Download or read book Crumbling Walls and Tarnished Ideals written by Hans A. Baer and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents a corrective to conventional portrayals of East German society, both before and after the opening of the Wall in 1989, based largely upon data obtained through participant observation in the German Democratic Republic and the new German states of the Federal Republic of Germany. This account is coupled with an analytical interpretation of the failure to develop socialism in the GDR and the impact of the unification of 1990 on East German social life. The book also examines the legitimization crisis in the GDR, the factors that contributed to the collapse of the GDR state, life inside the Socialist Unity Party from below, the role of the Protestant and Catholic churches in the GDR, and the existential and financial crises within the Protestant churches following unification. The work assesses the contradictions of the 40-year history of the GDR, not only in terms of its shortcomings but also its achievements.
Download or read book Prophet of Innovation written by Thomas K. McCraw and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2010-03-30 with total page 734 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pan Am, Gimbel’s, Pullman, Douglas Aircraft, Digital Equipment Corporation, British Leyland—all once as strong as dinosaurs, all now just as extinct. Destruction of businesses, fortunes, products, and careers is the price of progress toward a better material life. No one understood this bedrock economic principle better than Joseph A. Schumpeter. “Creative destruction,” he said, is the driving force of capitalism. Described by John Kenneth Galbraith as “the most sophisticated conservative” of the twentieth century, Schumpeter made his mark as the prophet of incessant change. His vision was stark: Nearly all businesses fail, victims of innovation by their competitors. Businesspeople ignore this lesson at their peril—to survive, they must be entrepreneurial and think strategically. Yet in Schumpeter’s view, the general prosperity produced by the “capitalist engine” far outweighs the wreckage it leaves behind. During a tumultuous life spanning two world wars, the Great Depression, and the early Cold War, Schumpeter reinvented himself many times. From boy wonder in turn-of-the-century Vienna to captivating Harvard professor, he was stalked by tragedy and haunted by the specter of his rival, John Maynard Keynes. By 1983—the centennial of the birth of both men—Forbes christened Schumpeter, not Keynes, the best navigator through the turbulent seas of globalization. Time has proved that assessment accurate. Prophet of Innovation is also the private story of a man rescued repeatedly by women who loved him and put his well-being above their own. Without them, he would likely have perished, so fierce were the conflicts between his reason and his emotions. Drawing on all of Schumpeter’s writings, including many intimate diaries and letters never before used, this biography paints the full portrait of a magnetic figure who aspired to become the world’s greatest economist, lover, and horseman—and admitted to failure only with the horses.
Download or read book 1814 1914 2014 written by Hannes Androsch and published by Austin Macauley Publishers. This book was released on 2023-04-28 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why the world of today is like it is, and why it will continue to be characterized by these events for many years to come. This is elucidated by the selected "junctures" of the last 200 years from politics, business and economics, technology, and the arts. From the Congress of Vienna to the EU elections, from the talkies to cyborgs, this book presents a panoramic look at our modern world from 14 different perspectives.
Download or read book Class Politics in the Information Age written by Donald Clark Hodges and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 2000 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Class Politics in the Information Age uncovers the origins, development, aims, means, and moral and political hypocrisy of the new class of professionals. In line with a broad consensus that expertise has replaced capital as the decisive asset in the informational economy, Hodges asserts that professionals have replaced capitalists as the premier exploiting class. The dictatorship of the proletariat predicted by Marx is, the United States, a dictatorship of experts."--BOOK JACKET.
Download or read book Capitalism and Disability written by Marta Russell and published by Haymarket Books. This book was released on 2019-08-06 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Spread out over many years and many different publications, the late author and activist Marta Russell wrote a number of groundbreaking and insightful essays on the nature of disability and oppression under capitalism. In this volume, Russell’s various essays are brought together in one place in order to provide a useful and expansive resource to those interested in better understanding the ways in which the modern phenomenon of disability is shaped by capitalist economic and social relations. The essays range in analysis from the theoretical to the topical, including but not limited to: the emergence of disability as a “human category” rooted in the rise of industrial capitalism and the transformation of the conditions of work, family, and society corresponding thereto; a critique of the shortcomings of a purely “civil rights approach” to addressing the persistence of disability oppression in the economic sphere, with a particular focus on the legacy of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990; an examination of the changing position of disabled people within the overall system of capitalist production utilizing the Marxist economic concepts of the reserve army of the unemployed, the labor theory of value, and the exploitation of wage-labor; the effects of neoliberal capitalist policies on the living conditions and social position of disabled people as it pertains to welfare, income assistance, health care, and other social security programs; imperialism and war as a factor in the further oppression and immiseration of disabled people within the United States and globally; and the need to build unity against the divisive tendencies which hide the common economic interest shared between disabled people and the often highly-exploited direct care workers who provide services to the former.
