017 | isbn=978-1-316-13702-4 | doi=10.1017/9781316137024 | pages=49–73}}</ref> | |||
Prominent critiques of capitalism allege that it is inherently ],<ref name="competition">{{cite web|url=http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/condition-working-class/ch05.htm|title=Competition – The Condition of the Working Class in England|last=Engels|first=Frederick|access-date=10 March 2008}}</ref><ref name="stanfordexploitation">{{Cite web|date=20 December 2001|title=Exploitation|url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/exploitation/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201127091753/https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/exploitation/|archive-date=27 November 2020|access-date=26 December 2020|website=]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Mattei|first=Clara E.|date=2022 |title=The Capital Order: How Economists Invented Austerity and Paved the Way to Fascism|pages=17–18|url=https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/C/bo181707138.html|location= |publisher=]|isbn=978-0-226-81839-9}}</ref> ],<ref>"Alienation." Pp. 10. in ''A Dictionary of Philosophy'' (rev. 2nd ed.). 1984.</ref> ],<ref name="onfreetrade">{{cite web|url=http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1888/free-trade/index.htm|title=On the Question of Free Trade|last=Engels|first=Frederick|access-date=11 March 2008}}</ref><ref name="isrcrisis">{{cite web|url=http://www.isreview.org/issues/32/crisis_theory.shtml|title=Marx's Theory of Economic Crisis|last=Easterling|first=Earl|publisher=International Socialist Review|access-date=13 March 2008|archive-date=27 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210227033442/https://isreview.org/issues/32/crisis_theory.shtml|url-status=dead}}</ref> ],<ref name="extinction">{{cite book|last=Dawson|first=Ashley|author-link=Ashley Dawson|title=Extinction: A Radical History|date=2016|publisher=]|url=http://www.orbooks.com/catalog/extinction-by-ashley-dawson/|page=41|isbn=978-1-944869-01-4|access-date=20 August 2016|archive-date=17 September 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160917203814/http://www.orbooks.com/catalog/extinction-by-ashley-dawson/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Nelson |first=Anitra |date=31 January 2024 |title=Degrowth as a Concept and Practice : Introduction |url=https://commonslibrary.org/degrowth-as-a-concept-and-practice-introduction/ |access-date=24 February 2024 |website=The Commons Social Change Library |language=en-AU}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |title=Earth at risk: An urgent call to end the age of destruction and forge a just and sustainable future |journal=PNAS Nexus |date=4 April 2024 |volume=3 |issue=4 |doi=10.1093/pnasnexus/pgae106 |url=https://academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/article/3/4/pgae106/7638480?login=false |access-date=4 April 2024|pmc=10986754 |last1=Fletcher |first1=Charles |last2=Ripple |first2=William J. |last3=Newsome |first3=Thomas |last4=Barnard |first4=Phoebe |last5=Beamer |first5=Kamanamaikalani |last6=Behl |first6=Aishwarya |last7=Bowen |first7=Jay |last8=Cooney |first8=Michael |last9=Crist |first9=Eileen |last10=Field |first10=Christopher |last11=Hiser |first11=Krista |last12=Karl |first12=David M. |last13=King |first13=David A. |last14=Mann |first14=Michael E. |last15=McGregor |first15=Davianna P. |last16=Mora |first16=Camilo |last17=Oreskes |first17=Naomi |last18=Wilson |first18=Michael |pages=pgae106 |pmid=38566756 }}</ref> and ]<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BlEpAQAAMAAJ|title=Beyond the Profits System: Possibilities for a post-capitalist era|last=Shutt|first=Harry|date=March 2010|publisher=Zed Books|isbn=978-1-84813-417-1}}</ref><ref name="isrwaste">{{cite web|url=http://www.isreview.org/issues/53/garbage.shtml|title=The Conquest of Garbage|last=Rogers|first=Heather|website=isreview.org|publisher=International Socialist Review (1997)|access-date=13 March 2008|archive-date=10 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210510142346/http://www.isreview.org/issues/53/garbage.shtml|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="part6">{{cite web|url=http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~reak/eco100/100_6.htm|title=Monopoly, Imperfect Competition, and Oligopoly|last=Rea|first=K.J.|access-date=11 March 2008|archive-date=12 June 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100612201706/http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~reak/eco100/100_6.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>—and that it creates massive ],<ref name="King 2021">{{cite web|last=King|first=Matthew Wilburn|title=Why the next stage of capitalism is coming|website=BBC Future|date=25 May 2021|url=https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20210525-why-the-next-stage-of-capitalism-is-coming|access-date=21 October 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Ghodsee|first1=Kristen|last2=Orenstein|first2=Mitchell A.|author-link1=Kristen Ghodsee|date=2021|title=Taking Stock of Shock: Social Consequences of the 1989 Revolutions|publisher=]|page=192|doi=10.1093/oso/9780197549230.001.0001 |isbn=978-0-19-754924-7|quote=Without an accompanying welfare state in which social programs funded by a progressive income tax redistribute from the rich to the poor, capitalism can be a deeply unfair system where a small, well-connected elite captures a majority of the wealth and power, and not necessarily through meritocratic processes.}}</ref> ] people,<ref name="openDemocracy">{{cite web | title=Commodification: the essence of our time | website=openDemocracy | url=https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocracyuk/commodification-essence-of-our-time/ | access-date=21 October 2021 | author= Colin Leys | date = 2 April 2021}}</ref><ref name="Renegade Inc 2019">{{cite web | title=The Commodification of Everything | website=Renegade Inc | date=25 August 2019 | url=http://renegadeinc.com/the-commodification-of-everything/ | access-date=21 October 2021 | author=Daniel Margrain | archive-date=21 October 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211021224916/https://renegadeinc.com/the-commodification-of-everything/ | url-status=dead }}</ref> ],<ref name="extinction" /><ref>{{cite book|last=Hickel|first=Jason|author-link=Jason Hickel|title=Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World |year=2021|publisher=Windmill Books|pages=39–40|isbn=978-1-78609-121-5|quote=It was only with the rise of capitalism over the past few hundred years, and the breathtaking acceleration of industrialization from the 1950s, that on a planetary scale things began to tip out of balance.}}</ref> is ],<ref name="Merkel pp. 109–128">{{cite journal | last=Merkel | first=Wolfgang | title=Is capitalism compatible with democracy? | journal=Zeitschrift für Vergleichende Politikwissenschaft | publisher=Springer Science and Business Media LLC | volume=8 | issue=2 | date=26 July 2014 | issn=1865-2646 | doi=10.1007/s12286-014-0199-4 | pages=109–128| hdl=10419/270951 | s2cid=150776013 | hdl-access=free }}</ref><ref name="Reich 2009">{{cite web | last=Reich | first=Robert B. | title=How Capitalism Is Killing Democracy | website=Foreign Policy | date=12 October 2009 | url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2009/10/12/how-capitalism-is-killing-democracy/ | access-date=21 October 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Slobodian|first=Quinn |author-link=Quinn Slobodian|date=2023 |title=Crack-Up Capitalism: Market Radicals and the Dream of a World Without Democracy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tIlrEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT10|location= |publisher=]|page=10 |isbn=978-1-250-75389-2}} | |||
===Human rights violations, imperialism, and democracy=== | |||
</ref> embeds ] and ] between nation states,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Patnaik |first1=Utsa |title='Neo-Marxian' Theories of Capitalism and Underdevelopment: Towards a Critique |journal=Social Scientist |date=1982 |volume=10 |issue=11 |pages=3–32 |doi=10.2307/3516858 |jstor=3516858 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3516858 |issn=0970-0293}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Warke |first1=Thomas W. |title=The Marxian Theory of Underdevelopment: A Review Article |journal=The Journal of Developing Areas |date=1973 |volume=7 |issue=4 |pages=699–710 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4190085#:~:text=it%20is%20Lenin%20who%20laid,modern%20Marxian%20theory%20of%20underdevelopment.&text=and%20tends%20to%20perpetuate%20the,masses%20in%20the%20backward%20country.&text=world%20production%20and%20trade%20and,dualisms%20within%20under%2D%20developed%20economies. |issn=0022-037X}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Martins |first1=Carlos Eduardo |title=The Longue Durée of the Marxist Theory of Dependency and the Twenty-First Century |journal=Latin American Perspectives |date=January 2022 |volume=49 |issue=1 |pages=18–35 |doi=10.1177/0094582X211052029 |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0094582X211052029 |language=en |issn=0094-582X}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Peck |first1=Jamie |last2=Varadarajan |first2=Latha |title=Uneven Regional Development |journal=International Encyclopedia of Geography: People, the Earth, Environment and Technology |date=6 March 2017 |pages=1–13 |doi=10.1002/9781118786352.wbieg0721 |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/9781118786352.wbieg0721 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons, Ltd |isbn=9780470659632 |language=en}}</ref> and leads to an erosion of ]<ref>{{cite journal|last=Abeles|first=Marc|date=2006|title=Globalization, Power, and Survival: an Anthropological Perspective|url=https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00125880/file/M_Abeles_2006_AQ.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00125880/file/M_Abeles_2006_AQ.pdf |archive-date=9 October 2022 |url-status=live|journal=Anthropological Quarterly|volume=79|issue=3|pages=484–486|doi=10.1353/anq.2006.0030|s2cid=144220354}}</ref> because of its ] of ] expansion and ].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Farid|first=Hilmar|date=2005|title=Indonesia's original sin: mass killings and capitalist expansion, 1965–66|journal=]|volume=6|issue=1|pages=3–16|doi=10.1080/1462394042000326879|s2cid=145130614}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Blakeley|first=Ruth|date=2009|title=State Terrorism and Neoliberalism: The North in the South|url=http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415462402/|publisher=]|pages=, , |isbn=978-0-415-68617-4}}</ref><ref>''Lenin's Selected Works'', Progress Publishers, 1963, Moscow, Volume 1, pp. 667–766</ref> | |||
Critics argue that the ills caused by capitalism include ], ], ], ] and abuse of ]. They point to lack of ], systematic violence against political opponents, participation in coups which have placed dictators in power (for example ] in ], Argentina with its ]); and large scale ] (like in the ]). Some argue that capitalism thrives on an uneven and exploitative relationship between wealthy nations (see ]) who force regime or system changes in poor countries which are only beneficial to them, often through exploitative wars (like the ] or the ]), or coup d'etats in democratic countries that refuse to privatize exploitation of their natural resources (e.g. Chile, 1973). Although some of these violations occurred during a time period and in states sometimes considered being more capitalist than today since the government share of the economy was much smaller, U.S and European support of multinational-friendly capitalist dictatorships in Latin America and Africa lasted until the mid 1980s. | |||
