Wolfgang Streeck: How Will Capitalism End?

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1.YhteenvedotReviewsРезюме
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2.SisällysluetteloContentsСодержание
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3.MuistiinpanotHighlightsПримечания
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4.SanastoVocabularyСловарь
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5.KielikuvatIdiomsИдиоми
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6.KirjanmerkitBookmarksЗакладки
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A hard nut to be cracked
Крепкий орешек, который нужно расколоть
Kova pähkinä särjettäväksi

A hard nut to be cracked

I expected that this book would be a kind of Marxian appendix in the spirit of dooming capitalism to hell as expropriation of the proletariat. But no, it was not. Instead, it gave a completely satisfactory answer to a question that has haunted me for decades: what is capitalism? About forty years ago I asked a Soviet exchange delegate this same question adding: Is it a mere Marxian mocking word instead of the proper one 'market economy'? No, was the answer, it is a technical term, completely free of valuation. Ok, but until today capitalism has in my ears remained an unfair term and sounded a pejorative expression of entrepreneurship based on a free-market economy. But not anymore, thanks to this book by Wolfgang Streeck.

Capitalism is not a unilaterally economic concept, but a term of the economical part of sociology. Very versatilely founded in this book. As also the whole relationship of sociology and economics. Capitalism is a social phenomenon with aspects outside the sphere of economics, thus a wider concept of society, economics being narrower and concentrated to phenomena measurable by money.

Myself being a strictly professional economist, as an econometrician even emphatically concentrated to observing measurable aspects of the economy. No wonder being troubled by the term capitalism, something beyond the measurable phenomenon of capital as such.

What made this book a hard nut to be cracked was just this sociological aspect as the hard stuff of crust to economics. Opened my eyes and widened my view of the whole human society. Self-evidently five stars.

Крепкий орешек, который нужно расколоть

Я ожидал, что эта книга станет своего рода марксистским приложением в духе обречения капитализма на ад как экспроприации пролетариата. Но нет, это не так. Вместо этого он дал вполне удовлетворительный ответ на вопрос, который не давал мне покоя на протяжении десятилетий: что такое капитализм? Около сорока лет назад я задал тот же вопрос советскому делегату по обмену, добавив: это просто марксистское насмешливое слово вместо правильного слова «рыночная экономика»? Нет, был ответ, это технический термин, совершенно не требующий оценки. Хорошо, но до сегодняшнего дня капитализм в моих ушах оставался несправедливым термином и представлял собой уничижительное выражение предпринимательства, основанного на рыночной экономике. Но больше нет, благодаря этой книге Вольфганга Стрика.

Капитализм - это не одностороннее экономическое понятие, а термин экономической части социологии. Эта книга очень разносторонне обоснована. Как и все взаимоотношения социологии и экономики. Капитализм - это социальный феномен, аспекты которого выходят за рамки экономической науки, таким образом, более широкое понятие общества, экономика является более узкой и сконцентрированной на явлениях, измеряемых деньгами.

Я являюсь строго профессиональным экономистом, а как эконометрист даже решительно сосредоточен на наблюдении измеримых аспектов экономики. Неудивительно, что меня беспокоит термин «капитализм», нечто, выходящее за рамки измеримого феномена капитала как такового.

Что сделало эту книгу крепким орешком, так это именно этот социологический аспект как твердый материал корки экономики. Открыл глаза и расширил мой взгляд на все человеческое общество. Очевидно, пять звезд.

Kova pähkinä särjettäväksi

Odotin, että tämä kirja olisi eräänlainen marxilainen liite kapitalismin helvettiin tuomitsemisen hengessä. Mutta ei, se ei ollut. Sen sijaan se antoi täysin tyydyttävän vastauksen kysymykseen, joka on vaivannut minua vuosikymmeniä: Mitä on kapitalismi? Noin neljäkymmentä vuotta sitten kysyin neuvostoliittolaisen valtuuskunnan jäseneltä saman kysymyksen ja lisäsin: Onko se pelkkä marxilainen pilkkasana oikean "markkinatalouden" sijaan? Ei, oli vastaus, se on tekninen termi, täysin vapaa arvostuksesta. Ok, mutta tähän päivään asti kapitalismi on pysynyt korvissani epäoikeudenmukaisena terminä ja kuulostaa halventavalta ilmaisulta vapaaseen markkinatalouteen perustuvasta yrittäjyydestä. Mutta ei enää tämän Wolfgang Streeckin kirjan ansiosta.

