...Is contemporary capitalism a kind of imperialism? For Ellen Meiskins Wood, it is the ‘empire of capital’ that is shaping our world. For her, the empire of capital is the new form of imperialism across the globe. Capitalism, she argues, has become ‘universal’ and it spans the globe with pervasive and intrusive control over human life and nature. It is operating with its systemic logic of ‘accumulation, commodification, profit maximization, and competition’. The empire of capital has achieved its global and penetrating grip by setting free and directing the destructive forces of the capitalist market and ‘totalizing itself’ intensively and extensively to permeate all spheres wherever it establishes itself. It is alive and there's no sign of its demise in the near future. Wood argues that capitalist imperialism, driven by market imperatives, and unlike other imperialisms before it, ‘seeks to impose its economic hegemony without political domination wherever it can.’ Empire of Capital provides perceptive insights into the fundamental nature of capitalist imperialism and what drives it. ‘The Detachment of Economic Power’ she provides an explanation of and dissects capital imperialism. She shows how under ‘empire of capital’ (the new imperialism) the economic power of capital is detached from political and military power (extra-economic force) and discusses the relation between them, as well as the implication of the detachment on the relation between the economy and the state...
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...Blaut... CH. 4 We now know: - Capitalism was developing evenly throughout Africa, Europe and Asia before 1492. - This process was called by Blaut: “Proto-capitalism.” So capitalism does not appear out of nowhere. It shifted its center from Indian Ocean to Europe = continuous process. Industrial revolution started later: symbolically situated in 1688 (overthrow of King James II in England by Parliamentary group) So... How did Capitalism develop more in Europe after 1492? - This is the main question of the chapter. Why did Europe discover America? Myth of adventuresome superiority in Europe. - Based on internal characteristics of Europe and giving no credit to non-Europeans. But they were trading in maritime centers just like everyone else. Technology superiority of Europe? Others had traveled long distances. Inventions were criss-crossing and Europeans did not have technological superiority in navigation. So why...??? Special progress in Europe? Nop... Europe in 1492 was “sluggish”. - Economic growth was slow and most likely negative. - Urbanization process was slow. In 1 or 2 decades progress and economic growth started to rise. - - Why??? So Why??? Geographic location. - Europe was simply closer to America and this was an advantage. Sailing conditions were better: winds were favorable. West-African traders...
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...| Globalization | | Curtis SwordMGT 333Professor Calton | 4/12/2012 | | Globalization is the process of converting the world markets to a single market without barriers to trade and investment flows. The concept of globalization is said to have been spawned out of the Cold War as a result of the increase in specialization and the need for trade. As a result of globalization many economists, businesspeople, and politicians have found that they needed to change their policies and adopt what is called “the Golden Straightjacket”, which is a set of guidelines that governments and businesses must follow to be successful in a unified market. Many economists, politicians, authors, and businesspeople have differing views on the costs and benefits of putting on the Golden Straightjacket. Tom Friedman, an economist and author, argues that the Golden Straightjacket is a good thing for the world economy, while Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine, argues that free trade is a technique used to make the rich richer and the poor poorer. Other ideas that have been argued are the effect globalization has on the spread of democracy. Tom Friedman argues that globalization is used to revolutionize governments to conform to democracy while Dani Rodrik, author of The Globalization Paradox, says that globalization actually hinders the spread of democracy. Klein, Rodrik, and Friedman offer differing views that reveal the various costs and benefits of globalization. Globalization...
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...Government and Politics |A2 Government and Politics |Government and Politics Links | | Question1 [pic] Is Anarchism merely an extreme version of free market liberalism? Anarchism is a fairly broad ideology and there are important divisions within anarchism as between individualist and social anarchism and also within these categories and it can be shown that whereas most individualist anarchists and in particular anarcho-capitalists have some sympathy with the principles of free market liberalism this would not apply to social anarchists in general and particularly not to anarcho-communists such as Peter Kropotkin. Free market liberal principles have been espoused by both classical liberals and by New Right theorists who have combined support for free market liberalism with support for the strong state. Free market liberals argue that individuals are rational and therefore the best judges of their own interests and that overall economic efficiency can best be achieved by unregulated laissez faire. Liberal support for laissez faire was under-pinned by the economic theories outlined by Adam Smith in his study “The Wealth of Nations”[1776] in which he argued that the competitive capitalist economy based upon private profit and individual self-interest could via the so-called “invisible hand” of the market mechanism secure the best possible living standards for all members of society. [Essentially the theory suggested that if large numbers of firms were in competition...
