Managerial Capitalism

Dominique Levy, Gérard Duménil

Description

The debate around growing inequality is raging amongst economists, and Marxists are finding new ways to map-out the modern economy. Managerial Capitalism introduces a new way of understanding the changing structure of our economy through the emergence and behaviour of a new class – managers.



In the post war years as social democracy reigned, managers tended to form compromises with workers. However, under neoliberalism, allegiances have shifted. Today, a new alliance is forming between managers and capitalist owners, changing the nature of the hierarchy of power under capitalism. Additionally, the authors argue, this is happening much faster and universally than was previously thought.



By applying Marx's basic concepts to the reality of the system today, through the use of extensive data sets as well as firmly rooting the argument in its historical context, Managerial Capitalism updates Marxism for the twenty-first century, through showing how the modes of production today are shaped by a new class, that must be understood if it is to be challenged.

List of Figures

List of Tables

Introduction

1. An overview

PART I: MODES OF PRODUCTION AND CLASSES

2. Patterns of income distribution

3. Marx’s theory of history

4. Managers in Marx’s analysis

5. Sociality and class societies

6. Managerialism and managerial capitalism

7. A wealth of alternative interpretations

8. Hybridization as analytical challenge

PART II: TWELVE DECADES OF MANAGERIAL CAPITALISM

9. Varying trends of inequality

10. The sequence of social orders

11. Class and imperial power structures

12. The politics of social change

13. Tendencies, crises, and struggles

PART III: PAST ATTEMPTS AT THE INFLECTION OF HISTORICAL DYNAMICS

14. Utopian capitalism in bourgeois revolutions

15. Utopian socialism and anarchism

16. Self-proclaimed scientific socialism

PART IV: PROSPECTS FOR HUMAN EMANCIPATION WITHIN AND BEYOND MANAGERIALISMS

17. The economics and politics of managerialisms

18. The potential of popular struggle

Notes

Index

Sujets

• Economic Policy
• Public Policy
• Political Ideologies
• POLITICAL SCIENCE
• USSR
• Movimiento sindical
• Antiguo Régimen
• Clase (informática)
• Lenin
• Organización Mundial del Comercio
• Bureaucracy
• 21st century
• Vladimir Lenin
• Communism
• Managerialism
• Ancien Régime in France
• Emancipation
• Economic inequality
• General officer
• Neoliberalism
• English Revolution
• Ideology
• Hegemony
• Political economy
• World Trade Organization
• Socialism
• Soviet Union
• Politics
• Macroeconomics
• Trade union
• French Revolution
• Economics
• Capitalism
• Anarchism
• World
• Business
• General
• Class
• Finance
• WTO
• Communisme
• Labor
• Foucault
• Lénine
• Ancien Régime
• Capital
• Socialisme
• Union des républiques socialistes soviétiques
• Europe

Informations

• Publié par: Pluto Press
• Date de parution: 20 mars 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781786802224
• Langue: English

Extrait

Managerial Capitalism
Managerial Capitalism
Ownership, Management and the Coming New Mode of Production
G rard Dum nil and Dominique L vy
First published 2018 by Pluto Press
345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA
www.plutobooks.com
Copyright G rard Dum nil and Dominique L vy 2018
The right of G rard Dum nil and Dominique L vy to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 0 7453 3754 8 Hardback
ISBN 978 0 7453 3753 1 Paperback
ISBN 978 1 7868 0221 7 PDF eBook
ISBN 978 1 7868 0223 1 Kindle eBook
ISBN 978 1 7868 0222 4 EPUB eBook



