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Capital as Power. A Study of Order and Creorder
Get PDFFROM THE BACK COVER
Conventional theories of capitalism are mired in a deep crisis: after centuries of debate, they are still unable to tell us what capital is. Liberals and Marxists both think of capital as an 'economic' entity that they count in universal units of ‘utils’ or 'abstract labour', respectively. But these units are totally fictitious. Nobody has ever been able to observe or measure them, and for a good reason: they don’t exist. Since liberalism and Marxism depend on these non-existing units, their theories hang in suspension. They cannot explain the process that matters most – the accumulation of capital.
This book offers a radical alternative. According to the authors, capital is not a narrow economic entity, but a symbolic quantification of power. It has little to do with utility or abstract labour, and it extends far beyond machines and production lines. Capital, the authors claim, represents the organized power of dominant capital groups to reshape – or creorder – their society.
Written in simple language, accessible to lay readers and experts alike, the book develops a novel political economy. It takes the reader through the history, assumptions and limitations of mainstream economics and its associated theories of politics. It examines the evolution of Marxist thinking on accumulation and the state. And it articulates an innovative theory of 'capital as power' and a new history of the 'capitalist mode of power'
Nine Integrated Panels on "Capital as Power": Timetable and Program
Get PDFTimetable and abstracts of an integrated panel series on the subject of "Capital as Power", to be held at the Rethinking Marxism Conference (New Marxian Times), UMASS Amherst, November 5-8, 2009.
The series comprises 23 presentations, grouped into 9 panels: an introductory session, 7 topic panels of 3 papers each and a closing roundtable
Capital as Power: Toward a New Cosmology of Capitalism (Video & Transcript)
Get PDFAs Marx tells us, the capitalist regime is inextricably bound up with its theories and ideologies. These theories and ideologies, first articulated by classical political economy, are much more than a passive attempt to explain, justify and critique the so-called "economic system." Instead, they constitute an entire cosmology: a system of thinking that is both active and totalizing.
In ancient Greek, kosmeo has an active connotation: it means "to order" and "to organize," and political economy does precisely that. It explains, justifies and critiques the world, but it also actively makes this world in the first place. And it pertains not to the narrow "economy" as such, but to the entire social order, as well as to the natural universe in which this social order is embedded.
The presentation outlines an alternative cosmology – the beginning of a totally different framework for understanding capitalism. It starts by spelling out the hallmarks of the present capitalist cosmology. It continues by enumerating the reasons why, over the past century, this cosmology gradually disintegrated to the point of being unable to understand and recreate its world. And it concludes by articulating key themes of our own approach to capitalism: the theory of "capital as power."
Duration of presentation: 57 minutes
Duration of Q&A: 13 minute
The Political Economy of Colombia's Cocaine Industry
Get PDFThis study provides up-to-date scientific estimates of annual revenues generated by Colombia's illicit cocaine industry (1991-2007), imputed from data on coca production collected by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. While Colombian producers appropriate only a fraction of global revenues from cocaine trafficking and sales, control over production and appropriation of revenues is highly concentrated, suggesting a great capacity for illegal drug-firms to impact Colombian economy and society. We compare narco-capital accumulation within the wider context of the Colombian economy in terms of productivity, employment patterns, growth and concentration of wealth and power and find that narco-production ranks among the most productive and lucrative sectors of the economy. But while the potential for profits is high, the illegal nature of the industry means firms are prone to sabotage and violence from competitors and vulnerable to attempts at suppression of production by the state, making the industry highly volatile and risky. If illegally accumulated drug-money can serve as a source of financing for legal economic activities, thus propping up economic growth in the formal sector, it must also be said that illegally accumulated narco-dollars are used to finance illegal armed groups and contribute to violence and insecurity, particularly for rural peasants
Conference Panel Proposals on "Capital as Power"
Get PDFThe document comprises a series of proposed panels on the subject of "Capital as Power", submitted for approval to the Rethinking Marxism Conference (New Marxian Times), to be held at UMASS Amherst, November 5-8, 2009.
The proposal comprises 23 presentations, grouped into 9 panels: an introductory session, 7 topic panels of 3 papers each and a closing roundtable
Political Economy of Capital Accumulation (YorkU, AS/POLS 4292 6.0, Undergraduate, Fall Term, 2008-9)
Get PDFCapital is the central power institution of capitalism: it is the main force underlying the relentless transformation of power relations in capitalist societies. The course explores the accumulation of capital from three interrelated perspectives: conceptual, historical and empirical. At the conceptual level, it examines the evolution of different orthodox and critical theories of value and how these theories serve to explain and justify contending notions of accumulation. At the historical level, it traces the development of capital from its humble pre-capitalist origins to its present world dominance. At the empirical level, it studies and juxtaposes the qualitative and quantitative aspects of capital accumulation as they pertain to the contemporary political economy. In parallel to these explorations, the course introduces students to art and science of empirical research. By the end of the course, students are expected to be able to develop and integrate theoretical arguments with their own empirical work
Contours of Crisis: Plus ça change, plus c'est pareil?
Get PDFThis is the first in a series of short articles we plan to write on the current crisis. Our aim in this series is threefold: to outline some of the important contours of the crisis; to situate these patterns in historical context; and to reflect on their possible causes and implications.
This paper sets the stage for the series. It outlines the conventional wisdom about the cause of crisis; it describes the chronology of events; and it contrasts the pattern and magnitude of the current downturn with those of earlier episodes. The overall picture painted by this analysis is highly stylized: crises appear to come and go with remarkable regularity, their oscillations are fairly similar and they share the same order of magnitude. The whole process seems almost ‘automatic’, and automaticity is reassuring: it suggests that the current crisis has run much of its course and that doom and gloom will soon give way to a new upswing.
But what if this automaticity is a mirage
Accumulation through Crisis: Global Stagflation and the New Wars
Get PDFA lecture on the capitalist hologram and the new patterns of mergers, stagflation and war.
Video duration: 1 hour 45 minutes
Peak Oil? Oil Supply and Accumulation
Get PDFFROM THE ARTICLE: Peak oil will come. When it does, its effects on the global economy are uncertain. In the meantime, the oil companies must keep the following plates spinning: faith in oil as the energy source of capitalism, a high enough price to remain on top of the corporate world, a low enough and steady enough price to avoid contributing to a lengthy recession, or even a depression. While the differential perspective on accumulation makes it clear that growth is not synonymous with the corporate interest -- as long as everyone else is declining faster than you, then you are differentially accumulating -- depressions are dangerous for their unpredictability and their potential to threaten the capitalist status quo. . . . Undoubtedly, one of these plates will drop. The question is: which one? The consequences of the answer to that question will come more immediately than the geologically necessary peak in production and should be of greater concern
From Welltop to Laptop?
Get PDFOver the past decade, soaring commodity prices have had a relatively minor impact on the overall level of prices, at least by historical standards. Whereas oil is twelve times more expensive now that it was in 1999, consumer prices in industrialized countries are only 20 per cent higher. This short note explains why the sluggish response of inflation may be about to change