Download or read book A Politics of Melancholia written by George Edmondson and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2024-03-12 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This monograph argues that melancholia is not an affliction in need of a remedy but instead the contemplative attitude that forms the basis of philosophical inquiry"--
Download or read book Crack Capitalism written by John Holloway and published by Pluto Press. This book was released on 2010-06-15 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Crack Capitalism, argues that radical change can only come about through the creation, expansion and multiplication of weak points, or "cracks" in the capitalist system. John Holloway's previous book, Change the World Without Taking Power, sparked a world-wide debate among activists about the most effective methods of resisting capitalism. Now Holloway rejects the idea of a disconnected plurality of struggles and finds a unifying contradiction -- the opposition between the time we spend working as part of the system and our excess "doing" where we revolt and refuse to be subsumed. Clearly and accessibly presented in the form of 33 theses, Crack Capitalism is set to reopen the debate among radical scholars and activists seeking to break capitalism.
Download or read book The Man Who Broke Capitalism written by David Gelles and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2022-05-31 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New York Times Bestseller New York Times reporter and “Corner Office” columnist David Gelles reveals legendary GE CEO Jack Welch to be the root of all that’s wrong with capitalism today and offers advice on how we might right those wrongs. In 1981, Jack Welch took over General Electric and quickly rose to fame as the first celebrity CEO. He golfed with presidents, mingled with movie stars, and was idolized for growing GE into the most valuable company in the world. But Welch’s achievements didn’t stem from some greater intelligence or business prowess. Rather, they were the result of a sustained effort to push GE’s stock price ever higher, often at the expense of workers, consumers, and innovation. In this captivating, revelatory book, David Gelles argues that Welch single-handedly ushered in a new, cutthroat era of American capitalism that continues to this day. Gelles chronicles Welch’s campaign to vaporize hundreds of thousands of jobs in a bid to boost profits, eviscerating the country’s manufacturing base and destabilizing the middle class. Welch’s obsession with downsizing—he eliminated 10% of employees every year—fundamentally altered GE and inspired generations of imitators who have employed his strategies at other companies around the globe. In his day, Welch was corporate America’s leading proponent of mergers and acquisitions, using deals to gobble up competitors and giving rise to an economy that is more concentrated and less dynamic. And Welch pioneered the dark arts of “financialization,” transforming GE from an admired industrial manufacturer into what was effectively an unregulated bank. The finance business was hugely profitable in the short term and helped Welch keep GE’s stock price ticking up. But ultimately, financialization undermined GE and dozens of other Fortune 500 companies. Gelles shows how Welch’s celebrated emphasis on increasing shareholder value by any means necessary (layoffs, outsourcing, offshoring, acquisitions, and buybacks, to name but a few tactics) became the norm in American business generally. He demonstrates how that approach has led to the greatest socioeconomic inequality since the Great Depression and harmed many of the very companies that have embraced it. And he shows how a generation of Welch acolytes radically transformed companies like Boeing, Home Depot, Kraft Heinz, and more. Finally, Gelles chronicles the change that is now afoot in corporate America, highlighting companies and leaders who have abandoned Welchism and are proving that it is still possible to excel in the business world without destroying livelihoods, gutting communities, and spurning regulation.
Download or read book Schumpeter and the Endogeneity of Technology written by Nathan Rosenberg and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 2000 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores Schumpeter's views as an economist who was, long ago, committed to the notion of the endogeneity of technology.
Download or read book The Havoc of Capitalism written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2010-01-01 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Havoc of Capitalism brings together an interdisciplinary community of scholars from around the world to contribute to the dialogue about alternative global futures in the current context of environmental crisis, uncertainty and inequality.
Download or read book Queer Constellations written by Dianne Chisholm and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Queer Constellations investigates the dreams and catastrophes of recent urban history viewed through new queer narratives of inner-city life. The "gay village," "gay mecca," ""gai Paris," the "lesbian flaneur," the "lesbian boheme"--these and other urban phantasmagoria feature paradoxically in this volume as figures of revolutionary utopia and commodity spectacle, as fossilized archetypes of social transformation and ruins of haunting cultural potential. Dianne Chisholm introduces readers to new practices of walking, seeing, citing, and remembering the city in works by Neil Bartlett, Samuel Delany, Robert Gluck, Alan Hollinghurst, Gary Indiana, Eileen Myles, Sarah Schulman, Edmund White, and David Wojnarowicz. Reading these authors with reference to the history, sociology, geography, and philosophy of space, particularly to the everyday avant-garde production and practice of urban space, Chisholm reveals how--and how effectively--queer narrative documentary resembles and reassembles Walter Benjamin's constellations of Paris, "capital of the nineteenth century." Considering experimental queer writing in critical conjunction with Benjamin's city writing, the book shows how a queer perspective on inner-city reality exposes contradictions otherwise obscured by mythic narratives of progress. If Benjamin regards the Paris arcade as a microcosm of high capitalism, wherein the (un)making of industrial society is perceived retrospectively, in contemporary queer narrative we see the sexually charged and commodity-entranced space of the gay bathhouse as a microcosm of late capitalism and as an exemplary site for excavating the contradictions of mass sex. In Chisholm's book we discover how,looking back on the ruins of queer mecca, queer authors return to Benjamin to advance his "dialectics of seeing"; how they cruise the paradoxes of market capital, blasting a queer era out of the homogeneous course of history.
