Can Global Capitalism Endure

William Robinson offers a concise, authoritative, and persuasive account of the ills, economic, ecological, and geopolitical, afflicting global capitalism, and shows that they are potentially fatal to both humankind and the system itself – compelling reading for anyone who wants to decipher the gathering storm clouds.” ALEX CALLINICO, Professor of European Studies, King’s College, London "Few scholars are better qualified than William I. Robinson to summarize the Marxist economic critique and to apply it to the current terminal crisis of the capitalist system." KEES VAN DER PIJL, States of Emergency: Keeping the Global Population in Check “Every paragraph of Can Global Capitalism Endure? sizzles with insights. Here is William I. Robinson at his best: empirically sensitive, theoretically original, politically committed”. JASON W. MOORE Global capitalism is facing an unprecedented crisis. The global economy is mired in prolonged stagnation. The worldwide social fabric is in decay. Civil strife and social upheaval are tearing up political systems and, in some cases, leading to the collapse of states. The planetary ecosystem is breaking down. Millions are fleeing, displaced by climate change, transnational corporate land grabs, wars and political persecution. How far into the future can global capitalism endure? In this urgent new study, sociologist William I. Robinson presents a “big picture” snapshot of the crisis of capitalism and the battle for the future of humanity. Drawing on 30 years of scholarship and activism, Robinson applies his original theory of global capitalism to the emerging digital age. He shows how global elites have pinned their hope on economic reactivation through the application of radical new digital technologies and financial strategies to the global economy and society. The rulers will turn to enhancing a global police state to contain mass rebellion as humanity enters a season of chaos and global civil war. The capitalist class and privileged strata of humanity may be able to survive collapse for decades to come even as a majority of humanity faces desperate struggles for survival that lead many to perish in the coming years. But there is eventually a terminal point to capitalist expansion as mass extinction and the radical alteration of the natural environment make life for our species and most others impossible. The only solution is a reversal of escalating inequalities through a radical redistribution of wealth and power

This book discusses the nature of the new global capitalism, the rise of a globalized production and financial system, a transnational capitalist class, and a transnational state and warns of the rise of a global police state to contain the explosive contradictions of a global capitalist system that is crisis-ridden and out of control.

'Dr Donghyun Park is a prominent and rare economist in Asia who can combine frontline economic theories, lively data, and real-time policy analyses. Capitalism in the 21st Century is a masterful book by Dr Park, providing a comprehensive understanding of heterogenous trajectories of economies around the globe and more fundamental mechanisms of the modern capitalistic system. This is a 'must-read' for those who are interested in comparative economic systems, global economy, and international development.'Yasuyuki SawadaChief Economist, Asian Development BankProfessor of Economics, University of Tokyo'Donghyun Park makes clear that capitalism gets a bad rap, in large part because of too much emphasis on capital as in financial engineering, and too much emphasis on capitals as in government protectionism. Park argues a compelling case that genuine capitalism, which is about entrepreneurship, is necessary to solve the big problems most people face around the globe.'Adam S PosenPresident, Peterson Institute of International EconomicsGlobal capitalism is currently suffering from an unmistakable malaise, epitomized by wide and growing inequality that is eroding popular support for capitalism. Such anti-capitalist sentiment, coupled with a growing anti-globalization mood, delivered Brexit in a UK referendum and swept Donald Trump to the US presidency. In Capitalism in the 21st Century, internationally well-regarded economist Dr Donghyun Park articulately explains why more capitalism is needed to tackle global problems such as climate change and inhumane poverty. While defending capitalism against its unfair demonization, the author makes a positive case for entrepreneurial capitalism, which creates wealth and jobs as well as drives human progress. According to the author, reforming the financial industry, which has become a self-serving leviathan, and more fundamentally, tweaking the economic role of the government, which stifles growth-promoting entrepreneurship, are critical to restoring the vitality of capitalism. The book is explicitly written in such a way that the general reader without any background in economics or finance can easily understand it.Related Link(s)

Following up on his earlier best-seller, The Global Police State, this exciting new study by critically-acclaimed scholar and activist William I. Robinson offers a big-picture contribution to understanding contemporary global society in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic. It puts forth an original and cutting-edge exposé of the radical transformation of global capitalism now underway, driven by new digital technologies and turbo-charged by the pandemic. It provides shocking data and analysis on the concentration of power and control in the hands of corporate conglomerates, tech giants, mega-banks, and the military-industrial complex. The book documents the extent of unprecedented global inequalities as the mass of humanity faces violent dispossession and uncertain survival. Enabled by digital applications, the ruling groups, unless they are pushed to change course by mass pressure from below, will turn to ratcheting up the global police state to contain the global revolt. If the book issues a dire warning against the emergence of a dystopic digitalized dictatorship it also finds great hope and inspiration in the burgeoning social movements of the poor and the dispossessed as humanity descends into global civil war. While deeply analytical and theoretically sophisticated, the study is written in such a style that it is eminently accessible to a wider public beyond the academy. While the work will satisfy scholars, it is destined to become a companion text to those struggling on the frontlines for global social justice and a more hopeful future.

In Does Capitalism Have a Future?, the prominent theorist Georgi Derleugian has gathered together a quintet of eminent macrosociologists to assess whether the capitalist system can survive.

A critical look at the terrifying ways the police are used to control'surplus' populations worldwide.

In this bold new look at the recent uncontrolled spread of global capitalism, John McMurtry, professor of philosophy at the University of Guelph, develops the metaphor of modern capitalism as a cancer. Its invasive growth, he argues, threatens to break down our society's immune system and--if not soon restrained--could reverse all the progress that has been made toward social equity and stability. On every continent, in every state, there are indicators of profound economic and environmental collapse. From the lands of indigenous communities to the currency markets of Asia, from the ocean floors to the ozone layer, the collapse is all-encompassing and deep-reaching. John McMurtry traces the causes of this global disorder back to the mutating assumptions of market theory that now govern the world’s economy. He diagnoses the malaise as a pathologist would a biological cancer, tracking the delinked circuits of the global system’s monetised growth as a carcinogenic disorder at the social level of life-organization. In the wide-lensed tradition of Adam Smith, Marx and Keynes, McMurtry cuts across academic disciplines and boundaries to penetrate the inner logic of the system’s problems. Far from pessimistic, he argues that the way out of the global crisis is to be found in an evolving substructure of history which provides a common ground of resolution across ethnic and national divisions. Reaching beyond conventional textbooks, this fascinating study offers a new paradigm which is accessible to intelligent citizens the world over.

Scrutinizes possibilities for an equalised global order, in light of recent conflicts between the world’s major powers The “post-Cold War era is definitively over,” asserted US President Joe Biden as he launched the new National Security Strategy, warning in late 2022 that “a competition is underway between the major powers to shape what comes next.” American leadership, the document declared, would be more necessary than ever to define "the future of the international order,” insisting that the US must marshal its unparalleled economic, military, and diplomatic resources to confront its geopolitical rivals. Socialist Register 2024: A New Global Geometry? takes stock of momentous changes on the horizon: Even if these geopolitical shifts do not spell the end of globalization, how might they alter its historical trajectory? While it is it premature to speak of the end of the liberal economic order, let alone the development of a multipolar international system, can we begin to assess the dimensions of a new global geometry? And, how might we assess the potential vulnerabilities of socialist movements worldwide, alongside the potential resistance our movements might manage to present, grounded in our historical demands for a democratic and equalizing world order?