资本主义与社会主义关系的理论、历史和趋势

关于资本主义与社会主义的关系,是一个复杂的问题。从理论上看,资本主义制度必然为社会主义制度所替代,但资本主义国家又不能不与社会主义国家发生往来或合作,两类国家之间的关系是一种特殊的国家关系;从历史实践看,两类国家之间的关系错综复杂,但基本状态是斗争、合作与竞争;从发展趋势看,当今世界各种文明和社会制度具有长期共存的客观必然性,资本主义被社会主义取代要经历一个漫长过程。     

Racial capitalism and punishment philosophy and practices: what really stands in the way of prison abolition

This paper explores punishment philosophy and practices in the United States from a critical criminological perspective, utilizing a racial capitalism framework to illustrate forces that impede prison abolition. The paper examines historic and contemporary punishments implemented against ‘others’ to show how such practices help to sustain white capital accumulation and white privilege. The paper also discusses a number of the individual social-psychological theories that assist in the maintenance of that system. Finally, the paper calls for the eradication of racial capitalism through a stronger revolutionary consciousness.     

我国并没有跨越“卡夫丁峡谷”

文章通过马克思原本意义上的晚年设想与中国革命和社会发展的对比,结合对马克思社会发展理论的扼要分析,指出:中国社会主义制度的建立并非跨越"卡夫丁峡谷"的表现.     

Institutional competitiveness in the global economy: Denmark,the United States,and the varieties of capitalism

Despite high taxes, a large welfare state, and much economic regulation, Denmark competes successfully against other advanced capitalist economies. Denmark’s success is based in large part on its institutional competitiveness – its capacity to achieve socioeconomic success as a result of the competitive advantages that firms derive from operating within a particular set of institutions. The institutional basis for successfully coordinating labor markets and vocational training programs are examined for Denmark and the US – two countries that were very different institutionally but very successful in the 1990s and in the 2000s. We show that there is no one best way to achieve success in today’s global economy, except with respect to social inequality; that the mechanisms underlying institutional competitiveness are more complex than often recognized; that institutional hybrids can be as successful as purer political economic cases; and that high taxes and state spending can enhance socioeconomic performance. As such, this paper challenges both neoliberalism and the varieties of capitalism school of comparative political economy.     

Contemporary challenges to the German vocational training system

The German vocational training system has played a central role in sustaining the competitive strength of German manufacturing. This article provides an analysis of contemporary developments in this system to assess its likely future trajectory. I begin by underscoring the differences and similarities of the German system to alternative arrangements that have emerged in other countries. I then turn to recent trends in Germany that have caused concern among policy‐makers about the continued strength and viability of the vocational training system. I discuss reforms undertaken in the past few years that point to incremental, though possibly transformative, changes in the system designed to reduce costs and increase flexibility through renegotiations on two fronts: between general training standards and firm needs and training practices, and between the in‐plant and school‐based components of training.     

In the Tracks of Imperialism

Abstract

Imperialism is subject to a seemingly ever-extending conceptual elasticity. The primary concern of this article is with the adequacy of the concept of imperialism for Marxism. It is contended that a proper understanding of the concept derives from Marxian economic analysis of capitalism. Not from oblique notions of asymmetric power of states within the international order.     

A Bonfire of the Regulations,or Business as Usual? The UK Labour Market and the Political Economy of Brexit

Employment and labour market regulation initially appeared as one of the solid red lines in the UK's renegotiation of the country's place in the EU. The basic argument is that the UK's more deregulated labour market would sit uneasily in the more organised models, based on statutory instruments or collective bargaining, found on the continent. While there is a legitimate problem here, EU employment regulations appear manageable from the point of view of business, while unions see them as important tools for socially responsible economic restructuring. Most of UK employment case law is now deeply entangled with EU law; labour market regulations have, on the whole, become part of the way of doing business in the Single Market; and a simple cost–benefit analysis appears impossible because some costs are not quantifiable and the costs of others are reduced when taken as a bundle. Labour unions agree that transposition of European law needs to be done taking into account local sensitivities, while internationally oriented companies do not see EU regulations on the whole as detrimental to business. Importantly, though, the costs and benefits of EU employment regulations are not symmetrically distributed across different companies: large companies are better able to reap the rewards and accommodate the costs of operating in the Single Market than smaller companies.     

The social order of Chinese capitalism: socio-economic uncertainty,communist party rule and economic development, 1990–2000

China's financially repressed economy remains characterized by a distinctly resilient political structure (the Chinese Communist Party, CCP) that penetrates both increasingly rational ‘private’ (market) and ‘public’ (state) organizations. How are we to understand the financial system's role in this persistently illiberal yet marketizing political economy? This paper develops a theory of China's financial reform as the management of socio-economic uncertainty by the CCP. Since the early 1990s, the financial system has formed a locus of the CCP's capacity both to manage and to propagate socio-economic uncertainty through the path of reform. The unique path of financial reform in China should thus not be viewed solely in terms of ‘partial’ or ‘failed’ free-market reform, but rather as the product of a more concerted vision of how the financial system enabled a mode of economic growth that combined the drive for accumulation of capital with the distinctive legacies of China's post-1989 socio-political circumstances.     

How Coordinated Capitalism Adapts to the Knowledge Economy: Different Upskilling Strategies in Germany and Switzerland

The rise of the knowledge economy challenges coordinated models of capitalism by requiring their skill formation systems to produce a workforce with higher skills. This paper examines how coordinated capitalism adapts to upskilling pressures by jointly studying general education and vocational education and training (VET) at both upper-secondary and tertiary levels. Employing a comparative research design covering German and Swiss upskilling efforts over the past 50 years, we observe important differences. Switzerland, with influential small firms and weak union presence, focuses on keeping VET an attractive option at upper-secondary level by favoring VET graduates' access to tertiary education. By contrast, Germany, marked by large firm dominance and influential unions, concentrates on expanding general education throughout and adding vocational elements later. Our analysis suggests that firms' reform preferences are conditioned by their size and political constraints to reform.