ABSTRACT
The central structural and institutional fact of the 'first' world whatever may be said about post-capitalist society and the welfare state, is still the fact that most productive functions are undertaken by capitalist enterprises, seeking profit through market opportunities, and mobilising capital, raw materials, machinery and labour to achieve this end as efficiently as possible. Political authority, that is to say the right to legislate about what actions is permitted and punishable, and the right to direct bureaucratic government agencies is normally attained as the result of popular election. The political parties are the organisations of individuals which compete for control of this authority. A capitalist system, however, depends not only on the market mechanism. It also depends upon the existence of corporations of a rationally-bureaucratic kind. In discussing the sociological nature of capitalist corporations, this book emphasised that labour was organised into the system through contracts negotiated in collective bargaining.
