The possibility, first raised by Rudolf Hilferding, of stabilizing a capitalist economy through the operations of a ‘general cartel’, leaving only social and political ‘contradictions’ to disturb the functioning of the system, gave rise to a discussion among Marxists not only on whether...

The political economy of medieval Europe was shaped by alliances between lords and vassals, forged through peaceful and violent means. We model coalition formation through bargaining or by conquest, and where members can rebel against their coalition. We derive conditions under which a realm...

Today’s record levels of economic inequality are infecting our future as the top 0.01% bequest vast wealth to their descendants. With the death of the Rule Against Perpetuities (RAP), this inequality has the potential to harden social class lines not just for a generation or two but forever....

Diskussionen über »den« Kapitalismus, die ihm innewohnende Kraft sowie die aus ihm resultierenden Probleme sind in unserer »Gesellschaft des Spektakels« allgegenwärtig. Und obgleich sich ein nicht unerheblicher Teil der politischen Eliten, der Medienmacher, Kirchenoberhäupter oder...

"In feudal society, it was the few at the top who laid the ground for what was produced, how it was produced and how it was distributed. Freedom was restricted, and people were kept in their place by institutional structures. In capitalism, the focus is on free markets, free trade, and a...

This paper draws a distinction between ‘communitarian' and ‘rationalist' legal orders on the basis of the implied political strategy. We argue that the West's solution to the paradox of governance – that a government strong enough to protect rights cannot itself be restrained from...

There is a great deal of literature on the role of capital investment in the economic transition from feudalism to capitalism. Investment in capital and new technology and agricultural techniques has not been considered worthwhile in a medieval economy because of a lack of strong peasant...

Why did enduring traditions of economic and political liberty arise in Western Europe? An answer to this question must be sought at the constitutional level. Within the medieval constitutional order, traditions of representative and limited government developed through patterns of constitutional...

In his book, the Political Economy of Growth (1957), and in an article he wrote several years earlier (1953), the economist Paul A. Baran noted how in an economic system characterized by a hierarchy of classes and where economic and political power are concentrated in the top class of such a...

This paper argues in favour of significant estate taxation. From a comparison of wealth and income, it stresses how wealth fundamentally differs from income in its growth, distribution, and taxation. It demonstrates how these differences compound to fuel ever-growing wealth inequality. It argues...

Industrial feudalism is a socio-economic formation of advanced capitalist countries in which society becomes stratified into closed, hierarchically-defined social groups. In the writings of Ludwik Krzywicki and Oskar Lange, industrial feudalism is associated with the dominance of monopoly...

Industrial feudalism is a socioeconomic formation that the Polish Marxists Ludwik Krzywicki and Oskar Lange associated with monopoly finance capital. Industrial feudalism arises in a socially static capitalism where mobility between hierarchically defined social strata is restricted. Krzywicki's...

"Carlos Astarita's From Feudalism to Capitalism: Social and Political Change in Castile and Western Europe, 1250-1520 presents for an English-speaking readership a major intervention in a number of debates in Marxist historiography. The work has four thematic nuclei: the socio-political...

"This is a rigorous academic inquiry into how labor power has been dehumanized and commodified around the world through the ages for creation of wealth, capital accumulation, and industrialization. Major forms of unfree and involuntary labor markets around the world-from slavery to serfdom, from...

The emergence of digital assets has created a host of new legal questions regarding their status as a property interest. Digital assets consist of intangible interests like e-mail accounts, social media accounts, reward points, and electronic media. These assets seem like a property interest,...

"This book focuses on the beginnings of capitalism in Central Europe with emphasis on the German speaking areas from the 14th to the 17th century. It also reviews and assesses the writings on the topic by the most important thinkers of the twentieth century. At the center of the presentation are...

The paper provides a historical overview of the pre-modern allocation of work within the territory of the later Germany from the 18th until the middle of the 19th century. We explore how the social allocation of work during the feudal system took place and trace back the development of wage...

Der Finanzmarktkapitalismus der Gegenwart lässt sich nur unzureichend als ideologische Ausgeburt des Neoliberalismus begreifen. Auch stellt die Ökonomie der schnellen Gewinne und hohen Verluste nicht einfach einen Verfall rationaler Erwerbsprinzipien dar. Derselbe gesellschaftliche Prozess,...

Der Finanzmarktkapitalismus der Gegenwart lässt sich nur unzureichend als ideologische Ausgeburt des Neoliberalismus begreifen. Auch stellt die Ökonomie der schnellen Gewinne und hohen Verluste nicht einfach einen Verfall rationaler Erwerbsprinzipien dar. Derselbe gesellschaftliche Prozess,...

The paper provides a historical overview of the pre-modern allocation of work within the territory of the later Germany from the 18th until the middle of the 19th century. We explore how the social allocation of work during the feudal system took place and trace back the development of wage...