Lecture 3 - Organised Global Capitalism Flashcards
What is Capitalism
An economic and political system in which a country’s trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state.
When was organised capitalism (years)
1900s to mid-1970s
What is organised global capitalisation
‘Organization’ of production, labour and consumption - Capitalism – factories at the centre of everything, ‘all under one roof’ processes of production
What was the era also called
‘Golden Age’ of Fordism – system eventually collapsed after this
What set boundaries of organised global capitalism
Keynesianism
What did Keynesianism do
Set boundaries of organised global capitalism
What sector currently drives the economy and what was it in the past
The service sector drives the economy, used to be about manufacturing tangible commodities and goods
Who was F W Taylor (1856-1915)
One of the first people to study rationalisation of the process of production, and economies, and efficiencies
Who studies the study rationalisation of economies
F W Taylor (1856-1815)
What is taylorism
The study of Taylors work / theories are called
What did Taylor find out about the rationalisation of economies
- Time and motion analysis – tiny changes in efficiencies at a small scale, can scale up and lead to larger efficiencies at a manufacturing and productive scale
- Standardisation & a de-skilled labour process
- Re-integration of the production process
- Time & motion analysis of production
- Technical division of labour
Who was Henry Ford
One of the most important figures in economic history – was a business owner not an academic
But put the theories of people such as Taylor into practise
What did Henry Ford do
Founded Ford Motor Company in 1903
Features of Ford Cars (Henry Ford)
All cars were similar / same looking, homogenous (drove down the costs of the product = increase affordability)
Ford Cars in America 1918 (Henry Ford)
By 1918 50% of all cars in the USA were ‘Model-T’s
How did Henry Ford treat his workers
He was anti-trade union, welfare capitalist, but paid a sufficient amount to his workers, creation of thousands of jobs:
-Saw this ^ as being key, paid his workers $5 per working day, with 8 hour days, shortening the working day
Henry Ford contribution to economy
- River Rouge Plant, Dearborn Michigan
- 16million square feet of factory floorspace
- Employed over 100,000 people in the 1930s
- The finest example of vertically integrated production
- Coke and iron ore went in one end, cars came out of the other
Characteristics of Fordism: the production process
- Economies of scale
- Mass production of homogeneous products
- Uniformity and standardisation
- Large buffer stocks - just in case production
- Cost reduction through wage control
Characteristics of Fordism: labour
- Single task performance
- Payment per rate job
- High job specification
- Bureaucratic labour hierarchy
- Discipline through pacing the assembly-line
Characteristics of Fordism: space
- Functional spatial hierarchy
- Spatial division of labour
- Consumption organised through urbanisation
Characteristics of Fordism: state
- Collective bargainning
- Socialisation of the welfare state
Characteristics of Fordism: ideology
- Mass consumption
- Modernism
Importance of Fordism
- Enabled commodities to be produced en masse and to a guaranteed standard
- Production of goods could occur ‘under one roof’ rather than being spatially dispersed (eg: vertically integrated)
- Production/labour was fragmented and de-skilled
- Mass production in this fashion enabled mass consumption
Global implications of Fordism
- Mass production diffused across the globe but became concentrated in certain cores (e.g. major cities such as Birmingham/Detroit/etc)
- Products became cheaper opening up new markets for product sale and distribution
- The nation state was vital in managing industrial policy and making a country competitive with other nations
- Social relations transformed markedly – power of the working classes and trade unions increased
What could mass production not exist without
Mass consumption (and vice versa)
What meant that people had a large amount of disposable income
High levels of industrial employment and welfare statism (e.g. NHS, social security)
What drove down prices of goods
Efficiencies of mass production drove prices down rendering goods affordable
How does consumption affect the economy
Consumption becomes vital to economic development and growth globally.
