Free Enterprise Capitalism Research Articles

Plato, Hegel and the Crisis of Liberalism

In this paper I propose to use Hegel’s theory of history, especially as he applies it to Plato, to diagnose the crisis of liberalism. In other words, I will argue that in the same way Plato’s Republic is a rational reconstruction of the aesthetic political unity of the ancient world, Hegel’s Philosophy of Right is a rational reconstruction of the politics of the modern, liberal, world. My main thesis, based on a Marxist reading of Hegel, is that the crisis of liberalism is intimately bound up with the crisis of capitalism. Hegel, in my view, was aware of this crisis but failed to resolve it because he could not see beyond the horizon of free enterprise capitalism.

Mental health and climate change: tackling invisible injustice

Mental health and climate change: tackling invisible injustice

The command economy as an adaptive structure

We open with a discussion of the Parsonian solution to the ‘problem of order’ in human societies, emphasising the functional significance of ‘adaptive structures’ in that solution. Adaptive structures adapt the dominant structure of a society to the realistic conditions of its existence. We then argue that the Command Economy of World War II is an example of an adaptive structure in that it adapted the American system of free-enterprise capitalism to the threat to its cultural boundaries posed by the Axis powers. Precisely because they are alternatives to the dominant structure, adaptive structures must be institutionalised. But their legitimacy must be conditional, and there must be mechanisms in place to prevent them from becoming the dominant structure, that is, to prevent the ‘tail from wagging the dog’. We deal with both features of the situation surrounding the Command Economy of World War II. Finally, we deal with arguably the most important change in the structure of American society that can be traced to the Command Economy of World War II, the Military-Industrial Complex and the National Security State to which it is related.

Globalising the US Christian Right: Transnational Interchange During the Cold War

ABSTRACTThis article investigates the Cold War era efforts by self-identified Christian fundamentalists in the United States to export their political agendas and their methodologies of exerting political pressure to the rest of the world. It focuses on the International Council of Christian Churches (ICCC), the era's only worldwide interdenominational association by Protestant Christian fundamentalists, founded by North Americans in 1948 but functioning through autonomous regional and national councils on all continents. The article shows that US fundamentalists affiliated with the ICCC were systematically trying to create a global Christian Right from the beginning of the Cold War, but that their initial agenda – anticommunism coupled with free enterprise capitalism – failed to gain widespread support among their allies abroad. Central in moving both the US and the global fundamentalist community into the politics of morality instead were the ICCC's Northern and Western Europeans, who first had to grapple with and suffered defeats over the moral issues that came to cohere the modern Christian Right – abortion, gay rights, religious instruction versus sex education in schools, free circulation of pornography and threats to the traditional marriage. Through a synthesis of originally European agendas and US-derived methods this politics of morality was significantly globalised already during the Cold War.

Reiman on Labor, Value, and the Difference Principle

In As Free and as Just as Possible: The Theory of Marxian Liberalism, Jeffrey Reiman proposes to develop a theory of “Marxian Liberalism.” ‘Liberalism’ here is defined by the principle that “sane adult human beings should be free in the sense of free from coercion that would block their ability to act on the choices they make.” While the idea of coercion could use some glossing, it is not obvious that poverty, unemployment, racism, and sexism are as such coercive. In this book, it is, very broadly, economic inequality that is the focus, and the argument is that a previously insufficiently appreciated idea that is broadly Marxian shows us that we need a Rawlsian Difference Principle to counteract inherent coercion in the system of free enterprise capitalism. I argue that the book wrongly places the component of labor in the system of economic exchange. We do not as such exchange labor: we exchange services; and because of this there is no normative pull toward his thesis that there is something fundamentally wrong—some people are being unjustly exploited—when several hours of one person’s labor are required to purchase the output of just one of another person’s. Liberalism, I argue, rejects Marxism.

Advertising in the Age of Persuasion: Building Brand America, 1941-1961

In Advertising in the Age of Persuasion, Dawn Spring opens new territory for examining the manipulation of domestic and foreign public opinion during the Cold War. Spring exhaustively employs primary sources in her presentation of the roots of American “public diplomacy” and goes beyond the cooperative connections initially built into the nation's domestic and foreign propaganda during World War II. Spring establishes links between the members of the Advertising Council and other supporting organizations and reveals the extent of integration in the nation's public information programs. The book documents the connections between disparate programs and organizations, including private enterprises, religious organizations, and the government in pursuit of their individual and group goals. Spring solidly presents the underlying goals of and hidden relationships between the traditional government information services and private groups. She uses her organizing theme of the “branding” pursued by these organizations to show how their collective messages reinforced broad public attitudes of patriotism and support for international activism. More specifically, Spring expands the area of inquiry to include both the Brand Names Foundation and the crusading religious movements so epitomized by the Reverend Billy Graham, making clear the connections between those movements and the Central Intelligence Agency and other overseas information programs. She also highlights the efforts to conceal this domestic activity due to the limitations created by the 1948 Smith-Mundt Act, which outlawed domestic propaganda programs by the government. By presenting the messages of these groups in their efforts to “brand” the American free enterprise capitalism system as an expression of God's will, Spring helps readers visualize the goals and techniques of this common promotional activity.

