The dominant neoliberal approach presents politics and political economy as nuisances which disturb the smooth operation of self-regulating markets. But political economy is not merely an academic issue - it is a class issue, and this book forcefully argues that political economy should return to a central position in the study of the social sciences. Offering nothing less than a reconciliation of Marxian, Keynesian and neoclassical economics, the work opens with a discussion of the key, interconnected economic concepts which help us to understand capitalism: price, income, profit, value, growth and crisis. Prices reflect income distribution and therefore class relations, and the chapters show that the very emergence of capitalism resulted from mass empowerment of the so-called "lower orders". Profit is always available if entrepreneurs spend on net investment and create incomes for additional labour; this, in turn, requires expanding demand, and so therefore profit depends on rising mass incomes. Conversely, underdevelopment is the result of the destitution and disempowerment of the masses. In the Global South today, it is clear that enormous riches go hand in hand with widespread misery and poverty because the market does not transform wealth into the kind of investment that might benefit all. This book argues that the new wealth triggered by productivity increases has enabled the rich to liberate themselves from the capitalist constraints of competition and waste their new wealth in the form of rents. The main threat today is, in fact, the globalisation of rent. The text makes a point for a progressive counter strategy: capitalist structures that empower labour need to be transferred to the Global South. This requires political and economic efforts towards empowering labour in the Global South. This book demonstrates the analytical power of political economy for all social scientists and will be invaluable reading for economists, political scientists and sociologists in particular.

This book analyzes the state of the bureaucracy in the eastern part of Germany prior to reunification and discusses changes that occurred after 1990. The contributors review the impact of these changes on the bureaucracy and other sectors of society where a new ethic seems to have emerged, guiding practitioners involved in restructuring East German institutions. Issues discussed include: the performance of the administrative structures, the transformation of the Eastern German university system, the various affirmative action policies implemented after 1990, compensation to victims of abuses by the former socialist regime, changes in public relations policy after 1990, and an ethic guiding the models of restructuring institutions for industrialized and developing countries.

Once among the fastest developing economies, growth has slowed or stalled in Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. What policies can governments enact to jump-start the rise of these middle-income countries? Hartmut Elsenhans and Salvatore Babones argue that economic catch-up requires investment in the productivity of ordinary citizens. Diverging from the popular narrative of increased liberalization, this book argues specifically for direct government investment in human infrastructure; policies that increase wages and the bargaining power of labor; and the strategic use of exchange rates to encourage export-led growth. These measures raise up the majority and finance future productivity by driving broader consumption and fostering investment within national borders. Though strategies like full employment, mass education, and progressive taxation are not especially controversial, none of the BRICS have truly embraced them. Examining barriers to implementation, Elsenhans and Babones find that the main obstacle to such reforms is an absence of political will, stemming from closely guarded elite privilege under the current laws. BRICS or Bust? is a short, incisive read that underscores the need for demand-driven growth and why it has yet to be achieved.

Die Demokratietheorie kennzeichnet ein merkwurdiges Paradox. Wahrend die kapitalistische Marktwirtschaft zumeist als ermoglichende Bedingung liberaler Demokratie verstanden wird, gelten die radikalen Ungleichheiten, die sie erzeugt, zugleich auch als eine ihrer zentralen Gefahrdungen. Die hier vorgelegte Theorie der sozialen Demokratie klart die Bedingungen, die erfullt sein mussen, wenn der Anspruch rechtsstaatlicher Demokratie uneingeschrankt erfullt sein soll. Sie begrundet im Anschluss an die jungste empirische Forschung die Anforderungen an die Einbettung der Markte, den grundrechtsgestutzten Sozialstaat, die gesellschaftliche Demokratisierung und faire Globalisierung, die dafur erfullt sein mussen."

Gilbert Ziebura wurde 1964 durch die Freie Universitiit Berlin auf einen der er sten Lehrstiihle ffir Internationale Politik in Deutschland berufen. Sein Wirken hat das Fach nachhaltig beeinfluBt: Beinahe ein Drittel derer, die gegenwiirtig an Uni- versitiiten in der Bundesrepublik und West-Berlin internationale Beziehungen unterrichten, sind durch seine Schule gegangen. Das Fachgebiet selbst veriinderte sieh unter seinem EinfluB: Neben das Studium des internationalen Systems und der AuBenpolitik und ihrer Abhangigkeit von innenpolitischen und gesellschaftli- chen Faktoren traten die Analyse von Internationalisierungsprozessen und deren Auswirkungen auf die hiervon betroffenen Gesellschaftsformationen. Sein Ausgangspunkt war immer wieder Kehrs Frage nach der gesellschaftli- chen Bedingtheit von AuBenpolitik, die er zuniichst fUr Frankreieh zu beantworten suchte und spater in die deutsche Diskussion einbrachte. Er ebnete darnit den Weg fUr einen gesellschaftswissenschaftlich geniihrten Ansatz in der Analyse interna- tionaler Beziehungen, den er spiiter urn die Analyse der Polarisierungs-und An- passungsprozesse als Folgen der internationalen Arbeitsteilung zu einem eigenen Weltsystemansatz erweiterte (vgl. Ziebura 1984). Reduktionistischen theoreti- schen Interpretationen, die nur wenige Determinanten beriicksiehtigen, blieb er abhold. Er ist seiner Herkunft als Historiker stets treu geblieben, sowohl was das Hankwerkszeug als auch was die (verstehende) Methode anging: Immer ist es ihm urn die Gesamtschau zu tun gewesen.

Today's globalization is characterized by the worldwide disempowerment of labor. This is not the result of low real wages in backward countries but of devaluation-driven exports from relatively prosperous catch-up countries. An alternative form of globalization, the convoy model, is possible if the causes of devaluation-driven exports are eliminated. This does not call for a worldwide alignment of labor costs, but worldwide full employment policies, requiring a strong state in labor-surplus economies of the underdeveloped areas and social and economic reforms in favor of the poor.

Hartmut Elsenhans is professor of International Relations at Leipzig University, Germany.