Routledge Dictionary of Economics, Second Edition
1 A socioeconomic system of production using ROUNDABOUT METHODS OF PRODUCTION.
2 An ECONOMY based on private enterprise.
3 The use of markets not planning to allocate economic resources.
4 Production motivated by the profit motive.
The PHYSIOCRATS and classical economists such as SMITH regarded capitalism as the natural form of economic organization based upon man’s propensity to truck and barter and likely to be the most successful in increasing ECONOMIC WELFARE. MARX criticized many definitions of capitalism for being timeless, ignoring the different historical forms it takes, and for the institution of private property, which prevents the reconciliation of individual and general interests, causing the alienation of workers. Marxists have classified capitalism into different stages, namely agricultural capitalism, merchant capitalism, industrial capitalism and state capitalism.
See also: creative destruction; fundamenal contradiction of capitalism; industrial capitalism; late capitalism; lemonade—stand capitalism; merchant capitalism; monopoly capitalism; peripheral capitalism; personal capitalism; popular capitalism; socialism; state capitalism; state monopoly capitalism
References
Dobb, M. (1946) Studies in the Development of Capitalism, London: Routledge.
Graham, D.
and Clarke, P. (1986) The New Enlightenment: The New Birth of Liberalism, London: Macmillan.
Hirschman, A.O. (1982) ‘Rival interpretations of market society: civilizing, destructive, or feeble’, Journal of Economic Literature 20 (December):1463–84.
Tribe, K. (1981) Genealogies of Capitalism, London: Macmillan.
Wallerstein, I. (1979) The Capitalist World-Economy, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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