Lec 17&18 Flashcards
What are Kondratiev waves and how long are they?
40-60 year long cycles of periods of boom and contraction
What are Kuznets cycles?
15-20 year long periods of growth and contraction tied to infrastructure investments
What does regulation theory attempt to do? what are its 2 key concepts? When does it emerge?
explain historical changes in macro structures of capitalist economies
the regime of accumulation and the mode of social regulation
emerges in 70s
when do fordism and post-fordism occur?
1920-70
1970-onwards
define the regime of accumulation
What does transition from one ROA to another create?
a common and temporality coherent way of PRODUCING, DISTRIBUTING, AND EXCHANGING commodities
industrial divides
What are the 6 ways in which a ROA can be characterized?
- the type of production techniques
- the key industrial sectors
- how labor is organized
- the predominant form of competition (is it international, national?)
- the distributional mechanisms of profits
- the spatial forms of expression
define the mode of social regulation
what does it do to the ROA?
set of norms, institutions and
conventions that support the ROA
It governs the ROA by providing a regulatory and coordinative framework
What are the 2 functions of the MOSR?
○ Reproduces social relations
○ Provides stability in terms of the ROA
What are the benefits of the ROA and the MOSR?
they allow us to investigate the varieties of capitalism, such as fordism and post fordism
in 1913, the first assembly line, Highland Park, incorporates who’s ideas? what are they?
taylor’s
taylorism:
- the division of labour
- vertical integration
- mass production
- economies of scale
ford realized that for mass production you need…
to do this he…
mass consumption
payed his employees more (5$ per day program)
What are the 6 key developments that enabled the growth of fordism?
- Rise of Keynesian economic planning
- Keynes advocates for strong role of government for economic growth. Gov will stimulate growth by investing, purchasing, regulating- Suburbanization
–> mass consumption possibilities - WW2 improved manufacturing processes
- Key industries: cars, heavy equipment, steel, etc
- New R&D in particular sectors
- Aerospace sector taking off
- 1st microwave
- Competition (at the national level)
- Lots of competition between few big corporations (oligopolistic)
- Suburbanization
What is the MOSR for fordism
the keynesian welfare state
- a social contract that benefits white males
- through state intervention, capital and labor float Fordist mass production
How does the geography of fordism manifest itself on the regional scale and on the global scale?
regional: mass production developped in frost belt
global:
- expansion of world trade
- international investment
what does the expansion of world trade allow for?
US surplus commodities to be absorbed overseas
new sources of cheap raw materials for fordist production
What are the 3 points agreed upon by the bretton woods agreement?
- US$ is world’s reserve currency
- there are fixed exchange rates between currencies
- regulated flows of capital across borders
What did bretton woods do?
- created a stable financial sphere so world trade could proceed
- allow the KWS to work
why is the era of fordism referred to as the golden age of capitalism
because GDP growth was much more stable during fordism. following fordism, there was much more volatility in gdp growth
What are the domestic and international roots of the undoing of fordism? What does this undoing signify?
domestic
- stagflation: inflation yet economy is declining (stagnating output)
international
- the repeal of bretton woods
- 1973 oil crisis
it signifies the emergence of a new ROA with a new MOSR
what are the late 1960s/early 1970s characterized by?
○ A less flexible system
○ Mass production introduces rigidity in system
○ Strikes as a result of companies attempting to adjust. Increases production costs
○ Growing pressure on keynesian welfare state entitlement programs
○ Inflation
What are the 10 defining characteristics of post-fordism?
- Move away from mass production technologies
- Moving away from economies of scale towards economies of scope
- Surge in service-based activities and FIRE (finance, insurance, real-estate)
- Increased use of telecommunication technologies
- increased role of science and high tech knowledge
- Flexibilization of work
- Key industries: telecoms, semi-conductors, computers, biotech, medical devices, cultural industries (Hollywood, books, music), media industry
- Highly competitive conditions
○ Much more at international scale rather than at domestic scale/no longer oligopolistic - The growth of peripheral fordism
○ EPZs = export processing zones. Areas where government will provide tax advantages or benefits to companies who manufacture there - Move from “just-in-case” to “just-in-time” inventory
○ No large inventories
○ More efficient from a cost perspective
What are the consequences of post fordism as a ROA?
- Just in time: need coordination, timing precision, and flexibility
- vertical integration –> vertical disintegration
- geographical decentralization happening at the same time as centralization
- industrial clustering increasingly important
What are the consequences of post fordism as a MOSR
KWS –> Workfar state
state regulation –> de-regulation
greater individualization
shift in societal values
standardized consumption –> yuppie culture
What are the negative consequences of post-fordism?
○ More job turn-over
○ Higher levels of inequality
* Fordism: inequality decreased, income increased
○ More competition between individuals and regions
* “race to the bottom”