Kapitalismi ei ole yksipuolisesti taloudellinen käsite, vaan termi sosiologian taloudellisesta osasta. Erittäin monipuolisesti perustettu tässä kirjassa. Kuten myös koko sosiologian ja taloustieteen suhde. Kapitalismi on sosiaalinen ilmiö, jolla on taloustieteen ulkopuolisia näkökohtia, siis laajempi yhteiskunnallinen käsite, taloustieteen ollessa kapeampi ja keskittynyt rahalla mitattavissa oleviin ilmiöihin.

Itse olen tiukasti ammattiekonomisti, ekonometikkona jopa painokkaasti keskittynyt talouden mitattavien näkökohtien havainnoimiseen. Ei ihme, että termi kapitalismi huolestuttaa, mikä ulottuu kapitaalin, pääoman mitattavissa olevan ilmiön ulkopuolelle.

Se, mikä teki tästä kirjasta kovan pähkinän, oli juuri tämä sosiologinen puoli taloustieteen kovana kuorena. Avasi silmäni ja laajensi näkemystäni koko ihmisyhteiskunnasta. Ilman muuta viisi tähteä.
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Streeck-Capitalism-ajk.txt o MyeBooks-guide

Sisällysluettelo Contents Содержание (Code: (1,2,3,4,5))

30001 Contents List of Figures A Note on the Text Introduction
30002 CHAPTER 1 How Will Capitalism End?
30003 CHAPTER 2 The Crises of Democratic Capitalism
30004 CHAPTER 3 Citizens as Customers: Considerations on the New Politics of Consumption
30005 CHAPTER 4 The Rise of the European Consolidation State
30006 CHAPTER 5 Markets and Peoples: Democratic Capitalism and European Integration
30007 Schmitt and the Euro
30008 CHAPTER 7 Why the Euro Divides Europe
30009 ‘Is Capitalism Compatible with Democracy?’
30010 CHAPTER 9 How to Study Contemporary Capitalism?
30011 ‘Varieties of What? Should We Still Be Using the Concept of Capitalism?’
30012 CHAPTER 11 The Public Mission of Sociology
30013 Index
30014 A Note on the Author
30015 List of Figures No. Title
10016 1970–2011
10017 OECD average
60018 A Note on the Text
80019 Introduction
80020 1 CAPITALISM: ITS DEATH AND AFTERLIFE
10002001 Crisis Theory Redux
19002002 Moving Disequilibrium
21002003 Phase IV
22002004 Decoupling Democracy
26002005 Commodification Unbound
28002006 Systemic Disorders: Oligarchy, Corruption
33002007 Interregnum
34002008 An Age of Entropy
5901 How Will Capitalism End?
63010009 A PROBLEM WITH DEMOCRACY
69010010 CAPITALISM ON THE BRINK?
71010011 A PYRRHIC VICTORY
73010012 FRONTIERS OF COMMODIFICATION
76010013 FIVE DISORDERS
78010014 PLUTOCRATS AND PLUNDER
79010015 3CORROSIONS OF THE IRON CAGE
81010016 A WORLD OUT OF JOINT
890101 2 The Crises of Democratic Capitalism
89010101 MARKETS VERSUS VOTERS?
93010102 POST-WAR SETTLEMENTS
94010103 LOW INFLATION, HIGHER UNEMPLOYMENT
99010104 DEREGULATION AND PRIVATE DEBT
101010105 SOVEREIGN INDEBTEDNESS
105010106 SEQUENTIAL DISPLACEMENTS
106010107 POLITICAL DISORDER
1130102 3 Citizens as Customers: Considerations on the New Politics of Consumption
114010201 CUSTOMIZED COMMODITIES
117010202 SOCIATION BY CONSUMPTION
120010203 MARKETIZED PUBLIC SPHERE
123010204 COLLECTIVE MINIMA
126010205 POLITICS AS CONSUMPTION?
1320103 4 The Rise of the European Consolidation State
144010301 THE EUROPEAN CONSOLIDATION STATE
148010302 A NEW REGIME
154010303 THE CONSOLIDATION STATE AND DEMOCRACY
1630104 5 Markets and Peoples: Democratic Capitalism
164010401 CONTINENTAL IMBALANCES
165010402 CONVERGENCE, ITALIAN STYLE?
1710105 6 Heller, Schmitt and the Euro
1840106 7 Why the Euro Divides Europe
185010601 MONETARY WEAPONS
186010602 CASH AND COMMUNICATIVE ACTION
188010603 MARKET STRUGGLE IN THE EUROZONE
189010604 REGIONAL PECULIARITIES
190010605 INEQUALITY FROM DIVERSITY
191010606 ORIGINATING BATTLES
192010607 LINE STRUGGLES
195010608 A NEW SYSTEM?
2050107 8 Comment on Wolfgang Merkel, ‘Is Capitalism Compatible with Democracy?’
2200108 9 How to Study Contemporary Capitalism?
223010801 CAPITALISM AS HISTORY
226010802 CAPITALISM AS CULTURE
229010803 CAPITALISM AS A POLITY
232010804 CAPITALISM AS A WAY OF LIFE
236010805 FROM STABLE VARIETIES TO PRECARIOUS COMMONALITIES
2460109 10 On Fred Block, ‘Varieties of What? Should We Still Be Using the Concept of Capitalism?’
2560110 11 The Public Mission of Sociology
256011001 SOCIOLOGY AND ITS PUBLIC: A PROBLEM OF DEMAND?
264011002 Public Sociology as a Return to Political Economy
267011003 The Demand Side Again
2710111 Index
301011101 A Note on the Author
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Muistiinpanot Highlights Примечания (Code: h)