The Movement of the Landless Rural Workers: Issues of Development in Brazil

Development and modernization are thought to go hand in hand. The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund compel nations to “modernize and develop” through free enterprise capitalism, increased economic growth and Gross Domestic Product, inclusion in global markets, privatization of national assets, and cuts in social spending. However, even when countries achieve some level of economic prosperity and development, the majority of their people lag behind, particularly in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Drawing on Sen's social choice theory, this paper examines the alternative development model proposed by the Movement of the Brazilian Rural Landless Workers.

The `Zilsel Thesis' in the Context of Edgar Zilsel's Research Programme

Edgar Zilsel (1891-1944), historian and philosopher of science, arrived in America with what he called `two copious manuscripts': one on `the Social Roots of Science'; the other on `Natural and Historical Laws'. The first forms the basis for his historiographical essays written and published during World War II while in exile in America. These essays have given rise to the so-called `Zilsel Thesis', which holds that modern science came into being in the 16th century when the social barriers between three strata of intellectuals - university scholars, humanists and superior artisans - eroded because of the rise of free enterprise capitalism. The transformation of their intellectual capacities melded into a culturally unique endeavour called science. The other manuscript addresses the possibility of finding socio-historical laws. In this introductory Comment, we indicate how these two manuscripts are related, and how they continue a research programme which Zilsel had developed in his earlier work. We argue that the project on the social roots of science can be seen as a case-study substantiating the claim of the possibility of historical laws.

Perception and Paradox in the Cold War

Perception and paradox drove the Cold War. Even now they cloud the past, confuse the history. During the Cold War, what things were was less important than what they seemed to be. Often, reality and perception were contradictory. Stalin set the tone in the early years. He magnified traditional Russian paranoia of the West. The U.S., to him, was bent on the Western encirclement of Russia that Lenin had warned against. It was furthermore the latest in a succession of powerful Western states unable to resist the temptation to invade Russia-Sweden in the eighteenth century, France in the nineteenth, and most recently Germany in the middle of the twentieth. To fashion a buffer against renewed Western attack, Stalin seized the World War II debris of Eastern Europe-Poland, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Rumania, Bulgaria, etc. And he revived the campaign to export communism to the Third World: destroy the West before it attacks you. For its part, the United States perceived Stalin and those he led as dangerous expansionists, committed to the Marxist/Leninist agenda of violent overthrow of the capitalist system. Dwight D. Eisenhower, who assumed the presidency in the year of Stalin's death, advocated a strong nuclear deterrent and a sound economy as the best response to the short-term and long-term Soviet threat. His formula reflected a paradox in American perception of the Soviet Union, one that was to complicate our formulation of strategy throughout the Cold War. Militarily we viewed the Soviets as ten feet tall, masters of a conventional armed force and an arms production industry whose volume we could not match. Economically we clung to the belief that the socialist system was inferior to free-enterprise capitalism. But if their economy really didn't work, how could they build all those weapons, how could they field all those troops, how could they devote anywhere from 15 percent to 20 percent of gross national product to the military year after year? How could they put up a satellite over the earth before we did? The inconsistency between those perceptions was just one of many that shaped the Cold War.

Compagnie et consulat : lois germaniques et emploi des travailleurs sur les plantations de Samoa, 1864-1914

