Description
"The provocative political thinker asks if it will be with a bang or a whimper In How Will Capitalism End? the acclaimed analyst of contemporary politics and economics Wolfgang Streeck argues that capitalism is now in a critical condition. Growth is giving way to secular stagnation; inequality is leading to instability; and confidence in the capitalist money economy has all but evaporated. Capitalism's shotgun marriage with democracy since 1945 is breaking up as the regulatory institutions restraining its advance have collapsed, and after the final victory of capitalism over its enemies no political agency capable of rebuilding them is in sight. The capitalist system is stricken with at least five worsening disorders for which no cure is at hand: declining growth, oligarchy, starvation of the public sphere, corruption and international anarchy. In this arresting book Wolfgang Streeck asks if we are witnessing a long and painful period of cumulative decay: of intensifying frictions, of fragility and uncertainty, and of a steady succession of 'normal accidents'"-- "In How Will Capitalism End? the acclaimed analyst of contemporary politics and economics Wolfgang Streeck argues that capitalism is now in a critical condition. Growth is giving way to secular stagnation; inequality is leading to instability; and confidence in the capitalist money economy has all but evaporated. Capitalism's shotgun marriage with democracy since 1945 is breaking up as the regulatory institutions restraining its advance have collapsed, and after the final victory of capitalism over its enemies no political agency capable of rebuilding them is in sight. The capitalist system is stricken with at least five worsening disorders for which no cure is at hand: declining growth, oligarchy, starvation of the public sphere, corruption and international anarchy. In this arresting book Wolfgang Streeck asks whether we are witnessing a long and painful period of cumulative decay: of intensifying frictions, of fragility and uncertainty, and of a steady succession of "normal accidents.""--… (more)
Status
Call number
Genres
Publication
User reviews
This book is a collection of Streeck articles which have previously
If you are looking for a good Marxist attack upon Capitalism, I suggest that you move on now: this is far more subtle. It begins with an eminently readable explanation as to how Capitalism has come to its current form - and indeed, a clear insight as to what that current state is. Events such as the fight against inflation through the '70's, public debt in the '80's, deregulation in the '90's and the bank bailouts of the noughties all become an understandable, almost inevitable, chain.
Streeck then goes on to link democracy and capitalism in an eternal love/hate relationship. He argues, persuasively, that each is necessary to the other for its inception and continued development but, that each has the intention of limiting the other. Capitalism is certainly on the upstroke at the moment but if, as seems more likely than previously, it proves to be victorious; that victory will be pyrrhic.
So, whilst a date for the death of Capitalism is not to be found, the symptoms currently affecting it are closely examined and reasonable doubt cast upon its ability to regenerate in a Whovian fashion.