Abstract
The road to primitive capitalism is the road to Barbarism. Its naked market logic exaggerates social differences, insecurities and human greed. Primitive capitalism feeds off the fears of personal and national economic catastrophe which at the same time serves to protect the very forces that perpetuate this danger. But what of the opponents of primitive capitalism? What of those who glimpse a more humane, equal and less divided society? Have they been able to develop a political project that can harness the forces of change in the service of social progress? In short, have they been able to create a new vision of capitalism that can secure national economic prosperity for all in a global economy, whilst laying the foundations for individual freedom and social solidarity?
People are born with talent and everywhere it is in chains. Fail to develop the talents of any one person, we fail Britain. Talent is 21st-century wealth.
Tony Blair
The pre-eminent mission of our new Government is to give all Americans an opportunity — not a guarantee — to build better lives.
Bill Clinton
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Notes
For a discussion of the ‘third way’ see Anthony Giddens, The Third Way: The Renewal of Social Democracy Cambridge: Polity Press, 1998
Stephen Driver & Luke Martell, New Labour: Politics after Thatcherism, Cambridge: Polity Press, 1998
Joel Krieger, British Politics in the Global Age, Cambridge: Polity Press, 1999.
Michael E. Porter, The Competitive Advantage of Nations London: Macmillan, 1990;David S. Landes, The Wealth and Poverty of Nations New York: W. W. Norton;
Lester C. Thurow, Head to Head: The Coming Economic Battle Among Japan, Europe and America, London: Nicholas Brealey, 1993.
Manuel Castells, ‘Information Technology and Global Capitalism’, in Will Hutton and Anthony Giddens (eds) On the Edge: Living with Global Capitalism, London: Jonathan Cape, 2000
Jerry J. Jasinowski (ed.) The Rising Tide, New York: John Wiley, 1998; S. Weber, ‘The end of the business cycle?’ Foreign Affairs, July August, 74, 4, pp. 65–82.
See also Lester Thurow, Building Wealth, New York: HarperCollins, 1999.
These figures are cited in Stephen Bond and Tim Jenkinson, ‘The assessment: investment performance and policy’, Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 1996, 12, 1–29.
Wiji Arulampalam and Alison Booth, Labour Market Flexibility and Skills Acquisition: is There a Trade Off, Institute of Labour Research, University of Essex, UK, 1997.
F. Green, S. Machin and D. Wilkinson, Trade Unions and Training Practices in British Workplaces, mimeo, London: Centre for Economic Performance, London School of Economics, London, No. 278, 1996.
Michael J. Piore, ‘Labor standards and business strategies’, in S. Herzenberg and J. Perez-Lopez (eds) Labor Standards and Development in the Global Economy, Washington, DC: US Department of Labor, 1990.
Werner Sengenberger and Frank Wilkinson, ‘Globalization and labour standards’, in J. Michie and J.G. Smith (eds) Managing the Global Economy, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.
OECD, Employment Outlook, Paris: OECD, 1994.
Adrian Wood, North-South Trade, Employment and Inequality: Changing Fortunes in a Skill-Driven World, Oxford: Clarendon, 1994.
International Labour Organisation (ILO) World Employment 1995 Geneva: ILO, 1995.
Karen Gardiner, A Survey of Income Inequality Over the Last Twenty Years - How Does the UK Compare?, Welfare State Programme No. 100, Centre for Economics and Related Disciplines, London School of Economics, 1993;John Hills, Income and Wealth - Volume Two A Summary of the Evidence, York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation, 1995
OECD, Employment Outlook, Paris: OECD, 1993.
William Lazonick, ‘Industry clusters versus global webs: organisational capabilities in the American economy’, Industrial and Corporate Change, vol. 2, 1993, 1–24.
John Bound and George Johnson, ‘What are the causes of rising wage inequality in the United States?’ Economic Policy Review Federal Reserve Bank of New York, vol. 1, 1995, 9–17.
Adrian Wood, North-South Trade, Employment and Inequality: Changing Fortunes in a Skill-Driven World, Oxford: Clarendon, 1994.
See Robert Reich, The Next American Frontier, New York: Penguin, 1984.
William Julius Wilson, The Truly Disadvantaged, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990, p. 56.
Mike Davis, City of Quartz, New York: Verso, 1990.
See David Piachaud, ‘Progress on poverty’, New Economy vol. 6, 1999,. 154–60.
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© 2001 Phillip Brown and Hugh Lauder
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Brown, P., Lauder, H. (2001). A False Start. In: Capitalism and Social Progress. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780333985380_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780333985380_11
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