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...Business Brief The problem of state presence in socio-economic life has always been and will be the subject of heated discussions among economists, sociologists and political scientists. This issue is not only an ideological one, but also of significant importance for the state functioning. It is undisputable that the implementation of particular tasks by the state turns out indispensable for the functioning of society, however, in terms of market existence the underlying advantages, to be discussed below, are much less favorable. The classification of social regulations In the course of the recent 50 years the decrease of economic regulations is quite noticeable while the social ones present an increasing tendency and have been gaining significance after the Second World War. New government institutions have been established and keep preparing an increasing number of regulations referring to social issues. This trend is present both in USA and in the EU countries. As opposed to economic regulations, which refer to market and economic variables, social regulations are focused on the influence of companies and the market on workers, clients and citizens. These regulations are mainly related to the following spheres: * employment, i.e. the protection of employees against discrimination, ensuring labor safety, proper working conditions, possibilities for promotion, appropriate remuneration for work, social security costs, social benefits, annuities and pensions (e.g. in...
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...Coalition Cuts: “Tough But Fair” Immediately as I write this essay Britain’s national debt stands at around £946,319, 240,034, 83.7% debt to GDP ratio whilst the US has a national debt of over $13,492,377,103,199. ‘Thanks to Mr Osborne, Britain now has the earliest, most aggressive programme to cut government borrowing in the G7, despite widespread fears about the strength of the UK and global recovery’ (Flanders, 2010). In this essay I will focus on Britain’s budget deficit, in particular the Emergency Budget, presenting various topics for debate in relation to different aspects of the budget. I will further expand into broader topics such as the recession as a whole, the previous Labour government, other countries situations and subsequent response and the theory behind the policies undertaken, whether driven by political or economic incentives for example. Throughout the essay I will attempt to present ideas in a balanced approach, clearly showing the difference between positive and normative statements. An economies growth rate fluctuates over a period of time, known as the economic cycle. It shows the changes over time in the macro economy such as a recession where growth falls below the trend growth rate: a negative output gap. Such events are cyclical and the general period of time between one boom and another is usually five to eight years (Peter Cramp, Informe). Gordon Brown was keen to avoid successive budget deficits...
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...population. The majority of the population has not benefited from Trinidad’s economic growth. Thus, the government has attempted to create “a nation of entrepreneurs” in order to relieve some of the inequality that defines the society (Ministry of Trade and Industry 1997). Trinidad’s expansion of micro-enterprise programs reflects an international trend. Endorsed by non-governmental organizations, private financial institutions, international development agencies, including the World Bank, many scholars and development practitioners also view microenterprise assistance as a panacea for Third World poverty (Johnson and Kidder, 1999; Mosley and Hulme, 1998; Dignard and Havet, 1995; Grosh and Somolekae, 1996; Rakowski, 1994). Micro-enterprise development programs generally consist of training in business skills or providing small loans or credit to micro-entrepreneurs (Dignard and Havet, 1995; International Labour Organization, 1995; Rakowski, 1994). These programs typically target self-employed individuals or businesses with five or fewer employees both of which are characteristic of the informal sector. The micro-enterprise strategy for development is gendered. Not only do micro-enterprise...
