Capitalism

For example, in formulating the protestant ethic thesis (often read as an alternative to Marxist accounts of the rise of capitalism ), Weber was explicitly building upon earlier theories of capitalism and of money propounded by Werner Sombart and Georg Simmel.

Next Bell turned his attention to the unresolved tension between capitalism and morality.

Looking at the intersection of race, class, and gender, Ortner's recent research has focused not only on the question of the attainability of the so-called American dream, but how patriarchy and racism intersect with capitalism, and how these intersections are both experienced and represented.

Streeck posits that the 2008 crisis marked the victory of the Marktvolk, leading to the emergence of the "Consolidation State", prioritized with austerity and shielding the economy from mass democratic demands.

Instead of seeing capitalism as a liberatory defeat of feudalism, Federici interprets the ascent of capitalism as a reactionary move to subvert the rising tide of communalism and to retain the basic social contract.

Her central thesis was that capitalism, as a closed system, could not realise the surplus value it generated and was therefore dependent on a constant expansion into non-capitalist economies and social strata for its survival and accumulation.

For Proudhon, as he wrote in the sixth study of his General Idea of the Revolution in the Nineteenth Century, the capitalist's employee was "subordinated, exploited: his permanent condition is one of obedience".

In his 1885 book Our Differences, Plekhanov elaborated on these ideas, presenting a detailed Marxist analysis of Russian social and economic conditions and a critique of the populist program, asserting that Russia had already entered the path of capitalist development.

He argued that the development of the credit system, cartels, and an improved world market had given capitalism greater adaptability and flexibility, making general crises "less and less probable".

Rather, Bookchin felt that our environmental predicament is the result of the cancerous logic of capitalism, a system aimed at maximizing profit instead of enriching human lives: "By the very logic of its grow-or-die imperative, capitalism may well be producing ecological crises that gravely imperil the integrity of life on this planet.

In Jameson's view, postmodernity's merging of all discourse into an undifferentiated whole was the result of the colonization of the cultural sphere-which had retained at least partial autonomy during the prior modernist era-by a newly organized corporate capitalism.

It makes a contribution to Marxist theory by arguing that capitalism annihilates space to ensure its own reproduction.

Bordiga's writings on the perceived capitalist nature of the Soviet economy in contrast to those produced by the Trotskyists also focused on the agrarian sector.

While privately acknowledging the need for practical reforms, he insisted that the party's revolutionary goal-the Kladderadatsch, or great collapse of capitalism-was essential for its identity and unity.

He held to his concept of a "workers' democracy" as a modified phase of capitalist development, arguing that Russia was not yet ripe for socialism.

Writing in the context of the highly cartelized economy of late Austria-Hungary, Hilferding contrasted monopolistic finance capitalism to the earlier, "competitive" and "buccaneering" capitalism of the earlier liberal era.

His late capitalism was late in the sense of delayed rather than near-death.

Her simultaneous study of the Russian economy and of Marx's early writings (later known as the Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844), led to her theory that not only was the USSR a "state capitalist" society, but that "state capitalism" was a new world stage.

He came to see the historical workers' movement as inherently reformist, arguing that the working class's struggles had only served to further its integration into the capitalist community.

Arguing that Nazi Germany was like the Soviet Union a command economy based on technological rationality, he advanced the view that state capitalism had emerged as a stable, efficient, politically neutral solution to the crises of monopoly capitalism.

Without revolutionizing everyday life, capitalism would continue to diminish the quality of everyday life, and inhibit real self-expression.

He defended the principles of revolutionary spontaneity, autonomy, diversity, self-determination and direct action, and advocated for the violent overthrow of the state and capitalism through propaganda of the deed.

Mattick engaged in debates with Max Nomad over the role of intellectuals and the nature of state capitalism in Russia and fascist Germany.

Additionally, Foster has worked to expand Sweezy and Baran's theory of monopoly capital in light of the current financially led phase of capitalism, which he terms "monopoly-finance Capital.

This position also includes a sharp criticism of the international role of the Soviet Union whose politics of development Bettelheim saw as just another variant of capitalist accumulation models.

While class conflict is integral to capitalist society, there is no teleology that guarantees the emergence of the working class as the universal class and no ontology that justifies denial of the multiple bases of modern society represented by capitalism, industrialism, bureaucratisation, surveillance and industrialisation of warfare.

Weber saw capitalism as a result of the Protestant secularization of work ethic and morality in amassing wealth, which Berger integrates into his analysis about the effects of losing the non-secular foundations for belief about life's ultimate meaning.

Contrary to affirmative theories of modernization and capitalism, Wallerstein did not conceive of these differences as mere residues or irregularities that can and will be overcome as the system evolves.

When using a Marxist analysis of capitalism within this sex/gender system, the exclusion of women from the system of exchange establishes men as the capitalists and women as their commodities fit for exchange.

His major works include On Justification: Economies of Worth (1991), co-authored with Thévenot, and The New Spirit of Capitalism (1999), co-authored with sociologist Ève Chiapello, which examines changes in capitalist management and ideology from the 1960s onward.

Ève Chiapello (born 1965) is professor at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS), Paris, where she holds a chair in the "sociology of the transformation of capitalism".

In his book Antagonistics: Capitalism and Power in an Age of War (2009), Balakrishnan analyzed the global political economy and the geopolitical dynamics of contemporary capitalism.

Michael Burawoy (; 15 June 1947-3 February 2025) was an American sociologist who worked within Marxist social theory, best known as the leading proponent of public sociology and the author of Manufacturing Consent: Changes in the Labor Process Under Monopoly Capitalism-a study on the sociology of industry that has been translated into a number of languages.

In a 1972 book, Strukturprobleme des kapitalistischen Staates, he analysed the structural problems caused by the internal contradictions of the capitalist state, keeping an intellectual independence from Marxist dogmas.

While a member of the Frankfurt School, Marcuse developed a model for critical social theory, created a theory of the new stage of state and monopoly capitalism, described the relationships between philosophy, social theory, and cultural criticism, and provided an analysis and critique of German Nazism.

His work in political economy examines changing varieties of capitalism, emerging economies, and global power shifts.

Unlike orthodox Marxists, Berardi's autonomist theories draw on psychoanalysis, schizoanalysis and communication theory to show how subjectivity and desire are bound up with the functioning of the capitalist system, rather than portraying events such as the 2008 financial crisis merely as an example of the inherently contradictory logic of capitalist accumulation.

Among Kidron's many writings were Western Capitalism Since the War and Capitalism and Theory (1968).