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A review by 4harrisons
How Will Capitalism End? Essays on a Failing System by Wolfgang Streeck
5.0
Wolfgang Streeck may not in fact answer the question that he poses in the title of this book, but it is still a superb read.
It consists of a set of essays and speeches from the German sociologist published previously in New Left Review (and elsewhere) and organised around the theme of the challenges to capitalism. Each is a thoughtful and valuable contribution to the analysis of modern capitalist, it's impact on society, politics, and environment, and what our options for the future might be.
The opening essay sets the tone. It poses the suggestion that capitalism has so successfully eliminated all opposition to it's conquest of politics and society that it's destructive nature now has free rein without constraint from organised labour or political control. The end result will be the long slow death of capitalism's ability to deliver for the majority of its inhabitants, without the prospect of its replacement by a different system which can pick up the baton as Marx originally envisaged.
The remaining essays work around similar themes. The emphasis is on the impact of the neoliberal project to disconnect the management of the economy from political and social control. This can be seen in Streeck's characterisation of the changing nature of the state leading towards the current "consolidation" state where having passed successively through private debt then public debt stages now exists to ensure that we reliably meet our obligations to asset holders.
Another theme of Streeck is the divide between social rights and free markets. Where the democratic state prioritises providing public services for its citizens identified through elections. By contrast the "consolidation" state prioritises the contractual claims of creditors and the servicing of debt. The tension between these two has been a major driver for social and political change since the second world war.
This is a thought provoking and very readable set of essays which should be of interest to anyone who doesn't accept the orthodox economist world view.
It consists of a set of essays and speeches from the German sociologist published previously in New Left Review (and elsewhere) and organised around the theme of the challenges to capitalism. Each is a thoughtful and valuable contribution to the analysis of modern capitalist, it's impact on society, politics, and environment, and what our options for the future might be.
The opening essay sets the tone. It poses the suggestion that capitalism has so successfully eliminated all opposition to it's conquest of politics and society that it's destructive nature now has free rein without constraint from organised labour or political control. The end result will be the long slow death of capitalism's ability to deliver for the majority of its inhabitants, without the prospect of its replacement by a different system which can pick up the baton as Marx originally envisaged.
The remaining essays work around similar themes. The emphasis is on the impact of the neoliberal project to disconnect the management of the economy from political and social control. This can be seen in Streeck's characterisation of the changing nature of the state leading towards the current "consolidation" state where having passed successively through private debt then public debt stages now exists to ensure that we reliably meet our obligations to asset holders.
Another theme of Streeck is the divide between social rights and free markets. Where the democratic state prioritises providing public services for its citizens identified through elections. By contrast the "consolidation" state prioritises the contractual claims of creditors and the servicing of debt. The tension between these two has been a major driver for social and political change since the second world war.
This is a thought provoking and very readable set of essays which should be of interest to anyone who doesn't accept the orthodox economist world view.