Classes in Contemporary Capitalism

Classes in Contemporary Capitalism PDF Author: Nicos Poulantzas
Publisher: Verso Books
ISBN: 1788732022
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 463

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Book Description
Nicos Poulantzas’s third major work is a pioneering survey of some of the most fundamental, yet least studied, aspects of the class structure of advanced capitalist societies today. The book starts with a general theoretical essay that for the first time seriously explores the distinction between the “agents” and “positions” of capitalist relations of production, and seeks to avoid the typical errors of either functionalism or historicism. It also provides a polemical reconsideration of the problem of the “nation state” as a political unit today, and its relationship to the internationalization of capital. Finally, and most originally, Poulantzas develops a long and powerful analysis of the much-abused concept of the “petty-bourgeoisie.” In this, he scrupulously distinguishes between the “traditional” categories of petty-bourgeoisie—shopkeepers, artisans, small peasants—and the “new” categories of clerical workers, supervisors, and salaried personnel in modern industry and commerce. At the same time he demonstrates the reasons why a unitary conceptualization of their class position is possible. The difficult question of the definition of “productive” and “unproductive” labor within Marx’s own account of the capitalist mode of production is subjected to a novel and radical reinterpretation. The political oscillations peculiar to each form of petty-bourgeoisie and especially their characteristic reactions to the industrial proletariat, are cogently assessed. Poulantzas ends his work with a reminder that the actions and options of the petty-bourgeoisie are critical to any successful struggle by the working class, which must secure the alliance of important sections of the petty-bourgeoisie if the fateful experience of Chile is not to recur elsewhere tomorrow. Combining empirical and theoretical materials throughout, Classes in Contemporary Capitalism represents a notable achievement in the development of Marxist social science and political thought.

Classes in Contemporary Capitalism

Classes in Contemporary Capitalism PDF Author: Nicos Poulantzas
Publisher: Verso Books
ISBN: 1788732022
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 463

Get Book

Book Description
Nicos Poulantzas’s third major work is a pioneering survey of some of the most fundamental, yet least studied, aspects of the class structure of advanced capitalist societies today. The book starts with a general theoretical essay that for the first time seriously explores the distinction between the “agents” and “positions” of capitalist relations of production, and seeks to avoid the typical errors of either functionalism or historicism. It also provides a polemical reconsideration of the problem of the “nation state” as a political unit today, and its relationship to the internationalization of capital. Finally, and most originally, Poulantzas develops a long and powerful analysis of the much-abused concept of the “petty-bourgeoisie.” In this, he scrupulously distinguishes between the “traditional” categories of petty-bourgeoisie—shopkeepers, artisans, small peasants—and the “new” categories of clerical workers, supervisors, and salaried personnel in modern industry and commerce. At the same time he demonstrates the reasons why a unitary conceptualization of their class position is possible. The difficult question of the definition of “productive” and “unproductive” labor within Marx’s own account of the capitalist mode of production is subjected to a novel and radical reinterpretation. The political oscillations peculiar to each form of petty-bourgeoisie and especially their characteristic reactions to the industrial proletariat, are cogently assessed. Poulantzas ends his work with a reminder that the actions and options of the petty-bourgeoisie are critical to any successful struggle by the working class, which must secure the alliance of important sections of the petty-bourgeoisie if the fateful experience of Chile is not to recur elsewhere tomorrow. Combining empirical and theoretical materials throughout, Classes in Contemporary Capitalism represents a notable achievement in the development of Marxist social science and political thought.

Political Power and Social Classes

Political Power and Social Classes PDF Author: Nicos Poulantzas
Publisher: Verso Books
ISBN: 1788731980
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 484

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Book Description
"Poulantzas is a sophisticated Marxist theoretician who straddles the fields of sociology and political science. His book is one of the most thoughtful exercises in Marxist reinterpretation, and has justifiably won him widespread respect among many scholars. Recommended for all self-respecting college libraries as well as for seminars for graduate and more sophisticated seniors." Choice "This is a book which deserves a very wide audience. Of great interest for Americans is the fact that he bridges Marxist and 'Western' social science writings with remarkable acuity. The translation is an excellent job." Journal of Politics "It is Poulantzas' great virtue to have seen so clearly that an adequate Marxist theory of politics must be able to deal with just those phenomena which non-Marxists have regarded as decisive refutations of Marxism. His range of reference is impressive." Times Literary Supplement

Contemporary Capitalism and the Middle Classes

Contemporary Capitalism and the Middle Classes PDF Author: Semen Naumovich Nadelʹ
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 456

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Book Description


Contemporary Capitalism and the Middle Classes

Contemporary Capitalism and the Middle Classes PDF Author: S. N. Nadel
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780598080479
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 446

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Book Description


Divided Societies

Divided Societies PDF Author: Ralph Miliband
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 9780192852342
Category : Capitalism.
Languages : en
Pages : 277

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Book Description
What is the meaning of "class struggle" in advanced capitalist societies? Recent political debate has tended to marginalize the question of class conflict, a notion seen as central by earlier thinkers of both the left and the right. In this study Miliband argues for the continued relevance and centrality of class struggle in today's Western societies and examines current examples of class structures and power relationships in the West. He analyzes the role of both labor organizations and new social movements such as the "green" and "feminist" movements in the class struggles of today and explores the ways in which the power elites and dominant classes seek to maintain the social order.