Other critics argue that such inequities are not due to the ethic-neutral construct of the economic system commonly known as capitalism, but to the ethics of those who shape and execute the system. For example, some contend that Milton Friedman's (human) ethic of 'maximizing shareholder value' creates a harmful form of capitalism,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Stout |first=Lynn |author-link=Lynn Stout |title=The Shareholder Value Myth |publisher=Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc. |year=2012 |isbn=978-1-60509-813-5 |location=San Francisco, CA |pages=15–23}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Gelles |first=David |author-link=David Gelles |title=The Man Who Broke Capitalism |publisher=Simon & Schuster |year=2022 |isbn=978-1-9821-7644-0 |location=New York |pages=1–13}}</ref> while a ] or John Bogle (human) ethic of 'enough' creates a sustainable form.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Fuller |first=Millard |author-link=Millard Fuller|title=The Theology of the Hammer |publisher=Smyth & Helwys Publishing |year=1994 |isbn=1-880837-92-7 |location=Macon, GA |pages=31–39}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Bogle |first=John |title=Enough |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-470-52423-7 |location=Hoboken, New Jersey |pages=229–248}}</ref> Equitable ethics and unified ethical decision-making is theorized to create a less damaging form of capitalism.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Knowlton & Hedges |title=Better Capitalism |publisher=Wipf & Stock Publishers |year=2021 |isbn=978-1-7252-8093-9 |location=Eugene, OR |pages=34–37, 235–242}}</ref> | |||
Marxists argue that capitalism initially started with the ] of capital by imperialist countries like England through the theft of natural resources and exploitation of slave labor from large parts of Asia, Africa and the Americas which spurred the industrial revolution. | |||
] has been argued to not be a fundamental part of capitalism,<ref name="x107">{{cite journal | last=Haslett | first=D. W. | title=Is Inheritance Justified? | journal=Philosophy & Public Affairs | publisher=Wiley | volume=15 | issue=2 | year=1986 | issn=0048-3915 | jstor=2265382 | pages=122–155 | url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/2265382 | access-date=17 August 2024}}</ref> instead part of ].<ref name="e543">{{cite journal | last=Pérez-González | first=Francisco | title=Inherited Control and Firm Performance | journal=American Economic Review | volume=96 | issue=5 | date=1 November 2006 | issn=0002-8282 | doi=10.1257/aer.96.5.1559 | pages=1559–1588}}</ref> | |||
Proponents of capitalism argue that these problems have been widespread through all of human history, including in states characterized as socialist such as in ] under Pol Pot. Some claim that these practices are not consistent with the principles of capitalism even though they have existed in nations or in the colonies of nations (commonly or loosely) labeled as capitalist. They deny that many of the colonies had capitalist economic systems and claim that their economies mostly continued to be feudalistic. Critics of capitalism counter that the nature of capitalism itself is based on uneven power relationships between wealthy nations and the countries they colonize, either militarily (such as India in 19th century) or economically (e.g. through IMF ] programs during the 1980s). In other words, for capitalism to survive, wealthy nations must maintain cheap access to third world natural resources and ], or otherwise cheap labor, by force if necessary. Though human rights abuses have existed since the beginning of recorded history, they argue, there are essential relationships inherent to the nature of capitalism that concentrate capital in the hands of the wealthy, generate poverty and create a situation where it is in the best interests of the rich to subjugate the poor, by violence if necessary. | |||
== See also == | |||
A common criticism that Marxists make about capitalism is that it is only democratic to the capitalist class, citing examples such as not being able to criticize one's boss out of risk of getting fired and not being able to express their opinions due to lack of funds to afford access to the media. Marxists also criticize capitalism for needing ] — the introduction and/or intensification of the capitalist economic system in developing countries (the so-called "export of capital") to survive. | |||
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* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* '']'' | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
{{colend}} | |||
== References == | |||
Another Marxist criticism is that the unplanned nature of capitalism inevitably overproduces commodities and overuses resources. This leads it to expand its markets into and drain the resources out of other, less-developed nations. The constant, capitalist drive to expand markets is frequently viewed as the primary cause of ]. | |||
; Notes | |||
{{reflist}} | |||
; Bibliography | |||
Supporters of capitalism emphasize that it was capitalist states that abolished ] throughout the world and that it was capitalist states who developed the modern ] system. Critics reply that the major imperialist powers accumulated huge amounts capital through slavery before it was abolished. Furthermore, they argue, slavery was only abolished after it became less expensive to pay wages in industries like mining and agriculture in the colonies. The strong economic growth during capitalism may encourage ], or vice versa. There is debate about whether ], in the sense of electoral rights and civil liberties, is a consequence of economic growth, a cause of it, or completely unrelated to it. These studies tend to indicate that establishing the rule of law in protecting private property and free markets, rather than mere democratization, is what is most instrumental in generating economic growth. | |||
{{refbegin|30em}} | |||
* {{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w_6PqBp64y0C&pg=PA2|title=Capitalism, Ethics and the Paradoxon of Self-Exploitation|last=Bacher|first=Christian|publisher=GRIN Verlag|year=2007|isbn=978-3-638-63658-2|location=Munich|page=2|access-date=27 June 2015|archive-date=1 November 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151101095357/https://books.google.com/books?id=w_6PqBp64y0C&lpg=PP1&pg=PA2|url-status=live}} | |||
* {{cite book | last = Boldizzoni | first = Francesco | author-link = Francesco Boldizzoni | title = Foretelling the End of Capitalism: Intellectual Misadventures since Karl Marx | publisher= Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press| year = 2020 | isbn = 978-0-674-91932-7}} | |||
* {{cite journal|last= Carsel|first= Wilfred|year= 1940|title= The Slaveholders' Indictment of Northern Wage Slavery|journal= ]|volume= 6|issue= 4|pages= 504–520|jstor= 2192167|doi= 10.2307/2192167}} | |||
* {{cite book|title= The Law of the Labour Market: Industrialization, Employment, and Legal Evolution|last2= Wilkinson|first2= Frank|publisher=Oxford University Press|year= 2005|isbn= 978-0-19-815281-1|location= Oxford|last1= Deakin|first1= Simon|author1-link= Simon Deakin|author2-link= Frank Wilkinson}} | |||
* {{cite book|title=Business Ethics|url=https://archive.org/details/businessethics00dege|url-access=registration|last=De George|first=Richard T.|publisher=Macmillan|year=1986|isbn=978-0-02-328010-8|location=New York|page=}} | |||
* {{cite book|title= Britain's Gulag: The Brutal End of Empire in Kenya|last= Elkins|first= Caroline|publisher= ]|year= 2005|isbn= 978-0-224-07363-9|location= London|author-link= Caroline Elkins}} | |||
* {{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=ECdb7EjiBnEC|title= Cannibals All! or, Slaves Without Masters|last= Fitzhugh|first= George|publisher= A. Morris|year= 1857|isbn= 978-1-4290-1643-8|location= Richmond, VA|author-link= George Fitzhugh|access-date= 27 June 2015|archive-date= 18 October 2015|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20151018025643/https://books.google.com/books?id=ECdb7EjiBnEC|url-status= live}} | |||
* {{cite book|title=Capitalism A Very Short Introduction|last=Fulcher|first=James|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2004|isbn=978-0-19-280218-7|location=Oxford|url=https://archive.org/details/capitalismverysh00fulc_0}} | |||
* {{cite book|title= Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology|last= Graeber|first= David|publisher= Prickly Paradigm Press|year= 2004|isbn= 978-0-9728196-4-0|title-link= Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology}} | |||
* {{cite book|title= Possibilities: Essays on Hierarchy, Rebellion and Desire|last= Graeber|first= David|publisher= AK Press|year= 2007|isbn= 978-1-904859-66-6}} | |||
* {{cite journal|last2= Benoit|first2= Cecilia|year= 2007|title= From Wage Slaves to Wage Workers: Cultural Opportunity Structures and the Evolution of the Wage Demands of the Knights of Labor and the American Federation of Labor, 1880–1900|journal= ]|volume= 85|issue= 3|pages= 1393–411|doi=10.1353/sof.2007.0037|jstor= 4494978|last1= Hallgrimsdottir|first1= Helga Kristin|s2cid= 154551793}} | |||
* {{cite book|url= https://www.academia.edu/4199690|title= Globalization and Economy, Vol. 1: Global Markets and Capitalism|last2= Gills|first2= Barry|publisher= SAGE Publications|year= 2007|location= London|last1= James|first1= Paul|author-link= Paul James (academic)|access-date= 17 May 2014|archive-date= 23 September 2020|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20200923063538/https://www.academia.edu/4199690/Globalization_and_Economy_Vol_1_Global_Markets_and_Capitalism_2007_|url-status= live}} | |||
* Krahn, Harvey J., and Graham S. Lowe (1993). ''Work, Industry, and Canadian Society''. 2nd ed. Scarborough, Ont.: Nelson Canada. xii, 430 p. {{ISBN|0-17-603540-0}} | |||
* {{cite book|title= The Penguin Dictionary of Sociology|last2=Urry|first2= John|publisher= Penguin Books|year= 2000|isbn= 978-0-14-051380-6|edition= 4th|location= London|pages= 36–40|chapter=Capitalism|last1= Lash|first1=Scott|author-link1=Scott Lash|author-link2=John Urry (sociologist)|editor1-first= Nicholas|editor1-last=Abercrombie|editor2-first=Stephen|editor2-last=Hill|editor3-first= Bryan S|editor3-last=Turner|editor3-link=Bryan S. Turner}} | |||
* {{cite journal|date= August 2011|title= The Current Crisis and the Essence of Capitalism|url= http://www.themontrealreview.com/2009/The-current-crisis-and-the-essence-of-capitalism.php|journal= The Montreal Review|issn= 0707-9656|last1= McCraw|first1= Thomas K.|author-link= Thomas K. McCraw|access-date= 14 August 2011|archive-date= 8 September 2011|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110908122337/http://www.themontrealreview.com/2009/The-current-crisis-and-the-essence-of-capitalism.php|url-status= live}} | |||
* {{cite journal|last= Nelson|first= John O.|year= 1995|title= That a Worker's Labour Cannot Be a Commodity|journal= ]|volume= 70|issue= 272|pages= 157–165|doi=10.1017/s0031819100065359|jstor= 3751199|s2cid= 171054136}} | |||
* {{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/unset0000unse_o9p3/page/1|title=Profit Theory and Capitalism|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |year=1983|isbn=978-0-8122-7863-7|location=Philadelphia|page=|author=Obrinsky, Mark}} | |||
* {{cite book|title= The Kaiser's Holocaust: Germany's Forgotten Genocide|last2= Erichsen|first2= Casper W.|publisher= ]|year= 2010|isbn= 978-0-571-23141-6|location= London|last1= Olusoga|first1= David}} | |||
* {{cite book|url= http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/wage-labour/|title= Wage Labour and Capital|last= Marx|first= Karl|year= 1847|author-link= Karl Marx|access-date= 25 March 2015|archive-date= 6 September 2019|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20190906075046/https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/wage-labour/|url-status= live}} | |||
* {{cite book|title= Capital, Volume I|last= Marx|first= Karl|publisher= Penguin Classics|year= 1990|isbn= 978-0-14-044568-8|location= London|orig-year= 1867|title-link= Capital, Volume I}} | |||
* {{cite book|title= The Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making of the American Working Class|last= Roediger|first= David|publisher= ]|year= 2007a|isbn= 978-1-84467-145-8|edition= revised and expanded|location= London & New York|author-link= David Roediger|orig-year= 1991}} | |||
* {{cite journal|last= Roediger|first= David|year= 2007b|title= An Outmoded Approach to Labour and Slavery|journal= ]|volume= 60|pages= 245–250|jstor= 25149808|author-link= David Roediger}} | |||
* {{cite journal|last= Steinfeld|first= Robert|year= 2009|title= Coercion/Consent in Labor|url= http://www.compas.ox.ac.uk/fileadmin/files/Publications/working_papers/WP_2009/WP0966%20Steinfeld.pdf|series= COMPAS Working Paper No. 66|location= Oxford|publisher= University of Oxford|access-date= 3 March 2013|url-status= dead|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20140301173031/http://www.compas.ox.ac.uk/fileadmin/files/Publications/working_papers/WP_2009/WP0966%20Steinfeld.pdf|archive-date= 1 March 2014}} | |||
