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This edited volume offers the first critical engagement with one of the most provocative and controversial theories in political economy: the thesis that capital can be theorized as power and that capital is finance and only finance. The book also includes a detailed introduction to this novel thesis first put forward by Nitzan and Bichler in their Capital as Power.
Although endorsing the capital as power argument to varying extents, contributors to this volume agree that a new understanding of capital that radically departs from Marxist and Neoclassical theories cannot be ignored. Offering the first application and appraisal of Nitzan and Bichler's theory, chapters examine the thesis in the context of energy and global capitalization, US Investment Banks, trade and investment agreements between Canada, the US and Mexico, and multinational corporations in Apartheid South Africa. Balancing theory, methodology and empirical analysis throughout, this book is accessible to new readers, whilst contextualising and advancing the original theoretical debate.
The Capitalist Mode of Power will be of interest to students and scholars of International Relations, Political Economy, Globalization and Critical Theory.
List of contents
1. Introduction: The Provocations of Capital as Power Tim Di Muzio Part I: The Provocation of History 2. Historicizing Capital as Power: Energy, Capitalization and Globalized Social Reproduction Tim Di Muzio Part II: The Provocations of a New Theory 3. The Power of Investment Banks: Surplus Absorption or Differential Capitalization? Sandy Brian Hager 4. NAFTA, Investiture and Distribution: The Power Underpinnings of Trade and Investment Liberalization in Canada Jordan Brennan 5. ‘A Degree of Control’: Corporations and the Struggle against South African Apartheid DT Cochrane and Jeffrey Monaghan Part III: The Provocation of Critique 6. Fighting the Power? Struggle and Resistance in ‘Capital as Power’ Dan Bousfield 7. State and Capital: False Dichotomy, Structural Super-Determinism, and Moving Beyond Sean Starrs 8. Differential Accumulation and the Political Economy of Power Samuel Knafo, Matthieu Hughes and Steffan Wyn-Jones 9. Conclusion
About the author
Tim Di Muzio is Lecturer in International Relations and Public Policy at the University of Wollongong, Australia.
Summary
This edited volume offers the first critical engagement with one of the most provocative and controversial theories in political economy: the thesis that capital can be theorized as power and that capital is finance and only finance. The book also includes a detailed introduction to this novel thesis first put forward by Nitzan and Bichler in their Capital as Power.