Summary. Compagnie et Consulat. Plantation development in Samoa until the outbreak of the First World War was overwhelmingly dominated by the Hamburg firm of J. C. Godeffroy & Sohn and their commercial successor, the DHPG. Far from being a triumph of free enterprise capitalism, the company's Samoan plantations were only successful because the directors in Berlin and the managers on-the-spot so assiduously and successfully courted state support. During the 1860s and 1870s the local company manager doubled as the German consul, and operated in the absence of any regulations covering the imported labour force. Even when protective legislation was introduced between 1882 and 1884 the material conditions of labourers on the DHPG's plantations deteriorated. Since the DHPG plantations constituted Germany's sole political claim to Samoa, a succession of German consuls (by now a post for a career diplomat) functioned as the official arm of the firm and they worked to ensure its survival in the face of critical labour shortages and severe profitability constraints. Consular co-operation involved easing the company's labour crisis, minimising its labour costs and by endorsing a system of harsh discipline, and was reinforced by the company directors lobbying their political and personal contacts in the Colonial Department of the Foreign Office, and sometimes even the Chancellor himself. Even after the hoisting of the German flag over the western islands of Samoa in 1900, official policy continued in the DHPG's favour. Annexation was followed by an influx of smaller cacao and rubber plantation companies and individual planters who languished while the DHPG prospered in the circumstances of privileged access to New Guinea labour. Other planters had to employ expensive Chinese labour, and they attributed their problems to Governor Wilhelm Soif s partiality towards the DHPG. But Solf survived their attacks and the status quo continued, in part because he was supported the company which dominated German Samoa and which wielded most influence in Berlin, the DHPG. The paper concludes by suggesting that although the DHPG grew up under the shelter of massive state and government support and was harsh in its treatment of labourers, parallels are to be found in the British Pacific. Depending on wider political and economic circumstances, the British labour trade could display all the abuses of its German counterpart.

The emergence of the Victorian housing market of Johannesburg

Abstract The geographical variation in house prices represents the main thrust of housing studies in contemporary urban geography. This is not surprising because geographers have always shown an interest in the variations and the similarities of human circumstances in different places. These price variations, whether at a point in time, or seen as a time series, provide the basic variable of the housing market as it occurs locally, regionally or nationally. Emerging from the pattern of house prices are the numerous factors which determine these. Such factors have been classified as physical, social and economic. The physical factors are those which describe the site of the individual house, the submarket or the city. They also reflect house quality, size, age, configuration, condition and structure as well as the aspect, outlook, shape and size of the site on which the house stands. A second consideration is the legal component. This is made up of a group of factors which reflect the tenure situation. This may be freehold or leasehold, it may be owner occupied or rented, it may be publicly or privately owned. The social component is almost as important as the economic. Geographers have conceptualised housing occupants according to their stage in the life cycle, their ethnic origins in relation to the host society of the market in question, their age and family status and the locations or neighbourhoods they are found in. The competition for urban space between different groups within the housing market and the resulting conflict has produced numerous interpretations of territoriality in human beings. The economic component of housing studies in geography ranges from microeconomic modelling, through supply, demand and behavioural studies, to models of structural change, of market failures, of discrimination, of the effects of attitudes and aspirations, and of interpretations of the behaviour of financial institutions in the mortgage market, to the effects of economic time series on house prices. These physical, social and economic factors operate in concert to produce the pattern of house prices in any urban-geographical environment, and in the present paper it is these factors which are considered in an explanation of the evolution of the Victorian housing market of Johannesburg. One final consideration needs to be mentioned. Housing is a social facility and its development takes place in a social context so that ideological considerations weigh heavily and create an overlay or a perspective from which analysis is undertaken. Clearly a housing market which evolves within the milieu of free enterprise capitalism will have many characteristics different from another which evolves under a socialistic regimen. This brief sketch of the field of the geography of housing provides a sufficiently comprehensive foundation upon which to proceed to the matter at hand, Johannesburg's Victorian housing market and the residential development which accompanied it.

The Socialist Press in Turn-of-the-Century Argentina

Socialism, as expressed by political parties professing that ideology, has had only minimal impact on Argentina's twentieth-century political history. On the other hand socialist ideas, broadly defined, have had considerable influence, although often in an indirect manner. In the political realm, for example, popular presidents Hipólito Yrigoyen (1916-1922; 1928-1930) and Juan Perón (1946-1955; 1973-1974) sought to pre-empt and co-opt socialism's appeal to the working class by proposing and implementing socialist-inspired reforms wrapped in nationalist rhetoric. Conversely, after the fall of Perón in 1955 various military governments have based their intervention into national politics largely on the need to stem the flow of Marxist ideas, to prevent the growth of socialist organizations—especially those which would repeat the Cuban revolutionary experience on Argentine soil—and to protect the principles of free enterprise capitalism.