* {{cite book|title=Europe and the People Without History|last=Wolf|first=Eric R.|publisher=University of California Press|year=1982|isbn=978-0-520-04459-3|location=Berkeley|author-link=Eric Wolf|title-link=Europe and the People Without History}} | |||
* {{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FZPyKjVguVoC|title=The Origin of Capitalism: A Longer View|last=Wood|first=Ellen Meiksins|publisher=Verso|year=2002|isbn=978-1-85984-392-5|location=London|author-link=Ellen Meiksins Wood|access-date=27 June 2015|archive-date=28 November 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151128060418/https://books.google.com/books?id=FZPyKjVguVoC|url-status=live}} | |||
* {{cite book|title= Peasant Revolution in Ethiopia: The Tigray People's Liberation Front, 1975–1991|last= Young|first= John|publisher= Cambridge University Press|year= 1997|isbn= 978-0-521-02606-2|location= Cambridge}} | |||
{{refend}} | |||
== Further reading == | |||
One of the very few studies simultaneously examining the relationship among economic freedom (see below), economic development (measured with GDP/capita), and political freedom (measured with the ] index) found that high economic freedom increases GDP/capita and a high GDP/capita increases economic freedom. A high GDP/capita also increases political freedom but political freedom did not increase GDP/capita. There was no direct relationship either way between economic freedom and political freedom if keeping GDP/capita constant. {{ref|note1}}It should be emphasized, however, that GDP/capita does little to indicate the amount of poverty in a nation if the ], which measures distribution of income, is not taken into account. Countries with the lowest Gini coefficients tend to be social democracies that do not operate on ] capitalist principles, like the ]. | |||
{{refbegin|colwidth=30em}} | |||
* ] (2011). ''America Beyond Capitalism: Reclaiming Our Wealth, Our Liberty, and Our Democracy, 2nd Edition.'' Democracy Collaborative Press. {{ISBN|0-9847857-0-1}}. | |||
* {{cite book|last1=Altvater |first1=Elmar |last2=Crist|first2=Eileen|last3=Haraway|first3=Donna|author3-link=Donna Haraway|last4=Hartley|first4=Daniel|last5=Parenti|first5=Christian|last6=McBrien|first6=Justin|last7=Moore|first7=Jason|title=Anthropocene or Capitalocene? Nature, History, and the Crisis of Capitalism|date=2016|publisher=PM Press|isbn=978-1-62963-148-6}} | |||
* Ascher, Ivan. ''Portfolio Society: On the Capitalist Mode of Prediction.'' Zone Books, 2016. {{ISBN|978-1935408741}} | |||
* ] ''The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism.'' New York, ], 2014. {{ISBN|0-465-00296-X}}. | |||
* {{cite book | first = Richard | last = Barbrook | year = 2006 | title = The Class of the New | edition = paperback | publisher = OpenMute | location = London | isbn = 978-0-9550664-7-4 | url = http://www.theclassofthenew.net | access-date = 11 June 2019 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180801045453/http://www.theclassofthenew.net/ | archive-date = 1 August 2018 | url-status = dead }} | |||
* {{cite book|last1= Block |first1= Fred |author1-link= Fred L. Block |last2= Somers |first2= Margaret R. |year= 2014|title= The Power of Market Fundamentalism: Karl Polyani's Critique|location= Cambridge, MA |publisher= Harvard University Press|isbn= 978-0-674-05071-6}} | |||
* {{cite book | last = Boldizzoni | first = Francesco | author-link = Francesco Boldizzoni | title = Foretelling the End of Capitalism: Intellectual Misadventures since Karl Marx | publisher= Harvard University Press| year = 2020 | isbn = 978-0-674-91932-7}} | |||
* ]. ''Civilization and Capitalism, 15th-18th Century'', 3 volumes. | |||
* Callinicos, Alex. "Wage Labour and State Capitalism – A reply to Peter Binns and Mike Haynes", ''International Socialism'', 2nd series, 12, Spring 1979. | |||
* {{cite book |last1=Case |first1=Anne |last2=Deaton |first2=Angus |author-link1=Anne Case |author-link2=Angus Deaton |date=2020 |title=Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism |url=https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691190785/deaths-of-despair-and-the-future-of-capitalism |publisher=] |isbn=978-0-691-19078-5 |access-date=6 March 2020 |archive-date=7 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200307062358/https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691190785/deaths-of-despair-and-the-future-of-capitalism |url-status=live }} | |||
* Farl, Erich. "The Genealogy of State Capitalism". In: ''International'' London, vol. 2, no. 1, 1973. | |||
* {{cite book |last=Fisher|first=Mark |author-link=Mark Fisher|date=2009 |title=]|location= |publisher= ]|isbn=978-1-84694-317-1}} | |||
* Gough, Ian. '' {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120207145856/http://www.newleftreview.org/?view=558 |date=7 February 2012 }}'' New Left Review. | |||
* ] '']'' (eng. translation by T. McCarthy). Boston, Beacon. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151120102451/https://books.google.com/books?id=3WFy6vsyLNEC |date=20 November 2015 }}; . | |||
* {{cite book | last = Harvey | first = David | author-link = David Harvey | title = Seventeen Contradictions and the End of Capitalism | publisher= Oxford University Press| year = 2014 | isbn = 978-0-19-936026-0}} | |||
* ] and ] (2014). ''American Capitalism: A Reader.'' Simon & Schuster. {{ISBN|978-1-4767-8431-1}}. | |||
* {{cite book |last1=Ingham |first1=Geoffrey |title=Capitalism: With a New Postscript on the Financial Crisis and Its Aftermath |date=2008 |publisher=] |location=Cambridge |isbn=9780745636481}} | |||
* {{cite book | year= 2007 | last1= James | first1= Paul | author-link= Paul James (academic) | last2= Patomäki | first2= Heikki | title= Globalization and Economy, Vol. 2: Global Finance and the New Global Economy | url= https://www.academia.edu/4211923 | publisher= SAGE Publications | location= London | access-date= 28 January 2018 | archive-date= 23 September 2020 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20200923063542/https://www.academia.edu/4211923/Globalization_and_Economy_Vol_2_Global_Finance_and_the_New_Global_Economy_2007_ | url-status= live }} | |||
* {{cite book | year= 2007 | last1= James | first1= Paul | author-link= Paul James (academic) | last2= Palen | first2= Ronen | title= Globalization and Economy, Vol. 3: Global Economic Regimes and Institutions | url= https://www.academia.edu/4251331 | publisher= Sage Publications | location= London | access-date= 28 January 2018 | archive-date= 23 September 2020 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20200923063542/https://www.academia.edu/4251331/Globalization_and_Economy_Vol_3_Global_Economic_Regimes_and_Institutions_2007_ | url-status= live }} | |||
* {{cite book | year= 2007 | last1= James | first1= Paul | author-link= Paul James (academic) | last2= O'Brien | first2= Robert | title= Globalization and Economy, Vol. 4: Globalizing Labour | url= https://www.academia.edu/4303461 | publisher= Sage Publications | location= London | access-date= 28 January 2018 | archive-date= 23 September 2020 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20200923063543/https://www.academia.edu/4303461/Globalization_and_Economy_Vol_4_Globalizing_Labour_2007_ | url-status= live }} | |||
* Jameson, Fredric (1991). '']''. | |||
* {{cite book |last1=Kocka |first1=Jürgen |title=Capitalism: A Short History |date=2016 |publisher=] |location=Princeton |isbn=978-0691165226}} | |||
* Kotler, Philip (2015). ''Confronting Capitalism: Real Solutions for a Troubled Economic System.'' AMACOM. {{ISBN|978-0814436455}} | |||
* Mandel, Ernest (1999). ''Late Capitalism.'' {{ISBN|978-1859842027}} | |||
* {{cite book | last = Mander | first = Jerry | author-link = Jerry Mander | title = The Capitalism Papers: Fatal Flaws of an Obsolete System | publisher= Counterpoint | year = 2012 | isbn = 978-1-61902-158-7}} | |||
* Marcel van der Linden, ''Western Marxism and the Soviet Union''. New York, Brill Publishers, 2007. | |||
* Mayfield, Anthony. "Economics", in his ''On the Brink: Resource Depletion, Debt Collapse, and Super-technology'' (: On the Brink Publishing, 2013), pp. 50–104. | |||
* {{cite book|last1= Musacchio |first1= Aldo |last2= Lazzarini |first2= Sergio G. |year= 2014|title= Reinventing State Capitalism: Leviathan in Business, Brazil and Beyond|location= Cambridge, MA |publisher= Harvard University Press|isbn= 978-0-674-72968-1}} | |||
* {{cite book|last=Newitz|first=Annalee|title=Pretend We're Dead: Capitalist Monsters in American Pop Culture|date=2006|publisher=Duke University Press|location=Durham, NC|isbn=978-0-8223-3745-4|url=https://www.dukeupress.edu/Pretend-Were-Dead/|access-date=26 October 2016|archive-date=26 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161026234517/https://www.dukeupress.edu/Pretend-Were-Dead/|url-status=live}} | |||
* {{cite book |last1=Nitzan|first1=Jonathan |author-link1=Jonathan Nitzan|last2=Bichler|first2=Shimshon |author-link2=Shimshon Bichler|date=2009 |title=Capital as Power: A Study of Order and Creorder|url= |location= |publisher=]|page= |isbn=978-0-415-49680-3}} | |||
* Panitch, Leo, and Sam Gindin (2012). ''The Making of Global Capitalism: the Political Economy of American Empire''. London, Verso. {{ISBN|978-1-84467-742-9}}. | |||
* {{cite book|last= Piketty |first= Thomas |author-link= Thomas Piketty |year= 2014|title= Capital in the Twenty-First Century|location= Cambridge, MA |publisher= ]|isbn= 978-0-674-43000-6 |title-link= Capital in the Twenty-First Century}} | |||
* {{cite book|last= Piketty |first= Thomas |year= 2020|title=Capital and Ideology|location= Cambridge, MA |publisher= Belknap Press|isbn=978-0-674-98082-2|title-link= Capital and Ideology }} | |||
* ] (2001). '']: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time.'' ]; 2nd ed. {{ISBN|0-8070-5643-X}} | |||
* {{cite book|title= Capitalism: A complete understanding of the nature and value of human economic life|last=Reisman|first= George|year= 1998|isbn= 978-0-915463-73-2 | |||
|publisher =Jameson Books}} | |||
* ] (2009). ''Money, Greed, and God: Why Capitalism is the Solution and Not the Problem''. New York: ]. {{ISBN|978-0-06-137561-3}} | |||
* ] (2013). ''The Failure of Laissez-faire Capitalism: towards a New Economics for a Full World''. Atlanta, Ga.: Clarity Press. {{ISBN|978-0-9860362-5-5}} | |||
* ] ''Global Capitalism and the Crisis of Humanity.'' Cambridge University Press, 2014. {{ISBN|1-107-69111-7}} | |||
* {{cite book |last=Schram |first=Sanford F. |title=The Return of Ordinary Capitalism: Neoliberalism, Precarity, Occupy |year=2015 |publisher=Oxford University Press |url=https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-return-of-ordinary-capitalism-9780190253011?cc=us& |isbn=978-0-19-025302-8 |access-date=12 February 2017 |archive-date=23 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200923063546/https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-return-of-ordinary-capitalism-9780190253011?cc=us&lang=en& |url-status=live }} | |||
* Hoevet, Ocean. (New Palgrave article) | |||
* ] (1916) ''Der moderne Kapitalismus. Historisch-systematische Darstellung des gesamteuropäischen Wirtschaftslebens von seinen Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart.'' Final edn. 1916, repr. 1969, paperback edn. (3 vols. in 6): 1987 Munich: dtv. (Also in Spanish; no English translation yet.) | |||
* {{cite book |last1=Sonenscher |first1=Michael |title=Capitalism: The Story behind the Word |date=2022 |publisher=] |location=Princeton |isbn=9780691237206}} | |||
* ], "Better, Faster, Stronger" (review of ], ''The Philosopher of Palo Alto: Mark Weisner, Xerox PARC, and the Original Internet of Things'', University of Chicago Press, 347 pp.; and ], ''Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World'', Little, Brown, 708 pp.), '']'', vol. LXX, no. 14 (21 September 2023), pp. 38–40. " a place where the contradictions are sharpened to their finest points, above all the defining and enduring contradictions between ] and antidemocratic practice. There is nothing as American as celebrating ] while subverting it. Or as ]n." (p. 40.) | |||
* {{cite book | last = Wallerstein| first = Immanuel | author-link = Immanuel Wallerstein | title = Historical Capitalism | publisher= ] | year = 1983 | isbn = 978-0-86091-761-8}} | |||
* {{cite book | last = Wolff | first = Richard D. | author-link = Richard D. Wolff | title = Democracy at Work: A Cure for Capitalism | publisher= ] | year = 2012 | isbn = 978-1-60846-247-6}} | |||