1 (9)
small wonder that theories of capitalism, from the time the concept was first used in the early 1800s in Germany6 and the mid-1800s in England,7 were always also theories of crisis. This holds not just for Marx and Engels but also for writers like Ricardo, Mill, Sombart, Keynes, Hilferding, Polanyi and Schumpeter, all of whom expected one way or other to see the end of capitalism during their lifetime.8
2 (11)
Calhoun assumes that there is still time for political intervention to save capitalism, as there was in the past, perhaps with the help of a ‘sufficiently enlightened faction of capitalists’ (p. 2). But he also believes ‘a centralized socialist economy’ to be possible, and even more so ‘Chinese-style state capitalism’:
3 (14)
Electronicization will do to the middle class what mechanization has done to the working class, and it will do it much faster. The result will be unemployment in the order of 50 to 70 per cent by the middle of the century, hitting those who had hoped, by way of expensive education and disciplined job performance (in return for stagnant or declining wages), to escape the threat of redundancy attendant on the working classes. The benefits, meanwhile, will go to ‘a tiny capitalist class of robot owners’ who will become immeasurably rich.
4 (15)
All five escapes closed, there is no way society can prevent capitalism from causing accelerated displacement of labour and the attendant stark economic and social inequalities. Some sort of socialism, so Collins concludes, will finally have to take capitalism’s place.
5 (18)
What comes after capitalism in its final crisis, now under way, is, I suggest, not socialism or some other defined social order, but a lasting interregnum – no new world system equilibrium à la Wallerstein, but a prolonged period of social entropy, or disorder (and precisely for this reason a period of uncertainty and indeterminacy).
6 (20)
declining growth, growing inequality, and rising debt – public, private and overall.
7 (21)
Nothing is in sight that seems only nearly powerful enough to break the three trends, deeply engrained and densely intertwined as they have become.
8 (21)
While in the 1970s inflation was public enemy number one, now desperate efforts are being made throughout the OECD world to raise it to at least 2 per cent, hitherto without success.
9 (23)
normal in OECD capitalism after 1945, of reasonably free elections, government by established mass parties, ideally one of the Right and one of the Left, and strong trade unions and employer associations under a firmly institutionalized collective bargaining regime, with legal rights to strike and, sometimes, lock-out. This model reached its peak in the 1970s, after which it began to disintegrate28
10 (25)
Today, after global financialization, democracy may be conceived as a struggle between two constituencies, the national state people and the international market people
11 (29)
2004 household wealth excluding home equity, the top 100 households are compared to, again, the bottom 90 per cent; here the ratio is more than ten times as high, at 108,765 to 1 (p. 217). According to Winters, this corresponds roughly to the difference in material power between a senator and a slave at the height of the Roman Empire.42
12 (36)
Note that resilience is not resistance but, more or less voluntary, adaptive adjustment.
13 (37)
unsustainable neoliberal capitalism, summarily and provisionally to be identified as coping, hoping, doping and shopping.
14 (71)
As the decay progresses, it is bound to provoke political protests and manifold attempts at collective intervention. But for a long time, these are likely to remain of the Luddite sort: local, dispersed, uncoordinated, ‘primitive’ – adding to the disorder while unable to create a new order, at best unintentionally helping it to come about.
15 (91)
economics as ‘scientific knowledge’ teaches citizens and politicians that true justice is market justice, under which everybody is rewarded according to their contribution, rather than their needs redefined as rights.
16 (92)
Good economic policy is non-political by definition.
17 (93)
