Overview
- Offers a broad exploration of the progression of Marxist and critical heterodox economics on the theorizing of stages of capitalism for scholars, students, researchers, practitioners and activists
- Demonstrates why the post 1980s world economic changes euphemized as neoliberalism, globalization and financialization reflect the disintegration of capitalism, vitiating all policy solutions
- Hones in on the two major contemporary debate streams for capitalism
Part of the book series: Palgrave Insights into Apocalypse Economics (PIAE)
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About this book
This book offers the first systematic exposition and critique of the major approaches to periodizing capitalism, bringing to bear both deep rooted theoretical questions and meticulous empirical analysis to grapple with the seismic economic changes capitalism has experienced over the past 150 years.
Westra asks why – despite the anarchic and crises tendencies captured in radical analyses – capitalism manages to reload in a structured stage that realizes a period of relatively stable accumulation. He further evaluates arguments over the economic forces bringing stages of capitalist development to a crashing end.
Particular attention in the periodization literature is devoted to examining the economy of the post World War II golden age and what followed its unceremonious demise. The final chapters assess whether what is variously dubbed neoliberalism, globalization or financialization can be understood as a stage of capitalism or, rather, an era of capitalist disintegration and extinction.
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Keywords
- History of capitalism
- Capitalist extinction
- Apocalypse economics
- Capitalist development
- Marxist economics
- Imperialism
- Periodizing capitalism
- Financialization
- Globalization
- Financial crises
- The Great Recession
- Critical heterodox economics
- Left Political Economy
- Post-Second World War economics
- Capitalist thjeory
- Marxian political economy
- Neoliberal economics
- Apocalypse Economics
Table of contents (9 chapters)
Reviews
“This is a valuable contribution to the English-lanugage legacy of the thought of Kozo Uno– an almost criminally underrated school of thought.” (Marx and Philosophy, marxandphilosophy.org.uk, February 20, 2020)
“In his new book, Richard Westra takes up two long-standing and crucial questions in the study of capitalism. How do we conceptualize and periodize the different historical phases of capitalist development in general and this long period of neoliberal globalization in particular? What are the signs of a fundamental impasse in capitalism’s dynamics of accumulation, it’s terminal crisis, and the emergent political conditions pointing toward a social transformation? There are few texts that take these issues up, and Westra provides a timely and important map to these debates. In a conjuncture in world politics where social forces on the right are taking an authoritarian turn and new movements on the left are beginning to surface, this book is written with the right temper of careful assessment and necessary sense of political urgency.” (Greg Albo, York University, Canada)
“After systematically critiquing alternative accounts presented over the last 150 years, Westra develops his own explanation of the discontinuities in continuity of capitalism. His book will appeal to all those with a theoretical, historical, and practical interest in the nature, trajectory, and crisis-tendencies of capitalism up the current stage of consumerism.” (Bob Jessop, Lancaster University, UK)
“Many analysts have sought to identify and analyze distinct periods in capitalist history, from Marx, Hilferding, and Lenin, through recent examinations of neoliberalism, globalization, and financialization. Richard Westra fills a gap in this literature by offering a comprehensive account, along with a critique, of those efforts. He offers a gloomy conclusion, that the current stage is not a stage of capitalism at all but a period of disintegration of its foundations.” (David M. Kotz, University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA)
“Determining the historical periods of capitalist development is one of the most complex problems faced by Marxist political economy. Richard Westra reviews the relevant literature with great skill, and discusses novel approaches that draw on Uno School Marxism. His book is a powerful contribution that will serve as reference point.” (Costas Lapavitsas, SOAS University of London, UK)
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Richard Westra is International Adjunct Professor at the Centre for Macau Studies, University of Macau, China SAR. He has been a Designated Professor at the Graduate School of Law, Nagoya University, Japan and Visiting Professor at the Institute of Political Economy, Carleton University, Canada. He is Author or Editor of 17 books and scores of articles and chapters in peer reviewed outlets.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Periodizing Capitalism and Capitalist Extinction
Authors: Richard Westra
Series Title: Palgrave Insights into Apocalypse Economics
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14390-9
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Economics and Finance, Economics and Finance (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2019
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-14389-3Published: 27 May 2019
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-14392-3Published: 14 August 2020
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-14390-9Published: 15 May 2019
Series ISSN: 2523-8108
Series E-ISSN: 2523-8116
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XI, 270
Number of Illustrations: 10 b/w illustrations, 2 illustrations in colour
Topics: Macroeconomics/Monetary Economics//Financial Economics, International Political Economy, Heterodox Economics, History of Economic Thought/Methodology, Economic Theory/Quantitative Economics/Mathematical Methods, Political Economy/Economic Systems