* {{cite book | last = Wood | first = Ellen Meiksins | author-link = Ellen Meiksins Wood | title = The Origin of Capitalism: A Longer View | publisher= ] | year = 2002 | isbn = 978-1-85984-392-5}} | |||
{{refend}} | |||
== External links == | |||
Latin American intellectuals like ] argue that capitalist practices do more to damage democracy in peripheral countries than encourage it. He points to democratically elected leaders like ], ], and ] who were forced out of office by U.S. and European capitalist interests and replaced with military dictators during the 1960s and 1970s. Other people site the current example of the Bush administration's attempt to destabalize the democratically elected leader of Venezuela, ], after he refused to privatize petroleum, to support the argument that democracy is only allowed in poor countries if it serves international capitalist interests. | |||
{{Commons category|Capitalism}} | |||
{{EB1922 Poster}} | |||
{{Wikiquote}} | |||
{{Wiktionary}} | |||
* {{In Our Time|Capitalism|p00545kv|Capitalism}} | |||
* at '']'' Online. | |||
* {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180123134446/http://www.hup.harvard.edu/features/capitalism-and-its-discontents.html |date=23 January 2018 }}. ]. | |||
{{library resources box|by=no|onlinebooks=no|others=no|about=yes|label=Capitalism}} | |||
{{Aspects of capitalism}} | |||
==Other approaches== | |||
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===Capitalism in political ideologies=== | |||
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''Main article: ]'' | |||
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===Indices of economic freedom=== | |||
] | |||
There are two ] used in economic research, one published by the ] (a ] thinktank) and the ], another published by the ]. Both attempt to measure of the degree of economic freedom in countries, mostly in regard to lack of governmental intervention and private property rights. They use statistics from independent organizations like the ] to score countries in various categories like the size of government, degree of taxes, security of property rights, degree of free trade and size of market regulations. Many peer-reviewed papers have been published using this material on the relationship between capitalism and for example poverty . The more advanced capitalist countries have much higher average income per person, higher income of the poorest 10%, higher life-expectancy, higher literacy, lower infant mortality, higher access to water sources and less corruption. The share of income in percent going to the poorest 10% is the same for both more and less capitalistic countries. . Other studies have shown similar results . | |||
] | |||
] | |||
Attempts to decide the importance of the subcomponents of the indices have often yielded contradictory results. However, strong property rights may be particularly important. The economist ] has argued that weak property rights, especially for the poor, play a major role in poverty and underdevelopment in developing countries . Many developing countries are now trying to strengthen and simplify their property rights system after the successful application of his ideas in Peru . Others have emphasized the importance of a functioning ] system, especially ]. | |||
] | |||
] | |||
==Notes== | |||
] | |||
{{note|note1}} {{Journal reference issue | Author=Ken Farr, Richard A. Lord, and J. Larry Wolfenbarger | Title= | Journal=Cato Journal | Volume=18 | Issue=2 | Year=1998 | Pages=247-262}} | |||
] | |||
==See also== | |||
{{wikiquote}} | |||
* Related topics: ], ], ], ], ], ] | |||
* Related words: ], ] ], ], ], ], ] | |||
* Related ideologies: ], ] (], ], ], ]), ] (]), ], ], ] (], ], ], ]), ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ] | |||
* disambiguation: ] | |||
==External links== | |||
* The Adam Smith Institute is the UK's leading innovator of free-market policies. | |||
* | |||
* Capitalism.org is the website for the moral social system: laissez-faire capitalism. Features a FAQ, visual tour and daily magazine. | |||
* The Copenhagen Institute is Denmark's leading free-market public policy think tank. | |||
* “On the Principles and Possibilities of Capitalism” (from the “Celebrate Capitalism” organization) | |||
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* - Discussion of Austrian and other economic schools | |||
* - Karl Marx on the basic features of capitalism. | |||
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* Article from the ] says the U.S. is a ] | |||
* an MP3 of a speech giving a Marxist perspective on the structure of capitalism | |||
* ] defends "free market capitalism" in speech to the ] (2005) | |||
* by Robert Hessen - says "capitalism" is a misnomer for "economic individualism" | |||
==Further Reading== | |||
* ]. ''Civilization and Capitalism : 15th - 18th Century'' 3 vols. | |||
* ] ''The Visible Hand: The Managerial Revolution in American Business''. Cambridge, Mass., and London: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1977. | |||
* ]. ''The New Industrial State'', 4th ed., 1985. | |||
* ]. "The Political-Economic Transformation of Late Twentieth Century Capitalism." In Harvey, David. ''The Condition of Postmodernity''. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 1990. ISBN 0631162941 | |||
* ] ''The Nature and Logic of Capitalism'', 1985. | |||
* ] ''The Unbound Prometheus: Technological Change and Industrial Development in Western Europe from 1750 to the Present''. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1969. | |||
* ]. ''Capital: A Critical Analysis of Capitalist Production'', 3 vol., 1886–1909; first published in German as ''Das Kapital: Kritik der politischen Oekonomie'', 1867–1894. | |||
* ], "The Mind and the Market - Capitalism in Modern European Thought". New York: Alfred A. Knopf (Random House), 2002 | |||
* ]. ''Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal'' ISBN 0451147952 | |||
* ] ''The Stages of Economic Growth: A Non-Communist Manifesto''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1960. | |||
* ]. ''Man, Economy, and State: A Treatise on Economic Principles'', (2 volumes.) ]. | |||
* ]. ''An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations'', 1776. | |||
* ]. ''An Babylon and Beyond: The Economics of Anti-capitalist, Anti-globalist and Radical Green Movements. London: Pluto. ISBN: 0745323901 | |||
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Latest revision as of 21:26, 24 December 2024
Economic system based on private ownership This article is about an economic system. For other uses, see Capitalism (disambiguation). "Capitalist" redirects here. For other uses, see Capitalist (disambiguation).
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Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. The defining characteristics of capitalism include private property, capital accumulation, competitive markets, price systems, recognition of property rights, self-interest, economic freedom, meritocracy, work ethic, consumer sovereignty, economic efficiency, decentralized decision-making, profit motive, a financial infrastructure of money and investment that makes possible credit and debt, entrepreneurship, commodification, voluntary exchange, wage labor, production of commodities and services, and a strong emphasis on innovation and economic growth. In a market economy, decision-making and investments are determined by owners of wealth, property, or ability to maneuver capital or production ability in capital and financial markets—whereas prices and the distribution of goods and services are mainly determined by competition in goods and services markets.
Economists, historians, political economists, and sociologists have adopted different perspectives in their analyses of capitalism and have recognized various forms of it in practice. These include laissez-faire or free-market capitalism, anarcho-capitalism, state capitalism, and welfare capitalism. Different forms of capitalism feature varying degrees of free markets, public ownership, obstacles to free competition, and state-sanctioned social policies. The degree of competition in markets and the role of intervention and regulation, as well as the scope of state ownership, vary across different models of capitalism. The extent to which different markets are free and the rules defining private property are matters of politics and policy. Most of the existing capitalist economies are mixed economies that combine elements of free markets with state intervention and in some cases economic planning.
Capitalism in its modern form emerged from agrarianism in England, as well as mercantilist practices by European countries between the 16th and 18th centuries. The Industrial Revolution of the 18th century established capitalism as a dominant mode of production, characterized by factory work and a complex division of labor. Through the process of globalization, capitalism spread across the world in the 19th and 20th centuries, especially before World War I and after the end of the Cold War. During the 19th century, capitalism was largely unregulated by the state, but became more regulated in the post–World War II period through Keynesianism, followed by a return of more unregulated capitalism starting in the 1980s through neoliberalism.
The existence of market economies has been observed under many forms of government and across a vast array of historical periods, geographical locations, and cultural contexts. The modern industrial capitalist societies that exist today developed in Western Europe as a result of the Industrial Revolution. The accumulation of capital is the primary mechanism through which capitalist economies promote economic growth. However, it is a characteristic of such economies that they experience a business cycle of economic growth followed by recessions.
Etymology
The term "capitalist", meaning an owner of capital, appears earlier than the term "capitalism" and dates to the mid-17th century. "Capitalism" is derived from capital, which evolved from capitale, a late Latin word based on caput, meaning "head"—which is also the origin of "chattel" and "cattle" in the sense of movable property (only much later to refer only to livestock). Capitale emerged in the 12th to 13th centuries to refer to funds, stock of merchandise, sum of money or money carrying interest. By 1283, it was used in the sense of the capital assets of a trading firm and was often interchanged with other words—wealth, money, funds, goods, assets, property and so on.
The Hollantse (German: holländische) Mercurius uses "capitalists" in 1633 and 1654 to refer to owners of capital. In French, Étienne Clavier referred to capitalistes in 1788, four years before its first recorded English usage by Arthur Young in his work Travels in France (1792). In his Principles of Political Economy and Taxation (1817), David Ricardo referred to "the capitalist" many times. English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge used "capitalist" in his work Table Talk (1823). Pierre-Joseph Proudhon used the term in his first work, What is Property? (1840), to refer to the owners of capital. Benjamin Disraeli used the term in his 1845 work Sybil. Alexander Hamilton used "capitalist" in his Report of Manufactures presented to the United States Congress in 1791.
The initial use of the term "capitalism" in its modern sense is attributed to Louis Blanc in 1850 ("What I call 'capitalism' that is to say the appropriation of capital by some to the exclusion of others") and Pierre-Joseph Proudhon in 1861 ("Economic and social regime in which capital, the source of income, does not generally belong to those who make it work through their labor"). Karl Marx frequently referred to the "capital" and to the "capitalist mode of production" in Das Kapital (1867). Marx did not use the form capitalism but instead used capital, capitalist and capitalist mode of production, which appear frequently. Due to the word being coined by socialist critics of capitalism, economist and historian Robert Hessen stated that the term "capitalism" itself is a term of disparagement and a misnomer for economic individualism. Bernard Harcourt agrees with the statement that the term is a misnomer, adding that it misleadingly suggests that there is such a thing as "capital" that inherently functions in certain ways and is governed by stable economic laws of its own.