The control of migratory labour on the South African gold mines in the era of Kruger and Milner

Almost from its infancy the Witwatersrand mining industry grew up under the shelter of substantial government encouragement and support. Although spokesmen for the mines have always attempted to portray their impressive achievements as a triumph of free enterprise capitalism,1 the leaders of the industry themselves have assiduously courted state assistance from the beginning of gold mining in the South African Republic in the 1 880s to the present.2 There is a close parallel with the great transportation companies which built the lines of rail across western North America in the latter part of the nineteenth century, engulfing vast tracts of the public domain and huge government subsidies in the process. American and Canadian governments were drawn to the support of the railways for some of the same reasons which brought South African governments into partnership with the mining houses. Railways in the one case and gold in the other were perceived as the basic instruments of nation building, and this was too important a matter to leave purely to private enterprise. Furthermore, it quickly became apparent that private companies were either unwilling, in the case of such enterprises as the Canadian Pacific Railway, or unable, as with the South African gold mines, to do the job unaided by government. The railway companies took their assistance in the form of direct cash subsidies and in land. While the mining industry did not require cash subsidies until the 1960s (when certain low grade mines were subsidized), what it did require throughout its history was an enormous legislative and administrative effort to organize the black labour supply-a crucial element in mining costs.3

Normal comparisons of industrial structures in East and West Germany

Direct comparisons of East and West German industrial structures fail to reveal significant differences. On the other hand, comparisons of actual East and West German industrial structures with their normal counterparts indicate important structural differences, especially in the light and heavy manufactures output mix. It is argued that these differences reflect institutional differences (free enterprise capitalism and centrally planned socialism) insofar as they are not explained by differences in trade utilization.

A Vista of Catastrophe: the Future of United States-Chilean Relations

Current United States publications accord fulsome praise to the policies recently adopted by Chile. Under President Jorge Alessandri Rodríguez the “string-bean republic” not only enjoys an administration of honesty and integrity, but is judged by many to be on the road to solving its major problems through the application of two of our most cherished principles: political democracy and free-enterprise capitalism. That Chile has chosen the patterns of the United States and is seeking economic reform within the framework of classically liberal democracy is taken as an indication that United States - Chilean relations are now characterized by firm and fundamental rapport. There is hope also that as Chilean formulas come to prevail in other Latin American republics, a new era of inter-American friendship and understanding will emerge.

The Logic of British and American Industry: A Realistic Analysis of Economic Structure and Government

Preface 1. The Structural Approach 1. The Question 'Who?' As A Reliable Starting Point 2. The Technical Background 3. The Social Structure of Industry 4. The Size Distribution of Plants And Firms 5. Patterns of Industrial Location 6. Forms and Extent of Integration 2. Logic and Fact of Industrial Structure 1. The Meaning, Mechanism and Measures of Efficiency 2. Efficiency of the Large Firm of Varying Pattern, The Survival of the Small Firm 3. Conditions of Efficiency of Large and Small Plants 4. The Inefficiency and Efficiency of Integration 5. The Logic of Localization and Dispersion 6. Agreement and Divergence of Logic & Fact, Manufacturing & Other Industries 3. The Relations of Industry and Consumer 1. Planned and Free Consumption, The Costs of Distribution 2. The Logic and Illogic of Free Consumption 3. The Vagaries of Free Production, Design and Distribution For Free Consumption 4. Forecasting and Market Research 5. Competition and Combination, Sales Pressure and Advertising 6. Monopolistic Structure and Theory 7. Detecting Monopoly 4. Relations Within The Modern Firm, Management and Top Government 1. The Trend of Investment and Employment, Overhead Costs 2. Evolution of Specialized Management 3. Logic of Hierarchical Delegation 4. Logic of Functional Delegation 5. Logic of Line-And-Staff Delegation 6. The Core of Top Government 7. The Question Who Governs At The Core, And Why: The Next Three Chapters 5. Government of Free Enterprise Capitalism 1. Growth of the Corporation and Joint Stock Company 2. The Shareholders' Actual Part In Government. Law and Reality 3. Government By Bloc-Holder 4. Government By Director or Executive 5. Interests, Personalities and Company Policies 6. Nationalization, Co-Operation And State Control 1. Why Alternatives To Capitalist Government of Industry? 2. Britain's Mixed Economy 3. The Government of Nationalized Industries 4. Government By Consumers' Co-Operation 5. The Tests of Meeting Needs, Consumers' Sovereignty and Economic Democracy 6. Comparative Efficiency, Stability and Progress 7. Summary: Overall State Planning and Control 7. The Stimulus To Labour, Investment And Enterprise 1. Labour Relations In The Larger Plant and Firm 2. The Stimulus to Invest: The Outsider Investor 3. The Stimulus to Large-Scale Enterprise 4. Types of Leader in Large-Scale Business Government 5. The Short and Long-Run Supply Price of Leadership 6. Recruitment and Education For Industrial Government 8. Summary & Conclusions 1. Summary of Findings 2. Summary of Research Methods 3. Some Practical Conclusions