The Concept of Capitalism

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-viii

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2. Introduction

   Pages 1-5

3. Historical Conceptions of Capitalism

   Pages 7-10

4. Some Current Conceptions of Capitalism: Discussion and Critique

   Pages 11-20

5. My Conception of Capitalism

   Pages 21-38

6. Political Authority Shapes Capitalism with Visible Human Agency

   Pages 39-60

7. The Political and Economic Systems are Interdependent

   Pages 61-65

8. Conclusions

   Pages 67-71

9. Back Matter

   Pages 73-75

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his monograph on the concept of capitalism is the intellectual core of a larger work, entitled Capitalism, Its Origins and Evolution as Ta System of Governance, due for publication November 2009. The purpose of this monograph is to put forth an original concept of ca- talism as a system of governance, including a theory of how it functions at any point in time and how it evolves through time. In the larger book, I present a theory of its origins and evolution and support this theory with a set of country case studies that span both time and geography. It was, in fact, my experience in studying these case studies that led me to the c- cept presented here as well as to the theory of capitalism’s origins and e- lution. In the larger book, I build on the present work, identifying and expla- ing capitalism as a system of governance for political entities such as - tion states. I then supplement these ideas with a description and expla- tion of three generic economic strategies. Taken together, my studies of economic strategies and specific capitalist systems of governance are - tended to enhance and enrich existing literature on “varieties of capit- ism”.

• economic history
• economic systems
• instability
• institutions
• organization
• organizations
• regulation
• stability
• university
• value-at-risk

"An excellent case for thinking of capitalism as a system embodying political authority as well as markets and, after reading it, one wonders how one could ever have thought otherwise" Prof. Peter A. Hall, Harvard University

"Scott’s analysis of capitalism and democracy is striking both for its originality and for its rich policy suggestiveness and sheds an entirely new light on recent economic history" Charles Morris, author of "The Trillion Dollar Meltdown"

• Harvard Business School, Boston, USA

  Bruce R. Scott

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