In the English language, the term "capitalism" first appears, according to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), in 1854, in the novel The Newcomes by novelist William Makepeace Thackeray, where the word meant "having ownership of capital". Also according to the OED, Carl Adolph Douai, a German American socialist and abolitionist, used the term "private capitalism" in 1863.
Other terms sometimes used for capitalism are:
- Capitalist mode of production
- Economic liberalism
- Free enterprise
- Free enterprise economy
- Free market
- Free market economy
- Laissez-faire
- Market economy
- Profits system
- Self-regulating market
Definition
There is no universally agreed upon definition of capitalism; it is unclear whether or not capitalism characterizes an entire society, a specific type of social order, or crucial components or elements of a society. Societies officially founded in opposition to capitalism (such as the Soviet Union) have sometimes been argued to actually exhibit characteristics of capitalism. Nancy Fraser describes usage of the term "capitalism" by many authors as "mainly rhetorical, functioning less as an actual concept than as a gesture toward the need for a concept". Scholars who are uncritical of capitalism rarely actually use the term "capitalism". Some doubt that the term "capitalism" possesses valid scientific dignity, and it is generally not discussed in mainstream economics, with economist Daron Acemoglu suggesting that the term "capitalism" should be abandoned entirely. Consequently, understanding of the concept of capitalism tends to be heavily influenced by opponents of capitalism and by the followers and critics of Karl Marx.
History
Main article: History of capitalismCapitalism, in its modern form, can be traced to the emergence of agrarian capitalism and mercantilism in the early Renaissance, in city-states like Florence. Capital has existed incipiently on a small scale for centuries in the form of merchant, renting and lending activities and occasionally as small-scale industry with some wage labor. Simple commodity exchange and consequently simple commodity production, which is the initial basis for the growth of capital from trade, have a very long history. During the Islamic Golden Age, Arabs promulgated capitalist economic policies such as free trade and banking. Their use of Indo-Arabic numerals facilitated bookkeeping. These innovations migrated to Europe through trade partners in cities such as Venice and Pisa. Italian mathematicians traveled the Mediterranean talking to Arab traders and returned to popularize the use of Indo-Arabic numerals in Europe.
Agrarianism
The economic foundations of the feudal agricultural system began to shift substantially in 16th-century England as the manorial system had broken down and land began to become concentrated in the hands of fewer landlords with increasingly large estates. Instead of a serf-based system of labor, workers were increasingly employed as part of a broader and expanding money-based economy. The system put pressure on both landlords and tenants to increase the productivity of agriculture to make profit; the weakened coercive power of the aristocracy to extract peasant surpluses encouraged them to try better methods, and the tenants also had incentive to improve their methods in order to flourish in a competitive labor market. Terms of rent for land were becoming subject to economic market forces rather than to the previous stagnant system of custom and feudal obligation.
Mercantilism
Main article: MercantilismThe economic doctrine prevailing from the 16th to the 18th centuries is commonly called mercantilism. This period, the Age of Discovery, was associated with the geographic exploration of foreign lands by merchant traders, especially from England and the Low Countries. Mercantilism was a system of trade for profit, although commodities were still largely produced by non-capitalist methods. Most scholars consider the era of merchant capitalism and mercantilism as the origin of modern capitalism, although Karl Polanyi argued that the hallmark of capitalism is the establishment of generalized markets for what he called the "fictitious commodities", i.e. land, labor and money. Accordingly, he argued that "not until 1834 was a competitive labor market established in England, hence industrial capitalism as a social system cannot be said to have existed before that date".
England began a large-scale and integrative approach to mercantilism during the Elizabethan Era (1558–1603). A systematic and coherent explanation of balance of trade was made public through Thomas Mun's argument England's Treasure by Forraign Trade, or the Balance of our Forraign Trade is The Rule of Our Treasure. It was written in the 1620s and published in 1664.
European merchants, backed by state controls, subsidies and monopolies, made most of their profits by buying and selling goods. In the words of Francis Bacon, the purpose of mercantilism was "the opening and well-balancing of trade; the cherishing of manufacturers; the banishing of idleness; the repressing of waste and excess by sumptuary laws; the improvement and husbanding of the soil; the regulation of prices...".
After the period of the proto-industrialization, the British East India Company and the Dutch East India Company, after massive contributions from the Mughal Bengal, inaugurated an expansive era of commerce and trade. These companies were characterized by their colonial and expansionary powers given to them by nation-states. During this era, merchants, who had traded under the previous stage of mercantilism, invested capital in the East India Companies and other colonies, seeking a return on investment.
Industrial Revolution
Main article: Industrial RevolutionIn the mid-18th century a group of economic theorists, led by David Hume (1711–1776) and Adam Smith (1723–1790), challenged fundamental mercantilist doctrines—such as the belief that the world's wealth remained constant and that a state could only increase its wealth at the expense of another state.
During the Industrial Revolution, industrialists replaced merchants as a dominant factor in the capitalist system and effected the decline of the traditional handicraft skills of artisans, guilds and journeymen. Industrial capitalism marked the development of the factory system of manufacturing, characterized by a complex division of labor between and within work process and the routine of work tasks; and eventually established the domination of the capitalist mode of production.
Industrial Britain eventually abandoned the protectionist policy formerly prescribed by mercantilism. In the 19th century, Richard Cobden (1804–1865) and John Bright (1811–1889), who based their beliefs on the Manchester School, initiated a movement to lower tariffs. In the 1840s Britain adopted a less protectionist policy, with the 1846 repeal of the Corn Laws and the 1849 repeal of the Navigation Acts. Britain reduced tariffs and quotas, in line with David Ricardo's advocacy of free trade.
Modernity
Broader processes of globalization carried capitalism across the world. By the beginning of the nineteenth century, a series of loosely connected market systems had come together as a relatively integrated global system, in turn intensifying processes of economic and other globalization. Late in the 20th century, capitalism overcame a challenge by centrally-planned economies and is now the encompassing system worldwide, with the mixed economy as its dominant form in the industrialized Western world.
Industrialization allowed cheap production of household items using economies of scale, while rapid population growth created sustained demand for commodities. The imperialism of the 18th-century decisively shaped globalization.
After the First and Second Opium Wars (1839–60) by Britain and France and the completion of the British conquest of India by 1858 and the French conquest of Africa, Polynesia and Indochina by 1887, vast populations of Asia became consumers of European exports. Europeans colonized areas of Africa and the Pacific islands. Colonisation by Europeans, notably of Africa by the British and French, yielded valuable natural resources such as rubber, diamonds and coal and helped fuel trade and investment between the European imperial powers, their colonies and the United States:
The inhabitant of London could order by telephone, sipping his morning tea, the various products of the whole earth, and reasonably expect their early delivery upon his doorstep. Militarism and imperialism of racial and cultural rivalries were little more than the amusements of his daily newspaper. What an extraordinary episode in the economic progress of man was that age which came to an end in August 1914.
From the 1870s to the early 1920s, the global financial system was mainly tied to the gold standard. The United Kingdom first formally adopted this standard in 1821. Soon to follow were Canada in 1853, Newfoundland in 1865, the United States and Germany (de jure) in 1873. New technologies, such as the telegraph, the transatlantic cable, the radiotelephone, the steamship and railways allowed goods and information to move around the world to an unprecedented degree.
In the United States, the term "capitalist" primarily referred to powerful businessmen until the 1920s due to widespread societal skepticism and criticism of capitalism and its most ardent supporters.
Contemporary capitalist societies developed in the West from 1950 to the present and this type of system continues throughout the world—relevant examples started in the United States after the 1950s, France after the 1960s, Spain after the 1970s, Poland after 2015, and others. At this stage most capitalist markets are considered developed and characterized by developed private and public markets for equity and debt, a high standard of living (as characterized by the World Bank and the IMF), large institutional investors and a well-funded banking system. A significant managerial class has emerged and decides on a significant proportion of investments and other decisions. A different future than that envisioned by Marx has started to emerge—explored and described by Anthony Crosland in the United Kingdom in his 1956 book The Future of Socialism and by John Kenneth Galbraith in North America in his 1958 book The Affluent Society, 90 years after Marx's research on the state of capitalism in 1867.
The postwar boom ended in the late 1960s and early 1970s and the economic situation grew worse with the rise of stagflation. Monetarism, a modification of Keynesianism that is more compatible with laissez-faire analyses, gained increasing prominence in the capitalist world, especially under the years in office of Ronald Reagan in the United States (1981–1989) and of Margaret Thatcher in the United Kingdom (1979–1990). Public and political interest began shifting away from the so-called collectivist concerns of Keynes's managed capitalism to a focus on individual choice, called "remarketized capitalism".
The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union allowed for capitalism to become a truly global system in a way not seen since before World War I. The development of the neoliberal global economy would have been impossible without the fall of communism.
Harvard Kennedy School economist Dani Rodrik distinguishes between three historical variants of capitalism:
- Capitalism 1.0 during the 19th century entailed largely unregulated markets with a minimal role for the state (aside from national defense, and protecting property rights);
- Capitalism 2.0 during the post-World War II years entailed Keynesianism, a substantial role for the state in regulating markets, and strong welfare states;
- Capitalism 2.1 entailed a combination of unregulated markets, globalization, and various national obligations by states.
Relationship to democracy
The relationship between democracy and capitalism is a contentious area in theory and in popular political movements. The extension of adult-male suffrage in 19th-century Britain occurred along with the development of industrial capitalism and representative democracy became widespread at the same time as capitalism, leading capitalists to posit a causal or mutual relationship between them. However, according to some authors in the 20th-century, capitalism also accompanied a variety of political formations quite distinct from liberal democracies, including fascist regimes, absolute monarchies and single-party states. Democratic peace theory asserts that democracies seldom fight other democracies, but others suggest this may be because of political similarity or stability, rather than because they are "democratic" or "capitalist". Critics argue that though economic growth under capitalism has led to democracy, it may not do so in the future as authoritarian régimes have been able to manage economic growth using some of capitalism's competitive principles without making concessions to greater political freedom.
Political scientists Torben Iversen and David Soskice see democracy and capitalism as mutually supportive. Robert Dahl argued in On Democracy that capitalism was beneficial for democracy because economic growth and a large middle class were good for democracy. He also argued that a market economy provided a substitute for government control of the economy, which reduces the risks of tyranny and authoritarianism.
In his book The Road to Serfdom (1944), Friedrich Hayek (1899–1992) asserted that the free-market understanding of economic freedom as present in capitalism is a requisite of political freedom. He argued that the market mechanism is the only way of deciding what to produce and how to distribute the items without using coercion. Milton Friedman and Ronald Reagan also promoted this view. Friedman claimed that centralized economic operations are always accompanied by political repression. In his view, transactions in a market economy are voluntary and the wide diversity that voluntary activity permits is a fundamental threat to repressive political leaders and greatly diminishes their power to coerce. Some of Friedman's views were shared by John Maynard Keynes, who believed that capitalism was vital for freedom to survive and thrive. Freedom House, an American think-tank that conducts international research on, and advocates for, democracy, political freedom and human rights, has argued that "there is a high and statistically significant correlation between the level of political freedom as measured by Freedom House and economic freedom as measured by the Wall Street Journal/Heritage Foundation survey".
In Capital in the Twenty-First Century (2013), Thomas Piketty of the Paris School of Economics asserted that inequality is the inevitable consequence of economic growth in a capitalist economy and the resulting concentration of wealth can destabilize democratic societies and undermine the ideals of social justice upon which they are built.