Capitalism, Class Conflict and the New Middle Class (RLE Social Theory)

Capitalism, Class Conflict and the New Middle Class (RLE Social Theory) PDF Author: Bob Carter
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317652177
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 262

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Book Description
Non-manual workers are fast becoming the largest occupational category in Western capitalist countries. This is the first book to present a detailed socialist analysis of this much discussed change in the class structure of contemporary capitalism. Focusing on the class position of managerial and supervisory workers, Robert Carter takes as his starting-point the inadequacy of both orthodox Marxist and Weberian models of class relations. Rather, he concurs with recent structuralist theorists of class who maintain that there exists between capital and labour in the process of producing a new middle class. He parts company from the work of these theorists, however, in his insistence that the organisation and consciousness of the new middle class have also to be examined because of the practical consequences these have on class relations. The book therefore examines the historical rise of the middle class, both in the private and the state sector, together with the tendency of the class to respond to its changing relations with capital and labour by unionising. It is sharply critical of the dominant models of the causes and nature of white-collar unionism – both industrial relations and Weberian ones – and indeed rejects these models in favour of a perspective which views the extent and nature of middle-class unionism within the dynamics of class relations.

State, Power, Socialism

State, Power, Socialism PDF Author: Nicos Poulantzas
Publisher: Verso Books
ISBN: 178168202X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
Developing themes of his earlier works, Poulantzas here advances a vigorous critique of contemporary Marxist theories of the state, arguing against a general theory of the state, and identifying forms of class power crucial to socialist strategy that goes beyond the apparatus of the state. This new edition includes an introduction by Stuart Hall, which critically appraises Poulantzas’s achievement.

Corporate Society

Corporate Society PDF Author: John McDermott
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429718594
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 311

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Book Description
The modem corporation, praised and condemned by thinkers from Weber to Bell and Dahrendorf, is the institution of modern society. Its enormous success has made it our premier social, as well as economic, institution, and modern society is increasingly coming to reflect the social structure, values, priorities, and hierarchies that have evolved within the corporation. So argues John McDermott in Corporate Society, an original and far-reaching analysis of the impact of the modern corporation on contemporary social structure. Combining business history with political insight, McDermott offers a systematic critique of the post-industrial order and the illusions it fosters. He warns against the development of a "post-society industry" in which the corporate order replaces democratic institutions as the primary organizer of social and cultural life, and he argues that the corporation harbors a set of explosive socioeconomic contradictions. The need to confront the challenges of this new order, with its potential for a uniquely modern class conflict, makes Corporate Society a crucial work for teachers and students alike.

The Implosion of Contemporary Capitalism

The Implosion of Contemporary Capitalism PDF Author: Samir Amin
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 1583674209
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 160

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Book Description
Renowned political economist Samir Amin, engaged in a unique lifelong effort both to narrate and affect the human condition on a global scale, brings his analysis up to the present—the world of 2013. The key events of our times—financial crisis, the emerging nations, globalization, financialization, political Islam, Euro–zone implosion—are related in a coherent, historically based, account. Changes in contemporary capitalism require an updating of definitions and analysis of social classes, class struggles, political parties, social movements and the ideological forms in which they express their modes of action in the transformation of societies. Amin meets this challenge and lays bare the reality of monopoly capitalism in its general, global form. Ultimately, Amin demonstrates that this system is not viable and that the implosion in progress is unavoidable. Whether humanity will rise to the challenge of building a more humane global order free of the contradictions of capital, however, is yet to be seen.

Understanding Class

Understanding Class PDF Author: Erik Olin Wright
Publisher: Verso Books
ISBN: 1781689210
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
Leading sociologist examines how different readings of class enrich our understanding of capitalism Few ideas are more contested today than “class.” Some have declared its death, while others insist on its centrality to contemporary capitalism. It is said its relevance is limited to explaining individuals’ economic conditions and opportunities, while at the same time argued that it is a structural feature of macro-power relations. In Understanding Class, leading left sociologist Erik Olin Wright interrogates the divergent meanings of this fundamental concept in order to develop a more integrated framework of class analysis. Beginning with the treatment of class in Marx and Weber, proceeding through the writings of Charles Tilly, Thomas Piketty, Guy Standing, and others, and finally examining how class struggle and class compromise play out in contemporary society, Understanding Class provides a compelling view of how to think about the complexity of class in the world today.