Political Economy and the New Capitalism

Political Economy and the New Capitalism examines key developments in capitalist economies at the end of the twentieth century and brings together essays by leading economists in honour of the late Sam Aaronovitch, the veteran left-wing economist. In his work, Sam Aaronovitch emphasized the need to take into account the most recent developments in capitalist economies. In this spirit the essays in this volume focus on key issues raised by contemporary trends, including: how the apparent triumph of capitalism reflects on Marxism, the role of the collapse of Communism in undermining the post-war Keynesian settlement, and the relevance of Keynesianism to contemporary capitalism. Political Economy and the New Capitalism also examines the relevance of Sam Aaronovitch's pioneering empirical studies of British capitalism in the light of modern developments. A wide range of problems are reviewed from industrial concentration today to the co-ordination of economic policies in Europe. Aaronovitch's work on the role of finance in the British economy is the subject sustained reflection. Individual chapters examine orthodox and left-wing criticisms of finance, exchange rate instability, and employment, growth and regions in the context of European Union. This work concludes with a bibliography of the published writings of Sam Aaronovitch and collects the reflections of some of the most distinguished thinkers in economics today including: Meghnad Desai, G.C. Harcourt, Pat Devine, Egon Matzner, Malcolm Sawyer, Sir Alan Budd, Jan Toporowski, Philip Arestis, Eleni Paliginis, Victoria Chick and Ben Fine.