States with capitalistic economic systems have thrived under political regimes deemed to be authoritarian or oppressive. Singapore has a successful open market economy as a result of its competitive, business-friendly climate and robust rule of law. Nonetheless, it often comes under fire for its style of government which, though democratic and consistently one of the least corrupt, operates largely under a one-party rule. Furthermore, it does not vigorously defend freedom of expression as evidenced by its government-regulated press, and its penchant for upholding laws protecting ethnic and religious harmony, judicial dignity and personal reputation. The private (capitalist) sector in the People's Republic of China has grown exponentially and thrived since its inception, despite having an authoritarian government. Augusto Pinochet's rule in Chile led to economic growth and high levels of inequality by using authoritarian means to create a safe environment for investment and capitalism. Similarly, Suharto's authoritarian reign and extirpation of the Communist Party of Indonesia allowed for the expansion of capitalism in Indonesia.
The term "capitalism" in its modern sense is often attributed to Karl Marx. In his Das Kapital, Marx analyzed the "capitalist mode of production" using a method of understanding today known as Marxism. However, Marx himself rarely used the term "capitalism" while it was used twice in the more political interpretations of his work, primarily authored by his collaborator Friedrich Engels. In the 20th century, defenders of the capitalist system often replaced the term "capitalism" with phrases such as free enterprise and private enterprise and replaced "capitalist" with rentier and investor in reaction to the negative connotations associated with capitalism.
Characteristics
Further information: Academic perspectives on capitalismIn general, capitalism as an economic system and mode of production can be summarized by the following:
- Capital accumulation: production for profit and accumulation as the implicit purpose of all or most of production, constriction or elimination of production formerly carried out on a common social or private household basis.
- Commodity production: production for exchange on a market; to maximize exchange-value instead of use-value.
- Exchange of goods or services, can be enabled by contracts. Exchange of services can be in form of wage labor.
- Private ownership of the means of production:
- The investment of money to make a profit.
- The use of the price mechanism to allocate resources between competing uses.
- Economically efficient use of the factors of production and raw materials due to maximization of value added in the production process.
- Freedom of capitalists to act in their self-interest in managing their business and investments.
- Capital suppliance by "the single owner of a firm, or by shareholders in the case of a joint-stock company."
Market
In free market and laissez-faire forms of capitalism, markets are used most extensively with minimal or no regulation over the pricing mechanism. In mixed economies, which are almost universal today, markets continue to play a dominant role, but they are regulated to some extent by the state in order to correct market failures, promote social welfare, conserve natural resources, fund defense and public safety or other rationale. In state capitalist systems, markets are relied upon the least, with the state relying heavily on state-owned enterprises or indirect economic planning to accumulate capital.
Competition arises when more than one producer is trying to sell the same or similar products to the same buyers. Adherents of the capitalist theory believe that competition leads to innovation and more affordable prices. Monopolies or cartels can develop, especially if there is no competition. A monopoly occurs when a firm has exclusivity over a market. Hence, the firm can engage in rent seeking behaviors such as limiting output and raising prices because it has no fear of competition.
Governments have implemented legislation for the purpose of preventing the creation of monopolies and cartels. In 1890, the Sherman Antitrust Act became the first legislation passed by the United States Congress to limit monopolies.
Wage labor
Main article: Wage laborWage labor, usually referred to as paid work, paid employment, or paid labor, refers to the socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer in which the worker sells their labor power under a formal or informal employment contract. These transactions usually occur in a labor market where wages or salaries are market-determined.
In exchange for the money paid as wages (usual for short-term work-contracts) or salaries (in permanent employment contracts), the work product generally becomes the undifferentiated property of the employer. A wage laborer is a person whose primary means of income is from the selling of their labor in this way.
Profit motive
Main article: Profit motiveThe profit motive, in the theory of capitalism, is the desire to earn income in the form of profit. Stated differently, the reason for a business's existence is to turn a profit. The profit motive functions according to rational choice theory, or the theory that individuals tend to pursue what is in their own best interests. Accordingly, businesses seek to benefit themselves and/or their shareholders by maximizing profit.
In capitalist theoretics, the profit motive is said to ensure that resources are being allocated efficiently. For instance, Austrian economist Henry Hazlitt explains: "If there is no profit in making an article, it is a sign that the labor and capital devoted to its production are misdirected: the value of the resources that must be used up in making the article is greater than the value of the article itself".
Socialist theorists note that, unlike mercantilists, capitalists accumulate their profits while expecting their profit rates to remain the same. This causes problems as earnings in the rest of society do not increase in the same proportion.
Private property
Main article: Private propertyThe relationship between the state, its formal mechanisms, and capitalist societies has been debated in many fields of social and political theory, with active discussion since the 19th century. Hernando de Soto is a contemporary Peruvian economist who has argued that an important characteristic of capitalism is the functioning state protection of property rights in a formal property system where ownership and transactions are clearly recorded.
According to de Soto, this is the process by which physical assets are transformed into capital, which in turn may be used in many more ways and much more efficiently in the market economy. A number of Marxian economists have argued that the inclosure acts in England and similar legislation elsewhere were an integral part of capitalist primitive accumulation and that specific legal frameworks of private land ownership have been integral to the development of capitalism.
Private property rights are not absolute, as in many countries the state has the power to seize private property, typically for public use, under the powers of eminent domain.
Market competition
Main article: Competition (economics)In capitalist economics, market competition is the rivalry among sellers trying to achieve such goals as increasing profits, market share and sales volume by varying the elements of the marketing mix: price, product, distribution and promotion. Merriam-Webster defines competition in business as "the effort of two or more parties acting independently to secure the business of a third party by offering the most favourable terms". It was described by Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations (1776) and later economists as allocating productive resources to their most highly valued uses and encouraging efficiency. Smith and other classical economists before Antoine Augustine Cournot were referring to price and non-price rivalry among producers to sell their goods on best terms by bidding of buyers, not necessarily to a large number of sellers nor to a market in final equilibrium. Competition is widespread throughout the market process. It is a condition where "buyers tend to compete with other buyers, and sellers tend to compete with other sellers". In offering goods for exchange, buyers competitively bid to purchase specific quantities of specific goods which are available, or might be available if sellers were to choose to offer such goods. Similarly, sellers bid against other sellers in offering goods on the market, competing for the attention and exchange resources of buyers. Competition results from scarcity, as it is not possible to satisfy all conceivable human wants, and occurs as people try to meet the criteria being used to determine allocation.
In the works of Adam Smith, the idea of capitalism is made possible through competition which creates growth. Although capitalism had not entered mainstream economics at the time of Smith, it is vital to the construction of his ideal society. One of the foundational blocks of capitalism is competition. Smith believed that a prosperous society is one where "everyone should be free to enter and leave the market and change trades as often as he pleases." He believed that the freedom to act in one's self-interest is essential for the success of a capitalist society. In response to the idea that if all participants focus on their own goals, society's well-being will be water under the bridge, Smith maintains that despite the concerns of intellectuals, "global trends will hardly be altered if they refrain from pursuing their personal ends." He insisted that the actions of a few participants cannot alter the course of society. Instead, Smith maintained that they should focus on personal progress instead and that this will result in overall growth to the whole.
Competition between participants, "who are all endeavoring to justle one another out of employment, obliges every man to endeavor to execute his work" through competition towards growth.
Economic growth
Further information: Economic growthThis section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (January 2021) |
Economic growth is a characteristic tendency of capitalist economies. However, capitalist economies may experience fluctuations in growth that cannot be accounted for by demographic or technological changes. These fluctuations, which involve sustained periods of economic growth and recession, are referred to as business cycles in macroeconomics. Economic growth is measured as growth in investment, economic output, and economic consumption per capita. Changes in hours of employment on their own are not considered as a factor of economic growth.
As a mode of production
Further information: Mode of productionThe capitalist mode of production refers to the systems of organising production and distribution within capitalist societies. Private money-making in various forms (renting, banking, merchant trade, production for profit and so on) preceded the development of the capitalist mode of production as such.
The term capitalist mode of production is defined by private ownership of the means of production, extraction of surplus value by the owning class for the purpose of capital accumulation, wage-based labor and, at least as far as commodities are concerned, being market-based.
Capitalism in the form of money-making activity has existed in the shape of merchants and money-lenders who acted as intermediaries between consumers and producers engaging in simple commodity production (hence the reference to "merchant capitalism") since the beginnings of civilisation. What is specific about the "capitalist mode of production" is that most of the inputs and outputs of production are supplied through the market (i.e. they are commodities) and essentially all production is in this mode. By contrast, in flourishing feudalism most or all of the factors of production, including labor, are owned by the feudal ruling class outright and the products may also be consumed without a market of any kind, it is production for use within the feudal social unit and for limited trade. This has the important consequence that, under capitalism, the whole organisation of the production process is reshaped and re-organised to conform with economic rationality as bounded by capitalism, which is expressed in price relationships between inputs and outputs (wages, non-labor factor costs, sales and profits) rather than the larger rational context faced by society overall—that is, the whole process is organised and re-shaped in order to conform to "commercial logic". Essentially, capital accumulation comes to define economic rationality in capitalist production.
A society, region or nation is capitalist if the predominant source of incomes and products being distributed is capitalist activity, but even so this does not yet mean necessarily that the capitalist mode of production is dominant in that society.
Mixed economies rely on the nation they are in to provide some goods or services, while the free market produces and maintains the rest.
Role of government
Government agencies regulate the standards of service in many industries, such as airlines and broadcasting, as well as financing a wide range of programs. In addition, the government regulates the flow of capital and uses financial tools such as the interest rate to control such factors as inflation and unemployment.
Supply and demand
Main article: Supply and demandIn capitalist economic structures, supply and demand is an economic model of price determination in a market. It postulates that in a perfectly competitive market, the unit price for a particular good will vary until it settles at a point where the quantity demanded by consumers (at the current price) will equal the quantity supplied by producers (at the current price), resulting in an economic equilibrium for price and quantity.
The "basic laws" of supply and demand, as described by David Besanko and Ronald Braeutigam, are the following four:
- If demand increases (demand curve shifts to the right) and supply remains unchanged, then a shortage occurs, leading to a higher equilibrium price.
- If demand decreases (demand curve shifts to the left) and supply remains unchanged, then a surplus occurs, leading to a lower equilibrium price.
- If demand remains unchanged and supply increases (supply curve shifts to the right), then a surplus occurs, leading to a lower equilibrium price.
- If demand remains unchanged and supply decreases (supply curve shifts to the left), then a shortage occurs, leading to a higher equilibrium price.
Supply schedule
A supply schedule is a table that shows the relationship between the price of a good and the quantity supplied.
Demand schedule
A demand schedule, depicted graphically as the demand curve, represents the amount of some goods that buyers are willing and able to purchase at various prices, assuming all determinants of demand other than the price of the good in question, such as income, tastes and preferences, the price of substitute goods and the price of complementary goods, remain the same. According to the law of demand, the demand curve is almost always represented as downward sloping, meaning that as price decreases, consumers will buy more of the good.
Just like the supply curves reflect marginal cost curves, demand curves are determined by marginal utility curves.
Equilibrium
Further information: Economic equilibriumIn the context of supply and demand, economic equilibrium refers to a state where economic forces such as supply and demand are balanced and in the absence of external influences the (equilibrium) values of economic variables will not change. For example, in the standard text-book model of perfect competition equilibrium occurs at the point at which quantity demanded and quantity supplied are equal. Market equilibrium, in this case, refers to a condition where a market price is established through competition such that the amount of goods or services sought by buyers is equal to the amount of goods or services produced by sellers. This price is often called the competitive price or market clearing price and will tend not to change unless demand or supply changes.
