ABSTRACT

This short book makes a connection between recent ‘tectonic shifts’ in the world economy and the political problems currently confronted by western democracies.

The shift of manufacturing away from the West, allied to the pressure to keep costs down in an increasingly competitive global economy, has led to economic inequality, reliance on service industry employment and public sector austerity. All this has in turn produced large numbers of desperate citizens attracted to a populist economic nationalism accompanied by xenophobia. However, the originality of this text lies not in the above argument, but in the philosophical reflections which drive and derive from it. These include reflections on history as a supposed causal process; on the need to make ethical judgements of economic activities and the difficulties of doing so; and on the problems confronting modern citizens in understanding complex economic processes and their political implications.

Capitalism and Democracy in the Twenty-First Century endorses Wittgenstein’s ‘praxis’ approach to human social life and its study. Accordingly, it not only analyses economic and political problems but suggests ways of solving or mitigating them. In doing so it relies on Marx’s conviction that our capacity to see certain phenomena as problems is at least a priori evidence that they can be solved. This book will appeal to undergraduate and postgraduate students of politics, comparative politics, political economy and international relations.

part I|2 pages

Philosophy

chapter 1|7 pages

The Present and the Future

chapter 2|5 pages

The Lasting Significance of Our Present

part II|2 pages

The Present, Economic and Political

chapter 4|9 pages

Globalisation

chapter 6|8 pages

Nationalist Democracy

chapter 7|8 pages

Globalisation and Democratic Legitimacy

chapter 8|12 pages

Democracy’s Achilles Heel

part III|2 pages

Making the Future

chapter 9|11 pages

Economic Growth

Dangers and Possibilities

chapter 10|15 pages

Regulating a Globalised Capitalism

chapter 11|6 pages

Conclusions

A Human Future

part IV|2 pages

Appendices

chapter |6 pages

Marx and the Contemporary Left

chapter |6 pages

Workers of the World Unite!