The Making of Global Capitalism
The Political Economy Of American Empire
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
The all-encompassing embrace of world capitalism at the beginning of the twenty-first century was generally attributed to the superiority of competitive markets. Globalization had appeared to be the natural outcome of this unstoppable process. But today, with global markets roiling and increasingly reliant on state intervention to stay afloat, it has become clear that markets and states aren’t straightforwardly opposing forces.
In this groundbreaking work, Leo Panitch and Sam Gindin demonstrate the intimate relationship between modern capitalism and the American state, including its role as an “informal empire” promoting free trade and capital movements. Through a powerful historical survey, they show how the US has superintended the restructuring of other states in favor of competitive markets and coordinated the management of increasingly frequent financial crises.
The Making of Global Capitalism, through its highly original analysis of the first great economic crisis of the twenty-first century, identifies the centrality of the social conflicts that occur within states rather than between them. These emerging fault lines hold out the possibility of new political movements transforming nation states and transcending global markets.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this sweeping, timely, and well-researched study of global capitalism, York University political scientist Panitch and York University visiting social justice scholar Gindin (coauthors, with Greg Albo, of In and Out of Crisis: The Global Financial Meltdown and Left Alternatives) trace economic developments from the 1944 Bretton Woods conference to the present. Panitch and Gindin maintain that after WWII, U.S. officials did not pursue a narrow conventional concept of national self-interest; rather, in pushing for nondiscriminatory international access for capital, "European capitalists forged ties with American capitalists both within Europe and within the US," strengthening cross-border capitalist powers. If this argument stretches the concept of class unity to a perhaps untenable solidity, it also underscores the evolution of "a truly global financial system based on the internationalization of the U.S. financial system." However, decades later, global capital mobility led to 72 financial crises in the 1990s among low- and middle-income nations. The authors conclude that "turning the financial institutions that are the life-blood of global capitalism into public utilities" is a "necessary prerequisite for social justice and democracy"; whether this is a desirable, or even plausible, action need not vitiate the merits of the authors' compelling arguments.