Partial equilibrium
Main article: Partial equilibriumPartial equilibrium, as the name suggests, takes into consideration only a part of the market to attain equilibrium. Jain proposes (attributed to George Stigler): "A partial equilibrium is one which is based on only a restricted range of data, a standard example is price of a single product, the prices of all other products being held fixed during the analysis".
History
According to Hamid S. Hosseini, the "power of supply and demand" was discussed to some extent by several early Muslim scholars, such as fourteenth century Mamluk scholar Ibn Taymiyyah, who wrote: "If desire for goods increases while its availability decreases, its price rises. On the other hand, if availability of the good increases and the desire for it decreases, the price comes down".
John Locke's 1691 work Some Considerations on the Consequences of the Lowering of Interest and the Raising of the Value of Money includes an early and clear description of supply and demand and their relationship. In this description, demand is rent: "The price of any commodity rises or falls by the proportion of the number of buyer and sellers" and "that which regulates the price... is nothing else but their quantity in proportion to their rent".
David Ricardo titled one chapter of his 1817 work Principles of Political Economy and Taxation "On the Influence of Demand and Supply on Price". In Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Ricardo more rigorously laid down the idea of the assumptions that were used to build his ideas of supply and demand.
In his 1870 essay "On the Graphical Representation of Supply and Demand", Fleeming Jenkin in the course of "introduc the diagrammatic method into the English economic literature" published the first drawing of supply and demand curves therein, including comparative statics from a shift of supply or demand and application to the labor market. The model was further developed and popularized by Alfred Marshall in the 1890 textbook Principles of Economics.
Types
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There are many variants of capitalism in existence that differ according to country and region. They vary in their institutional makeup and by their economic policies. The common features among all the different forms of capitalism are that they are predominantly based on the private ownership of the means of production and the production of goods and services for profit; the market-based allocation of resources; and the accumulation of capital.
They include advanced capitalism, corporate capitalism, finance capitalism, free-market capitalism, mercantilism, social capitalism, state capitalism and welfare capitalism. Other theoretical variants of capitalism include anarcho-capitalism, community capitalism, humanistic capitalism, neo-capitalism, state monopoly capitalism, and technocapitalism.
Advanced
Main article: Advanced capitalismAdvanced capitalism is the situation that pertains to a society in which the capitalist model has been integrated and developed deeply and extensively for a prolonged period. Various writers identify Antonio Gramsci as an influential early theorist of advanced capitalism, even if he did not use the term himself. In his writings, Gramsci sought to explain how capitalism had adapted to avoid the revolutionary overthrow that had seemed inevitable in the 19th century. At the heart of his explanation was the decline of raw coercion as a tool of class power, replaced by use of civil society institutions to manipulate public ideology in the capitalists' favour.
Jürgen Habermas has been a major contributor to the analysis of advanced-capitalistic societies. Habermas observed four general features that characterise advanced capitalism:
- Concentration of industrial activity in a few large firms.
- Constant reliance on the state to stabilise the economic system.
- A formally democratic government that legitimises the activities of the state and dissipates opposition to the system.
- The use of nominal wage increases to pacify the most restless segments of the work force.
Corporate
Main article: Corporate capitalism See also: Crony capitalism and State monopoly capitalismCorporate capitalism is a free or mixed-market capitalist economy characterized by the dominance of hierarchical, bureaucratic corporations.
Finance
Main article: Finance capitalism See also: Capitalist mode of production (Marxist theory)Finance capitalism is the subordination of processes of production to the accumulation of money profits in a financial system. In their critique of capitalism, Marxism and Leninism both emphasise the role of finance capital as the determining and ruling-class interest in capitalist society, particularly in the latter stages.
Rudolf Hilferding is credited with first bringing the term finance capitalism into prominence through Finance Capital, his 1910 study of the links between German trusts, banks and monopolies—a study subsumed by Vladimir Lenin into Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism (1917), his analysis of the imperialist relations of the great world powers. Lenin concluded that the banks at that time operated as "the chief nerve centres of the whole capitalist system of national economy". For the Comintern (founded in 1919), the phrase "dictatorship of finance capitalism" became a regular one.
Fernand Braudel would later point to two earlier periods when finance capitalism had emerged in human history—with the Genoese in the 16th century and with the Dutch in the 17th and 18th centuries—although at those points it developed from commercial capitalism. Giovanni Arrighi extended Braudel's analysis to suggest that a predominance of finance capitalism is a recurring, long-term phenomenon, whenever a previous phase of commercial/industrial capitalist expansion reaches a plateau.
Free market
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A capitalist free-market economy is an economic system where prices for goods and services are set entirely by the forces of supply and demand and are expected, by its adherents, to reach their point of equilibrium without intervention by government policy. It typically entails support for highly competitive markets and private ownership of the means of production. Laissez-faire capitalism is a more extensive form of this free-market economy, but one in which the role of the state is limited to protecting property rights. In anarcho-capitalist theory, property rights are protected by private firms and market-generated law. According to anarcho-capitalists, this entails property rights without statutory law through market-generated tort, contract and property law, and self-sustaining private industry.
Fernand Braudel argued that free market exchange and capitalism are to some degree opposed; free market exchange involves transparent public transactions and a large number of equal competitors, while capitalism involves a small number of participants using their capital to control the market via private transactions, control of information, and limitation of competition.
Mercantile
Main article: Mercantilism See also: ProtectionismMercantilism is a nationalist form of early capitalism that came into existence approximately in the late 16th century. It is characterized by the intertwining of national business interests with state-interest and imperialism. Consequently, the state apparatus is used to advance national business interests abroad. An example of this is colonists living in America who were only allowed to trade with and purchase goods from their respective mother countries (e.g., United Kingdom, France and Portugal). Mercantilism was driven by the belief that the wealth of a nation is increased through a positive balance of trade with other nations—it corresponds to the phase of capitalist development sometimes called the primitive accumulation of capital.
Social
Main article: Social market economy See also: Nordic modelA social market economy is a free-market or mixed-market capitalist system, sometimes classified as a coordinated market economy, where government intervention in price formation is kept to a minimum, but the state provides significant services in areas such as social security, health care, unemployment benefits and the recognition of labor rights through national collective bargaining arrangements.
This model is prominent in Western and Northern European countries as well as Japan, albeit in slightly different configurations. The vast majority of enterprises are privately owned in this economic model.
Rhine capitalism is the contemporary model of capitalism and adaptation of the social market model that exists in continental Western Europe today.
State
Main article: State capitalismState capitalism is a capitalist market economy dominated by state-owned enterprises, where the state enterprises are organized as commercial, profit-seeking businesses. The designation has been used broadly throughout the 20th century to designate a number of different economic forms, ranging from state-ownership in market economies to the command economies of the former Eastern Bloc. According to Aldo Musacchio, a professor at Harvard Business School, state capitalism is a system in which governments, whether democratic or autocratic, exercise a widespread influence on the economy either through direct ownership or various subsidies. Musacchio notes a number of differences between today's state capitalism and its predecessors. In his opinion, gone are the days when governments appointed bureaucrats to run companies: the world's largest state-owned enterprises are now traded on the public markets and kept in good health by large institutional investors. Contemporary state capitalism is associated with the East Asian model of capitalism, dirigisme and the economy of Norway. Alternatively, Merriam-Webster defines state capitalism as "an economic system in which private capitalism is modified by a varying degree of government ownership and control".
In Socialism: Utopian and Scientific, Friedrich Engels argued that state-owned enterprises would characterize the final stage of capitalism, consisting of ownership and management of large-scale production and communication by the bourgeois state. In his writings, Vladimir Lenin characterized the economy of Soviet Russia as state capitalist, believing state capitalism to be an early step toward the development of socialism.
Some economists and left-wing academics including Richard D. Wolff and Noam Chomsky, as well as many Marxist philosophers and revolutionaries such as Raya Dunayevskaya and C.L.R. James, argue that the economies of the former Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc represented a form of state capitalism because their internal organization within enterprises and the system of wage labor remained intact.
The term is not used by Austrian School economists to describe state ownership of the means of production. The economist Ludwig von Mises argued that the designation of state capitalism was a new label for the old labels of state socialism and planned economy and differed only in non-essentials from these earlier designations.
Welfare
Main article: Welfare capitalism See also: Economic interventionism and Mixed economyWelfare capitalism is capitalism that includes social welfare policies. Today, welfare capitalism is most often associated with the models of capitalism found in Central Mainland and Northern Europe such as the Nordic model, social market economy and Rhine capitalism. In some cases, welfare capitalism exists within a mixed economy, but welfare states can and do exist independently of policies common to mixed economies such as state interventionism and extensive regulation.
A mixed economy is a largely market-based capitalist economy consisting of both private and public ownership of the means of production and economic interventionism through macroeconomic policies intended to correct market failures, reduce unemployment and keep inflation low. The degree of intervention in markets varies among different countries. Some mixed economies such as France under dirigisme also featured a degree of indirect economic planning over a largely capitalist-based economy.
Most modern capitalist economies are defined as mixed economies to some degree, however French economist Thomas Piketty state that capitalist economies might shift to a much more laissez-faire approach in the near future.
Eco-capitalism
Eco-capitalism, also known as "environmental capitalism" or (sometimes) "green capitalism", is the view that capital exists in nature as "natural capital" (ecosystems that have ecological yield) on which all wealth depends. Therefore, governments should use market-based policy-instruments (such as a carbon tax) to resolve environmental problems.
The term "Blue Greens" is often applied to those who espouse eco-capitalism. Eco-capitalism can be thought of as the right-wing equivalent to Red Greens.
Sustainable capitalism
Sustainable capitalism is a conceptual form of capitalism based upon sustainable practices that seek to preserve humanity and the planet, while reducing externalities and bearing a resemblance of capitalist economic policy. A capitalistic economy must expand to survive and find new markets to support this expansion. Capitalist systems are often destructive to the environment as well as certain individuals without access to proper representation. However, sustainability provides quite the opposite; it implies not only a continuation, but a replenishing of resources. Sustainability is often thought of to be related to environmentalism, and sustainable capitalism applies sustainable principles to economic governance and social aspects of capitalism as well.
The importance of sustainable capitalism has been more recently recognized, but the concept is not new. Changes to the current economic model would have heavy social environmental and economic implications and require the efforts of individuals, as well as compliance of local, state and federal governments. Controversy surrounds the concept as it requires an increase in sustainable practices and a marked decrease in current consumptive behaviors.
This is a concept of capitalism described in Al Gore and David Blood's manifesto for the Generation Investment Management to describe a long-term political, economic and social structure which would mitigate current threats to the planet and society. According to their manifesto, sustainable capitalism would integrate the environmental, social and governance (ESG) aspects into risk assessment in attempt to limit externalities. Most of the ideas they list are related to economic changes, and social aspects, but strikingly few are explicitly related to any environmental policy change.
Capital accumulation
Main article: Capital accumulationThe accumulation of capital is the process of "making money" or growing an initial sum of money through investment in production. Capitalism is based on the accumulation of capital, whereby financial capital is invested in order to make a profit and then reinvested into further production in a continuous process of accumulation. In Marxian economic theory, this dynamic is called the law of value. Capital accumulation forms the basis of capitalism, where economic activity is structured around the accumulation of capital, defined as investment in order to realize a financial profit. In this context, "capital" is defined as money or a financial asset invested for the purpose of making more money (whether in the form of profit, rent, interest, royalties, capital gain or some other kind of return).