This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental standards of the country of origin.
Typeset by Stanford DTP Services, Northampton, England
Simultaneously printed in the United Kingdom and United States of America
Contents
List of Figures
List of Tables
Introduction
1. An overview
PART I: MODES OF PRODUCTION AND CLASSES
2. Patterns of income distribution
Two laws of income distribution
Wages and capital income
Managers within income hierarchies
Appendix to Chapter 2: The methodology used in the construction of Figure 2.1
3. Marx s theory of history
A materialist interpretation of history
Modes of production: The channels of exploitation
Economics and economicism
Classes and income distribution
Class struggle as an objective component of historical dynamics
4. Managers in Marx s analysis
The capitalist as owner and manager
Salaried workers as profit-rate maximizers
Bureaucracies
Stretching explanatory powers
5. Sociality and class societies
Sociality : Governing the workshop
The socialization of production: Capitalists and managers
The state at the intersect between the theories of sociality and class societies
And the emancipation from class dominations
A dual theory of human societies
Appendix to Chapter 5: States and bureaucracies in The Eighteenth Brumaire . The viewpoint of Fran ois Furet
6. Managerialism and managerial capitalism
Managerialism as mode of production-socialization
Managerial capitalism
The entrance into managerial capitalism I: The revolution in private management
The entrance into managerial capitalism II: The revolution in government
7. A wealth of alternative interpretations
Streamlining class analysis: The three classes of managerial capitalism
To the limits of Marx s framework and beyond
Beyond capitalism: Schumpeter, Burnham, and Galbraith
Sociologies and historical philosophies
8. Hybridization as analytical challenge
From feudalism to the genesis of capitalist relations of production: The French Ancien R gime
An English Ancien R gime
Marx and the economics of emerging capitalist relations
The genesis of a class contradiction: Bourgeois and proletarians
PART II: TWELVE DECADES OF MANAGERIAL CAPITALISM
9. Varying trends of inequality
Inequality: Total income
Inequality: Wages
Inequality: Wealth
Levels of inequality
Summing up
10. The sequence of social orders
The first financial hegemony up to the Great Depression
The post-depression/postwar compromise
From the mid-1970s onward: The second financial hegemony in neoliberalism
The heydays and decline of Galbraith s and Chandler s analyses
Treating the crisis-Preserving the social order. A fourth social order after 2008?
The state; Social orders to the right and left
Appendix to Chapter 10 (1): Managerial capitalism and social orders in Europe
Appendix to Chapter 10 (2): Michel Foucault s notion of governmental rationality -Its application to (neo)liberalism
11. Class and imperial power structures
Ownership and control
Anglo-Saxon hegemony
The interface between ownership-control and management
Managerial national and transnational elites
Upper classes of all countries unite under an imperial banner!
Relations of production and international hegemony
12. The politics of social change
Economic and political governing cores
Flipping between right and left?
Social orders and administrations in basic economic variables
Cooperation and strife between the two governing cores
Economic theory in the political turmoil
13. Tendencies, crises, and struggles
Two brands of structural crises
Profitability trends
Managers and technical change
Revolutionary and routine trajectories
Paving the way to the second social order and the turn to neoliberalism
Determinism and political contingency
PART III: PAST ATTEMPTS AT THE INFLECTION OF HISTORICAL DYNAMICS
14. Utopian capitalism in bourgeois revolutions
The French Revolution beyond the bourgeoisie
A brief comparison with seventeenth-century England
The social foundations of the counter-revolution
Epilogue
Capitalist modernity
15. Utopian socialism and anarchism
Utopian socialism: The tension between democracy and authoritarianism
Doing without central authority: Anarchist communism
At the root of the implacable character of historical dynamics
Appendix to Chapter 15: Utopian socialists
16. Self-proclaimed scientific socialism
The alliance for revolution
Bureaucratic managerialism
The managerial organization of production
The failure of reforms
Self-management
Brief remarks regarding China
Joining the ranks of managerial capitalist countries 196
PART IV: PROSPECTS FOR HUMAN EMANCIPATION WITHIN AND BEYOND MANAGERIALISMS
17. The economics and politics of managerialisms
Trajectories and outcomes
Degrees and forms of socialization
Less capitalism-More managerialism
Subduing capitalist classes-Helping towards their reconversion
Hierarchies
A managerialism bent to the left?
18. The potential of popular struggle
The historical dynamics of emancipation and regression I: Capitalist modernity
The historical dynamics of emancipation and regression II: Managerial modernity
The class foundations of revolutions and counter-revolutions
Bifurcating
An incoming structural crisis?
Intraclass cohesiveness: A pending political crisis of neoliberalism?
A utopia for the twenty-first century?
Notes
Index
List of Figures
2.1 Two laws of income distribution for two classes, 1990s
2.2 The ratio of wages to the sum of wages and capital income within the fractiles 90-95 and 99-100 (percent)
2.3 Cumulative probability with forged data
6.1 Government spendings as a percentage of GDP
9.1 Average yearly income per household in seven fractiles (constant dollars, 1960-73=100)
9.2 Average yearly wage per household in three fractiles (constant dollars, 1960-73=100)
9.3 Average wealth per household in three fractiles (constant dollars, 1960-73=100)
10.1 The share of the income of the fractile 99.99-100 and its three components in the total income of households (percent)
10.2 Average tax rates for three levels of yearly income (percent)
10.3 Net dividends as a share of profit (percent)
10.4 New York Stock Exchange composite index
10.5 Buybacks minus new issuances of stock shares (percentage of tangible assets)
10.6 Imports and exports of goods and services (percentage of GDP)
10.7 Ratio of average wages: Finance and insurance versus private industries
11.1 A schematic representation of the structure of the largest connected component of the network of ownership and control
11.2 The global network of ownership and control: The largest connected component and the other connected components
11.3 The main institutions of the financial core in 2007
11.4 The network of the eight largest communities of ownership
12.1 Social government spendings as a percentage of GDP and their trend
12.2 The yearly growth rates of GDP (percent)
12.3 Hourly earnings of production workers (2009 dollars)
13.1 The productivity of capital and its trend
13.2 The productivity of labor and its trend
13.3 The share of investment in information technologies in the total investment in equipment and software (percent)
List of Tables
2.1 Data used in Figure 2.3
9.1 Income hierarchy among households: Seven fractiles as of 2015
9.2 Wage hierarchies among wage-earners: Seven fractiles as of 2011
9.3 Wealth hierarchies among households: Seven fractiles as of 2012
9.4 Income, wage, and wealth hierarchies between two fractiles
Introduction
Seizing the opportunity created by the two-hundredth anniversary of Marx s birth on May 5, 1818, this book defends a two-sided thesis. First, as analytical framework, Marx s theory of history remains unchallenged; second, despite the failure of the expectations regarding the ability of the proletarian class to supersede capitalist relations of production, the struggle of popular classes is the single force capable of impacting the course of history in the direction of social progress.
There is, however, a but. Marx s analysis of history requires a thorough revision in one key respect: Rather than straightforwardly paving the way to the implementation of a classless society, current relations of production undergo a process of transition toward a new mode of production, managerialism, whose upper class is the class of managers.
In the available literature, managerial traits are typically treated as an odd feature of contemporary capitalism, quite adequately denoted as managerial capitalism on such grounds, but the hybrid character of relations of production in the full Marxian sense of the phrase is overlooked. The consequences of this misreading of historical dynamics are severe. In our opinion, the revision of Marx s analytical framework-the single alternative to its outright abandonment-is the precondition to the interpretation of past and current economic, so