Tag archive for ‘capitalism’
There Is No Third Way: Why Social Democrats Must Be Anti-Capitalists
If social democracy has a future, then it can only lie in fully accepting the lessons of its own past, both distant and recent.
Today, almost exactly twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, it is surely clear that the record of reforming governments before and after that momentous event has belied many [...]
A Social-Democratic Strategy for Growth
An ethically informed strategy, based on growth through investment and better employment conditions, is also the most effective.
Our debate on the good society should not seek to design a social model based on ethical principles. Rather, ethics should help us in determining the direction and means by which we as democratic socialists seek to ensure [...]
Social Democracy: Governing in Poetry
It is a mistake to ditch the poetry of the campaign once safely in office.
Former Governor of New York State Mario Cuomo once quipped that one campaigns in poetry but governs in prose. But though this nugget of political wisdom – used with great effect by Tony Blair – may appear obvious, it is in [...]
Capitalism – A Love Story
I haven’t seen the movie yet but this interview with Michael Moore is quite interesting…
The Ethics of Capitalism
After a few quite hard weeks of work the new issue of Social Europe Journal is finally out, addressing the ethical foundations of capitalism and society.
I hope you enjoy your reading and make sure you leave your thoughts on the articles on our website here.
You can also read the newsletter announcing this issue here: http://www.ymlp19.com/pubarchive_show_message.php?Social_Europe+225 [...]
Capitalism and Christian Ethics
I. As recently as 2003, in a – purportedly critical – introduction to neoliberalism, we read the following: “The left/socialist and church-based critiques of neoliberalism are in agreement that the market encourages a ‘destructive egoism’. Resistant to learning, the churches cultivate the idea of the fundamentally good, socially responsible individual, and look with biblical [...]
The Ethics of Capitalism
In the last couple of years, the world economy has been rocked by uncontrollable increases in agricultural commodities worldwide, the rollercoaster ride of crude oil prices and the global credit crunch that has led to the global economic crisis, plunging into negative growth even the most robust economies.
The EU economy has not been shielded against [...]
Morality and Capitalism in Sociological Perspective
Whether neoliberals can claim that their form of free-market capitalism is a moral force is debatable (which from a deontological viewpoint is very debatable), but they certainly claim it is superior to all other forms capitalism as well as socialism.
This stands in contrast to social democratic and Christian democratic conceptions of capitalism which regard [...]
Capitalism and Ethical Life
In the park across the road the boys hang out on the benches. Throughout the day and long into the night, when the call comes in one will cycle off up the road and return with the small wrap. It’s a just in time, overheads free, networked, post post-fordist economy of primitive accumulation. A life [...]
Private or Public? – The Future of Health Care Provision
The current debate about Barack Obama’s health care plan is very interesting, also from a European perspective. It doesn’t only highlight how different people’s attitudes to health care provision are but also that in this area many of the fundamentals are changing.
Whilst Paul Krugman is happy if the US makes incremental improvements on the way [...]
Ethics, Capitalism and the Managerial Aristocracy
We are all capitalists, in the sense that we may point to one thing or another and call it ‘mine’. The Marxist notion that ‘private property is theft’ is all but dead outside of the most extreme and chronically naive positions.
It is often said that communitarian or communist ideology which espoused the principle of ‘common [...]
A New Start in Economic Policy – Beyond Financial Capitalism
‘Germany must get moving’, the former German President Herzog demanded in 1997. Ten years later, this move has encompassed not only Germany, but gone through the entire world – but not in the way Roman Herzog imagined. Those who for thirty years preached that we should trust the self-regulating power of the markets and worshipped [...]