In mainstream economics, accounting and Marxian economics, capital accumulation is often equated with investment of profit income or savings, especially in real capital goods. The concentration and centralisation of capital are two of the results of such accumulation. In modern macroeconomics and econometrics, the phrase "capital formation" is often used in preference to "accumulation", though the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) refers nowadays to "accumulation". The term "accumulation" is occasionally used in national accounts.
Wage labor
Main article: Wage labourWage labor refers to the sale of labor under a formal or informal employment contract to an employer. These transactions usually occur in a labor market where wages are market determined. In Marxist economics, these owners of the means of production and suppliers of capital are generally called capitalists. The description of the role of the capitalist has shifted, first referring to a useless intermediary between producers, then to an employer of producers, and finally to the owners of the means of production. Labor includes all physical and mental human resources, including entrepreneurial capacity and management skills, which are required to produce products and services. Production is the act of making goods or services by applying labor power.
Criticism
Main article: Criticism of capitalismCriticism of capitalism comes from various political and philosophical approaches, including anarchist, socialist, religious and nationalist viewpoints. Of those who oppose it or want to modify it, some believe that capitalism should be removed through revolution while others believe that it should be changed slowly through political reforms.
Prominent critiques of capitalism allege that it is inherently exploitative, alienating, unstable, unsustainable, and economically inefficient—and that it creates massive economic inequality, commodifies people, degrades the environment, is undemocratic, embeds uneven and underdevelopment between nation states, and leads to an erosion of human rights because of its incentivization of imperialist expansion and war.
Other critics argue that such inequities are not due to the ethic-neutral construct of the economic system commonly known as capitalism, but to the ethics of those who shape and execute the system. For example, some contend that Milton Friedman's (human) ethic of 'maximizing shareholder value' creates a harmful form of capitalism, while a Millard Fuller or John Bogle (human) ethic of 'enough' creates a sustainable form. Equitable ethics and unified ethical decision-making is theorized to create a less damaging form of capitalism.
Inheritance has been argued to not be a fundamental part of capitalism, instead part of nepotism.
See also
- Anti-capitalism
- Advanced capitalism
- Ancient economic thought
- Bailout Capitalism
- Capitalism (disambiguation)
- Christian views on poverty and wealth
- Communism
- Corporatocracy
- Crony capitalism
- Economic sociology
- Free market
- Global financial crisis in September 2008
- Humanistic economics
- Invisible hand
- Late capitalism
- Le Livre noir du capitalisme
- Market socialism
- Peak capitalism
- Perspectives on capitalism by school of thought
- Post-capitalism
- Post-Fordism
- Racial capitalism
- Rent-seeking
- Socialism
- State monopoly capitalism
- Surveillance capitalism
- Perestroika
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[If tax regressivity on top of the social hierarchy may settle in and escalate in the future, it is obvious that such a tax secession between the richest and the other classes will be highly harmful towards the agreement over the taxation system which will weaken. It is essential for the modern social system that the taxation system preserve a sort of tax progressivity.] - Balch, Oliver (24 November 2019). "Green capitalism sometimes also referring to sustainable businesses". The Guardian.
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- Marx, Karl (1990) . Capital, Volume I. London: Penguin Classics. ISBN 978-0-14-044568-8.
- Roediger, David (2007a) . The Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making of the American Working Class (revised and expanded ed.). London & New York: Verso. ISBN 978-1-84467-145-8.
- Roediger, David (2007b). "An Outmoded Approach to Labour and Slavery". Labour/Le Travail. 60: 245–250. JSTOR 25149808.
- Steinfeld, Robert (2009). "Coercion/Consent in Labor" (PDF). COMPAS Working Paper No. 66. Oxford: University of Oxford. Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 March 2014. Retrieved 3 March 2013.
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(help) - Wolf, Eric R. (1982). Europe and the People Without History. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-04459-3.
- Wood, Ellen Meiksins (2002). The Origin of Capitalism: A Longer View. London: Verso. ISBN 978-1-85984-392-5. Archived from the original on 28 November 2015. Retrieved 27 June 2015.
- Young, John (1997). Peasant Revolution in Ethiopia: The Tigray People's Liberation Front, 1975–1991. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-02606-2.
Further reading
- Alperovitz, Gar (2011). America Beyond Capitalism: Reclaiming Our Wealth, Our Liberty, and Our Democracy, 2nd Edition. Democracy Collaborative Press. ISBN 0-9847857-0-1.
- Altvater, Elmar; Crist, Eileen; Haraway, Donna; Hartley, Daniel; Parenti, Christian; McBrien, Justin; Moore, Jason (2016). Anthropocene or Capitalocene? Nature, History, and the Crisis of Capitalism. PM Press. ISBN 978-1-62963-148-6.
- Ascher, Ivan. Portfolio Society: On the Capitalist Mode of Prediction. Zone Books, 2016. ISBN 978-1935408741
- Baptist, Edward E. The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism. New York, Basic Books, 2014. ISBN 0-465-00296-X.
- Barbrook, Richard (2006). The Class of the New (paperback ed.). London: OpenMute. ISBN 978-0-9550664-7-4. Archived from the original on 1 August 2018. Retrieved 11 June 2019.
- Block, Fred; Somers, Margaret R. (2014). The Power of Market Fundamentalism: Karl Polyani's Critique. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-05071-6.
- Boldizzoni, Francesco (2020). Foretelling the End of Capitalism: Intellectual Misadventures since Karl Marx. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-91932-7.
- Braudel, Fernand. Civilization and Capitalism, 15th-18th Century, 3 volumes.
- Callinicos, Alex. "Wage Labour and State Capitalism – A reply to Peter Binns and Mike Haynes", International Socialism, 2nd series, 12, Spring 1979.
- Case, Anne; Deaton, Angus (2020). Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-19078-5. Archived from the original on 7 March 2020. Retrieved 6 March 2020.
- Farl, Erich. "The Genealogy of State Capitalism". In: International London, vol. 2, no. 1, 1973.
- Fisher, Mark (2009). Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative?. John Hunt Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84694-317-1.
- Gough, Ian. State Expenditure in Advanced Capitalism Archived 7 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine New Left Review.
- Habermas, J. Legitimation Crisis (eng. translation by T. McCarthy). Boston, Beacon. From Google books Archived 20 November 2015 at the Wayback Machine; excerpt.
- Harvey, David (2014). Seventeen Contradictions and the End of Capitalism. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-936026-0.
- Hyman, Louis and Edward E. Baptist (2014). American Capitalism: A Reader. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4767-8431-1.
- Ingham, Geoffrey (2008). Capitalism: With a New Postscript on the Financial Crisis and Its Aftermath. Cambridge: Polity Press. ISBN 9780745636481.
- James, Paul; Patomäki, Heikki (2007). Globalization and Economy, Vol. 2: Global Finance and the New Global Economy. London: SAGE Publications. Archived from the original on 23 September 2020. Retrieved 28 January 2018.
- James, Paul; Palen, Ronen (2007). Globalization and Economy, Vol. 3: Global Economic Regimes and Institutions. London: Sage Publications. Archived from the original on 23 September 2020. Retrieved 28 January 2018.
- James, Paul; O'Brien, Robert (2007). Globalization and Economy, Vol. 4: Globalizing Labour. London: Sage Publications. Archived from the original on 23 September 2020. Retrieved 28 January 2018.
- Jameson, Fredric (1991). Postmodernism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism.
- Kocka, Jürgen (2016). Capitalism: A Short History. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0691165226.
- Kotler, Philip (2015). Confronting Capitalism: Real Solutions for a Troubled Economic System. AMACOM. ISBN 978-0814436455
- Mandel, Ernest (1999). Late Capitalism. ISBN 978-1859842027
- Mander, Jerry (2012). The Capitalism Papers: Fatal Flaws of an Obsolete System. Counterpoint. ISBN 978-1-61902-158-7.
- Marcel van der Linden, Western Marxism and the Soviet Union. New York, Brill Publishers, 2007.
- Mayfield, Anthony. "Economics", in his On the Brink: Resource Depletion, Debt Collapse, and Super-technology (: On the Brink Publishing, 2013), pp. 50–104.
- Musacchio, Aldo; Lazzarini, Sergio G. (2014). Reinventing State Capitalism: Leviathan in Business, Brazil and Beyond. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-72968-1.
- Newitz, Annalee (2006). Pretend We're Dead: Capitalist Monsters in American Pop Culture. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. ISBN 978-0-8223-3745-4. Archived from the original on 26 October 2016. Retrieved 26 October 2016.
- Nitzan, Jonathan; Bichler, Shimshon (2009). Capital as Power: A Study of Order and Creorder. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-49680-3.
- Panitch, Leo, and Sam Gindin (2012). The Making of Global Capitalism: the Political Economy of American Empire. London, Verso. ISBN 978-1-84467-742-9.
- Piketty, Thomas (2014). Capital in the Twenty-First Century. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press. ISBN 978-0-674-43000-6.
- Piketty, Thomas (2020). Capital and Ideology. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press. ISBN 978-0-674-98082-2.
- Polanyi, Karl (2001). The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time. Beacon Press; 2nd ed. ISBN 0-8070-5643-X
- Reisman, George (1998). Capitalism: A complete understanding of the nature and value of human economic life. Jameson Books. ISBN 978-0-915463-73-2.
- Richards, Jay W. (2009). Money, Greed, and God: Why Capitalism is the Solution and Not the Problem. New York: HarperOne. ISBN 978-0-06-137561-3
- Roberts, Paul Craig (2013). The Failure of Laissez-faire Capitalism: towards a New Economics for a Full World. Atlanta, Ga.: Clarity Press. ISBN 978-0-9860362-5-5
- Robinson, William I. Global Capitalism and the Crisis of Humanity. Cambridge University Press, 2014. ISBN 1-107-69111-7
- Schram, Sanford F. (2015). The Return of Ordinary Capitalism: Neoliberalism, Precarity, Occupy. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-025302-8. Archived from the original on 23 September 2020. Retrieved 12 February 2017.
- Hoevet, Ocean. "Capital as a Social Relation" (New Palgrave article)
- Sombart, Werner (1916) Der moderne Kapitalismus. Historisch-systematische Darstellung des gesamteuropäischen Wirtschaftslebens von seinen Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart. Final edn. 1916, repr. 1969, paperback edn. (3 vols. in 6): 1987 Munich: dtv. (Also in Spanish; no English translation yet.)
- Sonenscher, Michael (2022). Capitalism: The Story behind the Word. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691237206.
- Tarnoff, Ben, "Better, Faster, Stronger" (review of John Tinnell, The Philosopher of Palo Alto: Mark Weisner, Xerox PARC, and the Original Internet of Things, University of Chicago Press, 347 pp.; and Malcolm Harris, Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World, Little, Brown, 708 pp.), The New York Review of Books, vol. LXX, no. 14 (21 September 2023), pp. 38–40. " a place where the contradictions are sharpened to their finest points, above all the defining and enduring contradictions between democratic principle and antidemocratic practice. There is nothing as American as celebrating equality while subverting it. Or as Californian." (p. 40.)
- Wallerstein, Immanuel (1983). Historical Capitalism. Verso Books. ISBN 978-0-86091-761-8.
- Wolff, Richard D. (2012). Democracy at Work: A Cure for Capitalism. Haymarket Books. ISBN 978-1-60846-247-6.
- Wood, Ellen Meiksins (2002). The Origin of Capitalism: A Longer View. Verso. ISBN 978-1-85984-392-5.
External links
- Capitalism on In Our Time at the BBC
- Capitalism at Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
- Selected Titles on Capitalism and Its Discontents Archived 23 January 2018 at the Wayback Machine. Harvard University Press.
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