expanding welfare state, the right of workers to free collective bargaining and a political guarantee of full employment, underwritten by governments making extensive use of the Keynesian economic toolkit.
18 (106)
governments confronted with an apparently irrepressible conflict between the two contradictory principles of allocation under democratic capitalism: social rights on the one hand and marginal productivity, as evaluated by the market, on the other.
19 (107)
No government today can govern without paying close attention to international constraints and obligations, including those of the financial markets forcing the state to impose sacrifices on its population.
20 (107)
government today can govern without paying close attention to international constraints and obligations, including those of the financial markets forcing the state to impose sacrifices on its population. the IMF or the European Union, immeasurably more insulated from electoral pressure than was the traditional nation state.
21 (115)
Zuteilungswirtschaft, or ‘allocation economy’, of the 1950s and ’60s:
22 (119)
German firms, Adidas and Puma, from local producers of no more than two or three styles of football and running
23 (119)
Vergesellschaft ung, or sociation – that is, a way for individuals to link up to others and thereby define their place in the world.
24 (122)
during the 1980s and ’90s that the difference between public and private provision was that the state dictates to people what they are supposed to need – which will always in effect be the same for everybody – whereas private markets cater to what people really want, as individuals.
25 (139)
Attempts to establish an international bankruptcy regime for states that would regulate the rights and obligations of debtors and creditors and establish some form of international jurisdiction have been unsuccessful so far.
26 (139)
Fiscal consolidation, then, is essentially a confidence-building measure. Its objective is to make a state attractive for financial investment by making it clear to the financial markets that the state is in a position to service its debt.
27 (141)
I have described the debt state elsewhere28 as having two constituencies, citizens and creditors – or two peoples, a Staatsvolk and a Marktvolk.
28 (171)
The freedom of the market from state interference that defines a liberal and indeed a liberal-capitalist economy is not a state of nature but is and needs to be politically constructed, publicly instituted and enforced by state power.
29 (175)
‘European Parliament’ with its ‘European elections’. Of course that ‘parliament’ has no executive to control; its lacks the right of legislative initiative; and it cannot change the constitution of ‘Europe’, if only because there is no such thing as the rules of the European game are written by the national executives in the form of unbelievably complex and, even for specialists, entirely unreadable international treaties.16 Just as there is no governing majority in the Parliament, there is no opposition either: voters who are sceptical or do not care about the European construction abstain from voting, and indeed in rising numbers.
30 (180)
Since the crisis of 2008, which is of course far from over if it ever will be, the Bank has acquired wide-ranging capacities to discipline the sovereign states and societies in and under its jurisdiction to make them pay proper respect to the rules of a neoliberal money-cum-market regime.
31 (188)
Helmut Kohl, by then already an ex-German Chancellor, predicted that the euro would create a ‘European identity’ and that it would take ‘at most five years before Britain also joined the currency union, followed directly by Switzerland’.17
32 (190)
Moreover, inflation made it easier for governments to borrow, as it steadily devalued the public debt.
33 (190)
In Northern Europe such cultural chauvinism produces the cliché of the ‘lazy Greeks’, while in the South it results in the notion of the ‘cold-blooded Germans’ who ‘live to work instead of working to live’, with calls for each side to acknowledge its errors and mend its ways.
34 (196)
