Lecture 1. Introduction

August 21, 2006 at 12:49 pm · Filed under Uncategorized

capitalism

In this lecture I will discuss some basic and essential concepts. I also provide a run through of the entire course, so I briefly discuss the other 19 lectures listed in the course outline.

I think it is important to give a holistic overview.

The lecture is based broadly on the first chapter of my book Babylon and Beyond, you should read this and you should also examine the arguments of those like the Economist magazine who are sympathetic to a market based economic system. Essentially this course looks at the economics of the anti-capitalist movement and seeks to examine critically why anti-capitalists object to the present economy system and what they would put in it’s place.

I stress the word ‘critically’, this course sets out to look at the strengths and weaknesses of varied forms of ‘new radical political economy’ and is particularly interested in open source alternatives.

It is very important to understand the strengths and weaknesses of market based economics and to study the arguments of those who advocate it.

These notes are not the ‘lecture’ but merely give you some signposts.

Capitalism. This is a much contested concept and we can discuss different definitions, wikipedia provides a very interesting list of different interpretations! My starting point is that

‘Capitalism is, essentially, a system where profits are made within a market-based context and reinvested in new capital equipment.’ (Wall 2005:9).

There are big debates that can be had around the definition but note I use the term ‘system’, capitalism is a systematic way of organising production and consumption. Profit is not simply made but reinvested and this tends to have a number of effects such as the growth of firms or other business units which tend to exploit economies of scale. Marxists and other critics of capitalism along with those who support capitalism make a number of subtle distinctions when defining capitalism, which it would be wise for you to explore at this stage in the course.

Globalisation is also hugely contested. We will discuss it in detail in lecture 2. Those critical of the term argue that the global economy has long been international so to speak of ‘globalisation’ as a new feature is misleading. We can also debate what is globalised (goods, services, culture, power?) and the extent to which globalisation requires reduction in the power of nation states like the USA or the UK.

I define it as a process where resources flow on a increasingly world wide scale and the power of nation states is progressively reduced.

Anti-capitalist/anti-globalisation movements.

Are diverse in this course I look at Keynesians who essentially want to modify global capitalism like Joseph Stiglitz and George Soros, Greens, monetary reformers, various Marxists and even anarchists.

Arguments for Capitalism

Capitalism can be a ‘cuss’ word for youthful protesters but its advocates argue that a free market capitalism, with little government intervention, is economically, efficient, environmentally beneficially, is democratic and is some extent ‘fair’. There are strong arguments to be made for the benefits of capitalism, which I will discuss. As I have noted it is important to look at the worlds of those who support capitalism in a relatively unmixed form.

Arguments against capitalism

The bulk of this course will look at the economic ideas of those who challenge capitalism, at this stage it is worth examining these at least briefly.

Seminar questions.

1. What is economics?

2. What is capitalism?

3. Why do advocates believe capitalism is beneficial?

4. How has capitalism been criticised by opponents?

Global protest / produced by Janice Finch; directed by Mark Shaw & Nick Hillel.			2000.	10825 Video [open access]
June 18th.	1999.	14612 Video [open access]

New-radical-political-economy