Paternalistic Capitalism

Paternalistic Capitalism was first published in 1972. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions. The distinguished economist and Greek political leader presents here a powerful critique of American capitalism and its relationship to government and foreign policy. Dr. Papandreou first examines the orthodox view of the contemporary capitalist economy and the "myth of market capitalism" which it has engendered. He then considers the Neo-Marxist view that the economy can best be understood as monopoly capitalism, and the technocratic interpretation of society proposed by J. K. Galbraith. Dr. Papandreou accepts and rejects various aspects of these two interpretations, and moves to define the salient features of what he calls paternalistic capitalism, wherein privatized decentralized planning increasingly is carried out by the corporate managerial elite, in the interest not of the consumer, but of the "system." The paternalism is that of the autocratic big brother. The author then explores the relationship between the managerial elite and the instrumentalities of the State, and claims that next to the managerial elite stand the national security managers—not by accident, for paternalistic capitalism is aggressively expansionist, as is reflected in the foreign policy of the capitalist metropolis, the United States. The global aspect of paternalistic capitalism is further delineated in Dr. Papandreou's discussion of the "new mercantilism" and of the institutional device of the multinational corporation. Finally, he considers briefly two alternatives—the Soviet experiment, which he rejects as paternalistic socialism, and a vision of a regionally decentralized society, in which man will control rather than be at the mercy of his social environment.

In the early twentieth century, an era characterized by unprecedented industrial strife and violence, thousands of employers across the United States pioneered a new policy of labor relations called welfare work. The results of the policy were paternalistic practices and forms of compensation designed not only to control workers, but also to advertise the humanity of corporate capitalism to thwart the advance of legislated reform. In a burgeoning literature on the development of the U.S. welfare state, Andrea Tone offers a new interpretation of the importance of welfare capitalism in shaping its development.

This book offers an in-depth exploration of the international phenomenon of enlightened paternalist capitalism and social engineering in the golden age of capitalism in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and France. Erik de Gier shows how utopian socialist, religious, and craft-based ideas influenced the welfare work and educations programmes offered by paternalistic businesses in different ways from nation to nation, looking closely at sites like the Pullman community in Chicago and Port Sunlight in the UK. De Gier brings the book fully up to date with a brief comparison to contemporary welfare capitalism in our highly flexible working world.

Commentators across the political spectrum have argued that the future has been absorbed by an ever-expanding present to which we cannot imagine alternatives. The notion that we have lost the ability to imagine change-culturally, socially, and politically-has become one of the defining problems of our time. But what is the difference between the populist narratives of those who promise to solve this problem by returning us to a glorious past and those who promise to lead us into a glorious future? Often, this book argues, not very much at all. Revealing neo-authoritarianism and capitalist hyper-innovation as two sides of the same coin, Mathias Nilges shows that today's reactionaries and futurists both harness and profit from the same temporal crises of our present. Looking to design, popular culture, literature, and recent theoretical and political discussions, Nilges offers ways of understanding the re-emergence of familiar and disturbing forms of right-wing politics and culture (authoritarianism, paternalism, fascism) not as historical repetition but as dangerous consequences of the contradictions of capitalism today. Using critical theory, in particular the work of Ernst Bloch, this book recovers a politics and culture of hope, which it locates beyond a future that is colonized by capitalism and a past that becomes the mystical playground for the new Right:in that which was never allowed to be and thus demands realization.

In light of recent trends of corporate downsizing and debates over corporate responsibility, Sanford Jacoby offers a timely, comprehensive history of twentieth-century welfare capitalism, that is, the history of nonunion corporations that looked after the economic security of employees. Building on three fascinating case studies of "modern manors" (Eastman Kodak, Sears, and TRW), Jacoby argues that welfare capitalism did not expire during the Depression, as traditionally thought. Rather it adapted to the challenges of the 1930s and became a powerful, though overlooked, factor in the history of the welfare state, the labor movement, and the corporation. "Fringe" benefits, new forms of employee participation, and sophisticated anti-union policies are just some of the outgrowths of welfare capitalism that provided a model for contemporary employers seeking to create productive nonunion workplaces. Although employer paternalism has faltered in recent years, many Americans still look to corporations, rather than to unions or government, to meet their needs. Jacoby explains why there remains widespread support for the notion that corporations should be the keystone of economic security in American society and offers a perspective on recent business trends. Based on extensive research, Modern Manors greatly advances the study of corporate and union power in the twentieth century.

Guy Standing argues for a complex egalitarianism, in which basic income security is a right for all.