Angela Merkel’s ‘If the euro fails, then Europe fails’ was a particularly crass example – and start seeing the single currency for what it is: an economic expedient that will have lost its raison d’être if it fails to serve its purpose.
35 (198)
writers as Fisher or Keynes. They would teach us at the very least that money is a constantly developing historical institution that requires continual reshaping, and must be judged as efficient not just in theory but also in its political function.
36 (209)
social protection in the workplace through strong trade unions and free collective bargaining, and beyond the workplace through a comprehensive welfare state – all negotiated, as it were, with a pistol pointed to the head of liberal capitalism, forcing it into a shotgun marriage with social democracy.
37 (210)
between capitalism and democracy is a good deal less mechanical or additive, and much more dialectical and dilemmatic,
38 (211)
the private vice of profit maximization may be converted into the public benefit of social progress, to sustain a political equilibrium helping the sitting government to build political legitimacy. On the other hand, except in special situations of very high economic growth, it would appear that the social corrections of the market that are needed to achieve political equilibrium in a democracy tend to undermine the confidence of capital owners and investors, thereby upsetting the economic equilibrium that is equally essential for capitalist-democratic stability.
39 (211)
Capitalism and democracy thus seem to simultaneously support and undermine one another:
40 (220)
that capitalism denotes both an economy and a society, and that studying it requires a conceptual framework that does not separate the one from the other.
41 (227)
consumption and the evolution of consumer ‘needs’, or better: governments to respect the interests of strategically important groups in the political economy.
42 (229)
As a social system, capitalist democracy is ruled by two diverging sets of normative principles, social justice on the one hand and market justice on the other,
43 (240)
Here, in the analysis of the ongoing battle over the limits to be drawn and continuously redrawn by modern society for its capitalist economy, is where economic sociology and political economy blend into each other – and as I have tried to show, it is here that the study of contemporary capitalism can and must make the most progress.
44 (243)
Today, unlimited consumption seems to have replaced the Promised Land in the dreams dreamed by Americans almost as a matter of social obligation.
45 (251)
Power, after all, is the ability to refuse to learn.
46 (260)
internet-based media are free to compose their news entirely by themselves, with no intervention whatsoever from anyone with authority to decide what a good citizen has to take notice of – which was what public broadcasting was able to do and did only a few years ago.
47 (265)
it has now become almost commonplace that the present crisis is to a large extent a crisis of trust
48 (268)
As with all ‘basic research’, that we cannot say who will use it and how, can be no reason for not doing it.
Pagetop

Sanasto Vocabulary Словарь (Code: w)

1 Luddite /ˈlədˌīt/ I. noun 1. a member of any of the bands of English workers who destroyed machinery, especially in cotton and woolen mills, that they believed was threatening their jobs (1811–16). 2. a person opposed to increased industrialization or new technology • a small-minded Luddite resisting progress. II. derivatives 1. Luddism /ˈləˌdizəm / noun 2. Ludditism /-ˌītˌizəm / noun (71)
2 Versorgungswirtschaft, which might be translated as ‘provision economy’.) (115)
3 bailouts (194)
pelastuspaketit.
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Kielikuvat Idioms Идиоми (Code: i)

1 idiosyncratic preferences (124)
Idiosyncratic means unique to an individual. Albert Einstein famously had lots of idiosyncratic habits. For example, he rarely wore socks, and he talked to his cat.
2 hedonistic individual utility maximization. (128)
3 ‘happily ever after’ [glücklich und zufrieden bis an ihr Lebensende]). (208)
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