Theoretical generation

Most theorists called capitalism appeared in18th century,19th century and 20th century, such as the industrial revolution and European imperialism (such as Smith and Ricardo), the Great Depression (such as Keynes) and the Cold War (such as Hayek and Friedman).

These theorists define capitalism as a system in which capital is owned by private individuals (sometimes called "capitalists"), and economic decisions and decisions are made by the market-that is, transactions are made by buyers and sellers through agreements; It is operated by the wisdom and entrepreneurial spirit of the market, as well as the property rights and contract system protected by law. These theorists also try to explain why capitalism can produce greater economic growth than the government-intervened economy. (see economics, political philosophy, laissez-faire)

Finnish parliamentarian AndersChydenius published The Wealth of Nations in 1765, becoming the first person to advocate the freedom of trade and industry and the principle of liberalism. Adam Smith published The Wealth of Nations in 1 1 years later.

1867, Pierre-Joseph proudhon used the word "capitalist" to refer to the owner of capital. However, the first person to use the word "capitalism" to describe the production system was German economist Werner Sombart, who wrote in his book Die Judendudas Wirtschaftsleben in1902. Max Weber, a close friend and colleague of Song Bart, also used this word in 1904's Christian Ethics and Esther Capitalism.

The concept of capitalism also changes with time, as well as with political views and analytical methods. The economic liberalism supported by Adam Smith focuses on the enlightening role ("invisible hand") played by human egoism and the specific role played in increasing the efficiency of capital accumulation.

Some advocates of capitalism (such as milton friedman, Ain Rand and alan greenspan) emphasize the role of the free market. They believe that the free market can promote cooperation, innovation, economic growth and personal freedom. Some people (such as sociologist ImmanuelWallerstein) believe that the fulcrum of capitalism lies in an economic system that allows products and services to be traded in the market, while capital products are owned by non-state entities and operate on a global scale.

For others (such as Karl Marx), capitalism is defined as an unprecedented social relationship in history, which leads to the emergence of the labor market. Most people have to sell their labor in order to make a living, which will inevitably lead to the transformation of the value of labor production into surplus value.

Economists of the Austrian school of economics believe that an economy without government planning and guidance will be more efficient because of the self-organization phenomenon of the economy. Many people think that capitalism is synonymous with market economy.

produce

Capitalist relations of production originated from feudal society. The disintegration of feudal social and economic structure liberated the elements of capitalism. In the14th and15th centuries, some cities along the Mediterranean (such as Venice) have sparsely sprouted capitalist relations of production, but the capitalist era only began in the16th century.

At the end of feudal society, the development of commodity economy promoted the disintegration of natural economy in feudal society and caused the polarization of small commodity producers. The primitive accumulation of capital has accelerated this differentiation, and the basic conditions for the emergence of capitalist mode of production are: on the one hand, a large number of proletarians who have lost their means of production and have to sell their labor; On the other hand, huge amounts of money and means of production are concentrated in the hands of a few people and converted into capital. The so-called primitive accumulation of capital is a historical process of forcibly separating laborers from their means of production, and the deprivation of farmers' land is the basis of the whole process. There are two ways to produce it: one is to differentiate from the small commodity economy; The second is transformed from businessmen and usurers. The self-sufficient natural economy was destroyed, and a large number of farmers and craftsmen went bankrupt, thus providing free labor for capitalism and creating a commodity market. The history of depriving farmers and craftsmen has different characteristics in different countries and has gone through different stages. The transformation of labor force into commodities and means of production into capital marks the transition from simple commodity production to capitalist production, and also marks the transformation of the form of exploitation of workers, that is, from feudal exploitation to capitalist exploitation. Primitive accumulation of capital also includes the occupation and plunder of colonies and other violent means of using state power.

develop

The capitalist mode of production is contradictory to the local privilege, hierarchy and personal attachment of the feudal system. With the development of capitalism, the economic and political power of the bourgeoisie is constantly growing, which prepares the conditions for bourgeois revolution in various countries. At the end of Dutch 16, Britain 17, France 18 and Germany 19, bourgeois revolutions broke out one after another, changing the feudal system, thus clearing the way for capitalist mode of production to replace feudal mode of production.