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...vitality" of free enterprise. The great economists of the 1930s and 1940s failed to see the dangers of socialism in part because they focused on the role of prices under socialism and capitalism, and ignored the enormous importance of ownership as the source of capitalist incentives to innovate. Moreover, many of the concerns that private firms fail to address “social goals” can be addressed through government contracting and regulation, without resort to government ownership. The case for private provision only becomes stronger when competition between suppliers, reputational mechanisms, the possibility of provision by private not-for-profit firms, as well as political patronage and corruption, are brought into play. 1 What kinds of goods and services should be provided by government employees as opposed to private firms? Should government workers make steel and cars in government-owned factories? Should teachers and doctors be publicly employed or should they work for private schools and practices? Should garbage be picked up by civil servants or employees of private garbage haulers? Should the whole economy be "socialized"? Although these are age-old questions in economics, the answers economists give to them, as well as the reasons for arriving at these answers, have been changing. In this paper, I describe some recent ways of thinking about government ownership. Half a century ago, economists were quick to favor government ownership of firms as soon as any market inequities...
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...OXFORD HOUSE COLLEGE MBA Assignment INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT “ The Contrasting Perspectives and Interests of Developed and Developing Coutries with Respect to Global Trade Liberalisation” by HAKAN AYDIN London MAY 2010 International trade is one of the international political economy’s most controversial subjects. The trade structure is the set of relationships between and among states, international organisations, international businesses and nongovernmental organisations that together influence and manage international rules and norms related to what is produced, where, by whom, how, for whom and at what price. Together with the international financial, technological and security structures, trade links states and other actors, furthering their interdependence, which benefits but also generates tension between and among these actors and different grroups within them. International trade is a process that occurs when goods and services cross national boundaries in exchange for money or the goods and services of another nation. Trade is always political and the most debated topic in international political economy. In the absence of a world government, cross border trade is always subject to rules that must be politically negotiated among nations and sovereign in their own realm but not outside their borders. (Kuttner Robert and Knopf, 1991, p:157) International trade ties countries together, and in so doing, generates...
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...modernization and development of telecommunications has become, in recent years, a widely accepted part of orthodox thinking. Wellenius, Stern, Nulty and Stern (1989) illustrate the point. ‘How should privatization be defined?’ asks the International Finance Corporation (IFC, 1995). ‘A generous stance would admit any transfer of ownership or control from public to private sector. A more exacting definition would require that the transfer be enough to give the private operators substantive independent power.’ 1 Hence, by privatization is usually meant the transfer of state-owned assets to private sector ownership, management and control typified by the sale of part or all of the shares of a state owned (and operated) telecommunications enterprise (SOTE). We shall argue that the ‘more exacting definition’ is exactly appropriate for the experience of Western economies from which it originates - see below - while it is too narrow, too precise, insufficiently ‘generous’ to capture the less clearly defined lines of demarcation between public and private capital in the context of Asian telecommunications. We shall argue that this is because the delineation between state (political society) and civil society is less well developed in Asia, certainly less well articulated in law, and unevenly developed even within single large Asian countries. Rather, we shall use privatization as a broader concept to refer to the process through which private capital is brought into the public switched...
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...Learning organization is a concept of collective learning that results from individual or team learning. The concept can be seen as a win-win situation based on the argument that individuals can develop as the organization grows. A learning organization may choose to empower workers by giving greater decision making power, how to complete their tasks and work in self managed teams (Spencer and Kelly, 2013) In this essay, various debates and case studies on organizational learning and learning organization will be identified and it will be discussed if the concept is in fact based on firm foundations. According to Spencer and Kelly, 2013 workplace learning needs to begin with the substantive issues of equity, power, authority, control and ownership. Large corporations create hierarchies of control and power and are driven by the profit motive. These control, power and profit relations create the social relations within work and society. When looking at income equity, from September 2010 to September 2011 the average earnings of Canadians rose by 1.1% while the top 100 CEOs income rose by 27% (CCPA, 2012). Additionally, HRM policies create a “sense of shared ownership” and control of the enterprise but the “sense of ownership” is not the same thing as workers actually owning and controlling and could be regarded as a form of propaganda. The idea is to increase productivity and commitment which would lift labour performance higher- “committed employees would “go the extra mile”...