Download or read book A Ruined Fortress written by Alan W. Cafruny and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2003 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Arguing convincingly that mainstream theory lacks the tools to adequately explain European integration, this challenging book draws upon critical political economic theory to develop a more comprehensive and consistent analysis of the processes of integration. Although not claiming that states have ceded their role as "masters of the treaties," the contributors develop innovative case studies of national and transnational processes to illustrate the salience of trans-European business networks and the primacy of neoliberalism as central organizing concepts of the post-Maastricht European project.
Download or read book Capitalism Socialism and Democracy written by Joseph A. Schumpeter and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores the relation between a socialist view of society and the democratic method of government; argues that socialism is probably inevitable, for political rather than economic reasons. The book developes five principal themes, presented in five parts. Part I, "The Marxian Doctrine," attests to Schumpeter's belief in the importance of Karl Marx's thought, and discusses Marx in the roles of prophet, sociologist, economist, and teacher. His strength lay in synthesis of history, economics, and politics into a vision and system (which Schumpeter admires) that that can be used for solving problems and contributing to knowledge and insight; the value of Marx's theories and conclusions are found wanting. Part II "Can Capitalism Survive?" shows that a socialist form of society will inevitably emerge from the inevitable decomposition of capitalist society. Essential to capitalism is the process of "creative destruction," which constantly revolutionizes the system from within; this revolutionary transformation of capitalism, which spells its doom, results from its success--not, as Marx argued, from its failure. In Schumpeter's view of capitalism, monopolistic policies promote stability and increase efficiency; unemployment and business cycles accompany economic growth; and without political interference, output would increase and standard of living increase. The entrepreneurial function, which revolutionizes production by exploiting innovation, becomes routine and obsolete due to technical development and rise of big firms; the entrepreneur becomes a bureaucrat. Without innovating enterprise, profit will vanish or become unimportant. Capitalism's success undermines the social conditions that protect it. Capitalism will not survive because public opinion will not support it: the bourgeoisie is not equipped for politics; corporate evolution and decline of the family have reduced the bourgeois sense of property and incentives; destruction of monarchy and aristocracy have deprived the bourgeois of its protectors; and disenchanted intellectuals inflame discontent with free enterprise. Establishment of socialism can be expected. Part III, "Can Socialism Work?" answers, "Of course it can." Socialism for Schumpeter is centralized control over the means of production. Necessary for the success of socialism is reaching the requisite stage of industrial development and resolution of transitional problems. The assessment of a socialist society should be based less on economic efficiency than on the quality of the bureaucratic apparatus operating the system. Socialism may likely be as successful in satisfying consumers, promoting economic progress, and enforcing discipline and efficiency. Part IV, "Socialism and Democracy" argues one can have autocratic, theocratic, or democratic socialism. Socialism's economic problem should only be discussed referring to the given state of the social environment and historical situation. Schumpeter alternatively defines democracy as people's selection of a government. Socialism may be democratic if certain conditions are met: politics must be culturally valued, range of political decisions must be fairly narrow, a well-trained bureaucracy exists, and the public exercises democratic self control. Part V, "Historical Sketch of Socialist Parties" analyzes the history of the most important socialist parties in England, Sweden, U.S., France, Germany, and Austria, emphasizing how they tried to live within the structure of a Marxist system and to remain alive and grow politically. Socialism, though, is likely to present fascist features. (TNM).
Download or read book Citizenship written by Bryan S. Turner and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 1994 with total page 484 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: SECTION 2: THE CLASSICS
Download or read book It Usually Begins with Ayn Rand written by Jerome Tuccille and published by iUniverse. This book was released on 2007-11 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This edition of It Usually Begins With Ayn Rand contains much of the text that appeared in the original edition-revised and edited to conform to modern style-plus new chapters dealing with events that took place after the book was first published. Some of the new material deals with my campaign for Governor of New York as the Free Libertarian Party candidate, a discussion of events that transpired on the American political scene after that benighted campaign, plus thoughts on my current political and spiritual leanings. The perennial success of It Usually Begins With Ayn Rand has startled no one more than me. Sales started slowly, then began to pick up over the years, until the book became an underground classic that has gained readership over the decades. It should be read as political memoir, a first-hand account of a political movement, mostly fact, but with fictional elements and hyperbole added for effect. A reviewer once said that most memoirs are neither fact nor fiction; they are the truth as the author remembers it. So it is with It Usually Begins With Ayn Rand.
Download or read book The Changing Firm written by Associazione italiana per la storia del pensiero economico. Conference and published by FrancoAngeli. This book was released on 2005 with total page 500 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Future of Global Relations written by T. Paupp and published by Springer. This book was released on 2009-06-22 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The collapse of US global hegemony means that the future of global relations will be defined by an integrated and mutually co-operative world order of regions in which there are multiple centres of power. These centres will continue to mature under the ideology of 'regionalism' and through the long historical process of 'regionalization'.
