Week 7 Flashcards
Production relations
Interactions with other humans during the work process
Means of production
Implements such as land, machinery, and tools used in the production process
Exchange relations
Buying and selling goods and services in the marketplace
Commodities
The goods bought and sold in the markets
Forces of production
All productive resources used in the production process
Mode of production
Different ways relations and forces of production have been organized throughout history
What were Marx’s modes of production that prevailed through human history
Primitive communism, ancient, the feudal, and the capitalist mode of production
What is capitalism
An economic system characterized by private ownership of the means of production, from which , personal profits can be derived
What is the basis of capitalism?
Capitalism accumulation through investment of financial assets for the purpose of gaining bigger financial returns
Markets and trade existed before capitalism - true or false?
True
Where and when did the capitalist economy emerge?
Western Europe, 16th century
When did the capitalist economy become the dominant system in the world?
19th century
What is the first stage of capitalism
Primitive accumulation stage or mercantilism
What did the first stage of capitalism entail?
A policy based on trade policies by limiting imports and increasing exports
What else happened in the 19th century?
Emergence of nation state’s
What led to the emergence of monopolies ?
Concentration of production and capital
How were financial oligarchy created
By the merging of financial and industrial capital
What necessitates the export of capital?
The tendency of the rate of profit declining in any location
What happens in anarchy production
Many resources can be wasted and markets can be flooded with products that may not be sold
What happens during the tendency of overproduction
Floods the market with goods that can’t be sold
What happens during the tendency of over accumulation?
Leads to the rate of profit falling
How to deal with over accumulation
- Create new markets
- Moving capital or labour to a different territory and beginning a new production line
Oligopoly
When several companies control a sector of industry
Shared monopoly
When four or fewer companies supply 50% or more of a particular market
Interlocking corporate directorates
Control can also he possible when members of a board of directors of one corporation also sit on the board of other corporations
What is politics?
The institution that deals with how power is maintained in society
What is a state?
political entity with a legitimate monopoly over using force within its territory
Authority (mw)
Power that people accept as legitimate rather than coercive
Charismatic authority (mw)
Power legitimized based on a leaders exceptional personal qualities
Traditional authority (mw)
Power that is legitimized based on long standing custom (monarchies)
Legal rational authority (mw)
Power legitimized by law or written rules and regulations.
Which did Weber assume would prevail in modern capitalist societies ?
Rational legal authority
Role of the state in capitalist society
Mills power elite model
Power is concentrated in the hands of a small group of elites both in the government and outside.
The state serves the interests of the ruling class that controls the means of production
Role of the state in capitalist society
Domhofs model
Accepts that there are conflict of interest among different fractions a of the capitalist class. This may explain relative autonomy of the state during some historical periods
Role of the state in capitalist societies
Pluralist model
Functionalist
See the state as a functional institution of order and stability
They assume the state tends to act independently of any particular interest group
What happened during mercantilism?
Emergence in impoverished working class in Europe and colonial expansion in US, Asia, and Africa
What was technology used for?
To reduce labour costs and competition
What do stratified societies have?
Inequalities of power
What is the primary source of inequality of power?
Inequalities in access to key economic resources
Marx on mode of production
Mop determines general characteristics of social, political, and spiritual processes in life
What did Marx recognize capitalism as?
As an economic system that revolutionized the production process
