In his new book, ‘Economic Elites, Crises, and Democracy,’ Andrés Solimano thoughtfully examines the main challenges to global capitalism, including the rise of economic elites, the increased frequency of financial crises, and rising public discontent with the status-quo.
During his CERGE-EI visit on November 19th, Professor Solimano presented data showing the rise of rich economic elites and the fragmentation of the middle class. He warned that these trends, combined with the weakening of the traditional working class and marginalization of labor, are a common feature of capitalist societies all over the world and together constitute a major threat to the stability of the system.
He also noted that financial crises have increased markedly since the 1980s, and have recently reached the ‘core’ economies of the world system. All this has led to fractionalization and public disenchantment with democracy, which manifests in social protests and the rise of extreme politics.
Solimano forcefully argued that these trends threaten to undermine the global capitalist system unless new approaches are adopted in order to solve the world’s acute social problems. He briefly discussed potential approaches, including redistributional tax policies, reclaiming and redefining public ownership, and giving labor and the middle class more voice in austerity programs.
Given the brief time available, Professor Salimano could not go into great detail about such an ambitious topic. Lucky for us, the detailed information can be found in his book, which is available for purchase here!
