Between Capitalism and Socialism

Fülszöveg

ECONOMICS AND POLITICAL SCIENCE
Between Capitalism and
Socialism
ESSAYS IN POLITICAL ECONOMICS
Robert LHeilbroner
These essays help us locate ourselves in history. As readers of The Worldly Philosophers or The Future as History or The Limits of American Capitalism know, Robert L. Heilbroner is an economist who uses his craft to elucidate the problems of large-scale historical transformation that affect our times. In these essays that ongoing examination is pursued further as Heilbroner explores these forces that impinge on our present position "between capitalism and socialism."
The first section of the book takes us on a tour of the changes within the spectrum of social orders in the contemporary world. Starting with the shifting relation between business and the state within capitalism, the author in turn examines the ambiguities and ambivalences of the acquisitive drive, the furies and frustrations of the development process (and its impact on America), and concludes with... Tovább

Fülszöveg

ECONOMICS AND POLITICAL SCIENCE
Between Capitalism and
Socialism
ESSAYS IN POLITICAL ECONOMICS
Robert LHeilbroner
These essays help us locate ourselves in history. As readers of The Worldly Philosophers or The Future as History or The Limits of American Capitalism know, Robert L. Heilbroner is an economist who uses his craft to elucidate the problems of large-scale historical transformation that affect our times. In these essays that ongoing examination is pursued further as Heilbroner explores these forces that impinge on our present position "between capitalism and socialism."
The first section of the book takes us on a tour of the changes within the spectrum of social orders in the contemporary world. Starting with the shifting relation between business and the state within capitalism, the author in turn examines the ambiguities and ambivalences of the acquisitive drive, the furies and frustrations of the development process (and its impact on America), and concludes with a searching critique of the dynamics and contradictions of socialism as an actuality and an ideal of present-day history. In these chapters the subterranean force of technology emerges as the central theme of historic change, before which capitalism and socialism alike are impelled to adapt their institutions.
A second group of essays brings the discipline of economics itself to the fore. Here Professor Heilbroner deals with technology as it affects the capabilities of economic essence in predicting social change, discusses the contributions and deficiencies of Marxism, and finally asks, "Is Economic Theory Possible?" As the subtitle of the book indicates, he concludes that economics is meaningful only in a political context, to which these essays are a contribution.
Finally, Heilbroner reviews a series of interpretations of our times, evaluating the views of A. A. Berle, J. K. Galbraith, and others on the prospects for capitalism in the United States. The book concludes with a stunning summary of the ecological challenge, "unquestionably the gravest long-run threat of our times, [but] potentially the source of its greatest short-run promise."
Also available in a hardcover edition from Random House COVER DESIGN BY ROBERT FLYNN
A VINTAGE BOOK
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