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...Trust, Repute, and the Role of Nonprofit Enterprise [The book version] by Andreas Ortmann* & Mark Schlesinger** Abstract In this chapter we examine the trust hypothesis: the proposition that information asymmetries between providers and consumers of services can explain the existence of nonprofit enterprise in certain markets. We argue that this hypothesis, in order to be viable, has to meet three challenges: (1) the de jure inability of nonprofits to distribute profits to shareholders and/or management must affect incentives within the nonprofit firm in ways that are compatible with trustworthiness (Aincentive compatibility challenge@), (2) nonprofit behavior must not be adulterated by individuals taking advantage of the perceived trustworthiness (Aadulteration challenge@), and (3) nonprofit status must be treated as a reliable predictor of organizational behavior by consumers, when the reputation of individual firms is not seen as reliable (Areputational ubiquity challenge@). We propose that the trust hypothesis stands on shaky ground. It can be sustained only under particular conditions that have been neither carefully described in theory nor subject to empirical assessment. The available evidence, patchy and inadequate as it is, seems to suggest that there are ownership-related differences in the organizational behavior of non-profits and for-profits. However, there is little evidence that these differences can be connected to trust per se or provide a rationale for the existence...
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...CHAPTER 2 ENRIRONMENTAL INFLUENCE ON ACCOUNTING DEVELOPMENT 1 2.1 Introduction In international accounting research, environmental influence is the key to understanding one country’s accounting system. "To a large extent, accounting is a product of its environment. That is, it is shaped by, reflects, and reinforces particular characteristics unique to its national environment" (Radebaugh and Gray 1997). From the late 1960s, researchers in international accounting have tried to categorize countries according to a series of criteria, which have been developed on a deductive or conductive basis. These criteria tried to explain the reasons for accounting differences between countries; they aimed to describe and compare different systems with each other in an efficient way. There are several advantages to categorize and analyze the differences among countries: First, it promotes improved understanding of the complex realities of accounting practices, as well as the factors that shape a country’s accounting regulations; Second, it provides useful information for solving some of the important accounting problems that exist in the world. For example, it can help policymakers assess the prospects and problems of international harmonization; Third, it can assist in the training of accountants and auditors who operate internationally; And finally, it can enable a developing country to better understand the available and appropriate types of financial...
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...foreign economic policies have been greatly influenced by internationally-oriented corporations and that these actors have increasingly found allies among economic elites in other countries. The paper explores the relationship between hegemony by the American state and by internationally-oriented capital groups against the backdrop of transatlantic relations in the post-war period and the current debate on labor rights in international trade agreements. 1. Introduction The United States government has been, without doubt, the decisive force in establishing and shaping the main multilateral institutions of the world market since the Second World War. It has consistently pursued the opening of other nations’ markets to gain foreign suppliers. This leadership in liberalizing international trade has been mainly achieved by lowering access barriers to the American market. Given the mercantilist history of US foreign economic policy and the injury inflicted on many American industries by lowering tariffs, this leadership is quite an extraordinary achievement. This is all the more true, as trade deficits and, more...
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...Privatization and the Welfare State (Princeton University Press, 1989). The Meaning of Privatization Paul Starr Privatization is a fuzzy concept that evokes sharp political reactions. It covers a great range of ideas and policies, varying from the eminently reasonable to the wildly impractical. Yet however varied and at times unclear in its meaning, privatization has unambiguous political origins and objectives. It emerges from the countermovement against the growth of government in the West and represents the most serious conservative effort of our time to formulate a positive alternative. Privatization proposals do not aim merely to return services to their original location in the private sphere. Some proposals seek to create new kinds of market relations and promise results comparable or superior to conventional public programs. Hence it is a mistake to define and dismiss the movement as simply a replay of traditional opposition to state intervention and expenditure. The current wave of privatization initiatives opens a new chapter in the conflict over the public-private balance. This Article attempts to clarify the meaning of privatization as an idea, as theory and rhetoric, and as a political practice. In the process I...
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