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Capital Accumulation: Breaking the Dualism of "Economics" and "Politics"
No full textThis chapter outlines the main problems of capital theory, key issues which need to be resolved, and the way in which an alternative concept of capital may affect the future evolution of IPE. Briefly, existing theories of capital can be classified into three groups, based on their relationship to production. The neoclassical paradigm makes output a function of factor inputs (the amount of the different factors of production – labour, raw materials and capital goods – used to produce that output). Capital, perceived as one of these factors, is counted in its own technical units. Marxists view production as a socio-material transformation in which capital changes its skin from money, to commodities, to more money. The engine of this transformation is the labour process, in which living labour power is converted into “dead labour” embedded in commodities. Capital, growing directly from this process, is measured in labour time. For the institutionalists, production is a complex societal process, whose qualitative intricacies cannot be easily deciphered, let alone quantified. In this latter framework, capital is neither a productive input nor a material output, but rather a symbolic pecuniary crystallization of the power controlling the process. Seen in that way, capital can be measured only in differential terms, relative to other capitals. Conceptually, neoclassical and Marxist theories are built from the bottom up, deriving accumulation from the underlying process of production. The institutionalist view, on the other hand, is constructed from the top down, with production subjugated to accumulation. The troubled history of capital theory suggests that bottom-up explanations are logically vulnerable if not impossible. The top-down view, although largely unexplored, is unlikely to face the same problems. Indeed, by focusing directly on power and on the way it shapes societal reproduction, this route not only bypasses the intractable “input-output structure” of industry, but also offers a way of integrating politics into our very conceptualization of capital
Inflation and Accumulation. The Case of Israel
No full textThe paper offers a new theoretical framework for linking inflation and accumulation, with the Israeli experience as a case study. The focal point is the process of differential accumulation by the largest core firms. The theory of differential accumulation suggests that the relative power of these firms can be augmented either through ‘breadth’ (relative employment) or ‘depth’ (relative profit per employee). In the Israeli case, inflation accelerated since the 1970s when the large core firm began shifting their emphasis from breadth to depth. The paper examines the political economic conditions typical to each of these regimes, why these conditions changed in Israel, and how the distributive gains of the core firms pushed the country onto the brink of hyperinflation. It then articulates the inherent limits of a ‘depth’ regime, why Israel reached those limits during the early 1980s, and how this brought the inflation spiral to an end
The Impermanent War Economy? Peace Dividends and Capital Accumulation in Israel
No full textThe purpose of this article is to offer an alternative analytical framework for understanding the long term transformation in Israel. First, we argue against the conventional separation between the “political system” and the “economic system.” This separationist approach has been popular among Israeli scholars but its analytical value is open to doubt. Second, instead of the comment aggregate/statist approach, we take the disaggregate route of political economy, accentuating the historical role played by key power groups. And, finally, rather than focus merely on domestic considerations, we claim that both the earlier military economy and the current trajectory into “peace markets” are part of a broader global developments, particularly the internationalization of business institutions and the changing nature of the capitalist nation-state. In our opinion, the sharp “U-turn” in Israeli history is intimately linked to the changing nature of capital accumulation and corporate concentration, both in Israel and in the United States. For the large core firms at the centre of the economy, which we view as principal actors in this process, accumulation and concentration are two sides of the same process. With the evolution of modern capitalism, the leading firms are increasingly driven not to maximize their profits but rather to “beat the average.” Specifically, they seek to achieve a “differential rate of accumulation” – that is, to exceed the average rate of return in the economy. However, since a differential growth in profits implies control over a growing share of the aggregate capitalized assets, for these firms the goal of accumulation means a quest for rising corporate concentration
Peace Will Bring the Money (השלום יביא את הכסף)
Get PDFשרידתה של הכלכלה הישראלית אינה תלויה במשחקי הריבית של פרנקל. שמשון ביכלר ויהונתן ניצן עושים סדר במושגים, וניזכרים בגעגועים בחזון המזרח התיכון החדש
Peace, Peace, and No Peace (שלום, שלום, ואין שלום)
Get PDFמגב כריכת ההוצאה הראשונה, 1961
הספר סוקר את התפתחות יחסי ישראל-ערב בשנים 1961-1948 כפי שהשתקפו בעיתונות הישראלית ומעל במת הכנסת. דעות כל החוגים בישראל -- מ"חרות" עד מק"י – מובאות בהרחבה מפי דובריהם המוסמכים ביותר. רבים ימצאו כאן לראשונה תאור מפורט של עובדות נשכחות. המעטים היודעים את העובדות יופתעו להיווכח באיזו מידה מסוגל מנגנון תעמולה ממלכתי לעצב לא רק את השקפתו של האזרח אלא גם את זכרונו
מההקדמה להוצאה השניה, 1999
למהדורה זו צורפו נספחים הכוללים מידע שהיה חסוי בשעתו ונחשף רק עשרות שנים לאחר שכתבנו את הספר. שיערנו שניתוחינו יקבלו לימים אישור נוסף. ואכן, העובדות שנחשפו מאז, שאחדות מהן הפתיעו גם אותנו, מאשרות את ניתוחנו. אין פירוש הדבר שכל המידע החסוי מאותה תקופה כבר נחש
Differential Accumulation: Toward a New Political Economy of Capital
No full textExisting theories of capital, neo-classical as well as Marxist, are anchored in the material sphere of production and consumption. This article offers a new analytical framework for capital as a crystallization of power. The relative nature of power requires accumulation to be measured in differential, not absolute, terms. For absentee owners, the main goal is not to maximize pro.ts, but rather to “beat the average” and exceed the “normal rate of return”. The theoretical framework builds on Thorstein Veblen’s separation of industry from business and on Lewis Mumford’s dichotomy between democratic and authoritarian techniques. Extending their contributions, we argue that capital is a business, not an industrial category, a human mega-machine rather than a material artefact. Indeed, it is the social essence of capital which makes accumulation possible in the .rst place. Capital measures the present value of future business earnings, and these depend not on the productivity of industry as such, but on the ability of absentee owners strategically to limit such productivity to their own differential ends. Introducing the twin concepts of the “differential power of capital” (DPK) and the rate of “differential accumulation” (DA), we examine the non-linear and possibly negative link between industrial growth and accumulation in the USA
Latin America: Will the Chickens Come Home to Roost?
Get PDFAnalysis of Latin American equities a year after the Asian crisis
Asian Equities: Not for the Fainthearted. Special Report
Get PDFAnalysis of Asian equities six months after the Asian crisis
The Threat of Demographics and the Promise of Peace
Get PDFOver the past year, the slowdown of the Israeli economy has heated the debate between the “Keynesian” industrialists and their “monetarists” foes at the central bank – one arguing for looser monetary policy, the other for a tighter one. As it turns out, both sides insist on ignoring far more fundamental issues: demographics and the peace process
The "Asian Miracle": How Close to Maturity?
Get PDFA long-term comparative study of the Asian miracle