Capitalist economy was finally established after the industrial revolution, from workshop handicraft industry to machine industry. /kloc-The geographical discovery at the end of 0/5 and the subsequent colonial development expanded the sales market many times and accelerated the transformation of handicraft industry to workshop handicraft industry. Because of the division of labor within the workshop, the handicraft industry in capitalist workshops has greatly improved the labor productivity compared with the handicraft industry that implemented simple cooperation in the early days of capitalism. In the18th century, in developed capitalist countries such as Britain, the rapid expansion of the domestic market and the world market increasingly contradicted the narrow technical foundation of the workshop handicraft industry. In order to get more profits in the competition, capitalists demand further improvement of production technology. In this case, the industrial revolution took place. The machine industry born in the industrial revolution indicates that the material and technical foundation of capitalist production has been established. The two opposing classes, the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, have become the basic class structure of capitalist society. The continuous progress of science and technology and its application in production have promoted the rapid development of productive forces, extended capitalist relations of production to all production departments, and further developed the opposition between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. The emergence and development of capitalism have the same laws and similar consequences in all countries, but each country has its own characteristics due to different specific historical conditions.

The contradiction between socialized mass production and capitalist ownership is also manifested in the opposition between the organization of individual enterprise production and the anarchy of the whole social production. Simple commodity production has included the bud of anarchy in social production, and the capitalist mode of production has pushed this anarchy to the extreme. The formation of big industry and world market makes the struggle between capitalists universal and unprecedented. Capitalists try their best to apply the achievements of science and technology, constantly improve their machines and strengthen the organization of socialized production in their own enterprises in order to occupy more surplus value and at the same time, under the control of the law of competition. As a result, the anarchy of production in the whole society is increasing. The huge expansion of capitalist large-scale industry has met the limitation of relatively narrow market caused by capitalist possession, and the objective proportion necessary for socialized large-scale production has met the destruction of anarchy in the whole social production, so the conflict has become inevitable. Since 1825, the capitalist economic crisis has broken out periodically, which is the outstanding performance of this conflict. In the crisis, all institutions of capitalist mode of production failed under the pressure of their own productive forces. The cyclical economic crisis shows that social productive forces need to get rid of their attributes as capital, recognize their nature as de facto social productive forces, and constantly strengthen their strength. This resistance of productive forces the bourgeoisie to recognize the social nature of productive forces within the possible limits of capital relations. The joint-stock companies, monopoly organizations and state ownership produced by capital concentration are the manifestations of this trend. 19 at the end of the 20th century, capitalism transited from the stage of free competition to its highest stage, namely monopoly capitalism.

The theory of bipolar world reviews the process of external pressure and the change of internal social form of capitalism in stages, and divides capitalism into three development stages: land occupation capitalist colonial system, land tax capitalist colonial system and raw material market capitalist colonial system, and the corresponding industries are the colonization of public goods, natural monopoly and competition respectively. The rise of Britain to the middle of19th century was the stage of land possession and colonization, and the social form of colonial system was similar to slavery in primitive society and slave society for the purpose of land possession. /kloc-from the middle of 0/9th century to the end of World War II, it was the first stage of land tax colonization;/kloc-from the end of 0/9th century to the end of World War II, it was the second stage of land tax colonization. The social form of colonial system is similar to serfdom in feudal society, and its purpose is to obtain taxes paid by people living on certain land. After World War II to the first half of 2 1 century, the raw material market was colonized, the first stage was from World War II to 1970s, and the second stage was from 1970s to 2 1 century. The social form of the colonial system is an economic colonial form based on the unequal international division of labor and aimed at obtaining raw materials and markets. [ 1][2]

ideology

The political ideology supporting capitalism includes the following contents:

Libertarianism is consistent with classical liberalism, emphasizing the capitalist market economy and minimizing the degree of state intervention. Small government liberals believe that the only role of the government in economic activities is to protect the rights of participants and prevent sabotage such as violence, theft and pollution. Liberalism is widely used, and not every "liberal" party supports laissez-faire capitalism. However, in the 20th century, most liberal political parties took the maintenance of capitalism as their main goal and free trade as their main economic plan.

Conservatism varies from country to country. In western countries, conservatism is usually in favor of maintaining the current capitalist system. But many people who call themselves conservatives politically are called mercantilists economically.

Objectivism is a philosophical theory advocated by Ann Rand, which claims that capitalism is the only moral and economic system in terms of personal morality, because without inalienable rational free men, capitalism cannot exist.

Some ideologies believe that capitalism is actually a mixed economic form, including capitalism and state-owned elements.

Mercantilism favours the establishment of an almost completely free market in China, but suggests that the state should continue to intervene to protect domestic industry and commerce from foreign competition.

Social democracy and social liberalism support extensive government control and partial government intervention. On economic issues, the Social Democratic Party is between socialism and classical liberals. They think it is necessary for the government to regulate employment, trade and labor, and sometimes agree to nationalize certain industries. (see welfare state, political liberalism)