Economic systems and structures Books

Book SynopsisThe fifteenth volume of a new, well-received and highly acclaimed series on critical infrastructure, Emergency Services Protection and Homeland Security is an eye-opening account which discusses the unique challenges this industry faces and the deadly consequences that could result if there was a failure or disruption in the emergency services sector.The Emergency Services Sector (ESS) is crucial to all critical infrastructure sectors, as well as to the American public. As its operations provide the first line of defense for nearly all critical infrastructure sectors, a failure or disruption of the Emergency Services Sector (ESS) would be devastating.Emergency Services Protection and Homeland Security was written to provide guidelines to improve the protections and resilience of this infrastructure.

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Book SynopsisThis book gives a critique of the contemporary global capitalist system and the adverse consequences suffered by the developing countries as a result of their 'integration' into this system. The current neoliberal paradigm of capitalist development as the only or the best alternative for the economic, social and political development of the developing countries is rejected. The authors search for more human and ecologically sustainable alternatives, focusing on Latin America, Asia and women.Table of ContentsCritical Perspectives on Globalization and Neoliberalism in the Developing Countries, Richard L. Harris and Melinda J. Seid Globalization, Neoliberalism, and the State of Underdevelopment in the New Periphery, Jorge Nef and Wilder Robles Relevance of Structuralist and Dependency Theories in the Neoliberal Period: A Latin American Perspective, Cristóbal Kay and Robert N. Gwynne Liberalization, State Patronage, and the “New Inequality” in South Asia, Mustapha Kamal Pasha Have Workers in Latin America Gained from Liberalization and regional Integration? , John Weeks Obstacles and Opportunities to Women’s Empowerment under Neoliberal Reform, Cathy A. Rakowski The Effects of Globalization and Neoliberalism in Latin America and the Beginning of the Millenium, Richard L. Harris Overcoming the Neoliberal Paradigm: Sustainable Popular Development, David Barkijn Index

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Book SynopsisAesthetic Capitalism debates the social aesthetics of contemporary economic processes. The book connects modern cultural dynamics with the workings of contemporary capitalism. It explores art and the new spirit of capitalism; visual culture and the experience economy; aesthetics and organisations; the art of fiscal management; capitalism without myth; and architecture in the age of aesthetic capitalism. Contributors include: Peter Murphy, Eduardo de la Fuente, Antonio Strati, Ken Friedman, Dominique Bouchet, Anders Michelsen, David Roberts, Carlo TognatoTable of ContentsIntroduction de la Fuente and Murphy Chapter One: From the Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism to the Creative Economy: Reflections on the New Spirit of Art and Capitalism David Roberts Chapter Two: The Artefacts of Capitalism and the Objecthood of their Aesthetics Vrasidas Karalis Chapter Three: The Aesthetic Spirit of Modern Capitalism Peter Murphy Chapter Four: The Visual Experience Economy: What Kind of Economics?On the Topologies of Aesthetic Capitalism Anders Michelsen Chapter Five: Aesthetic Capital: Hermeneutic Speculation, Economic Themes, and the Dismal Science Ken Friedman Chapter Six: The Social Negotiation of Aesthetics and Organisational Democracy Antonio Strati Chapter Seven: Neo-Modernism: Architecture in the Age of Aesthetic Capitalism Eduardo de la Fuente Chapter Eight: The Aesthetics of Fiscal Consolidation Carlo Tognato Chapter Nine: The Innovative Role of Art in the Time of the Absence of Myth Dominique Bouchet

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Book SynopsisIn Communes and Workers' Control in Venezuela: Building 21st Century Socialism from Below, Dario Azzellini offers an account of the Bolivarian Revolution from below. While authors on Venezuela commonly concentrate on former president Hugo Chávez and government politics, this book shows how workers, peasants and the poor in urban communities engage in building 21st century socialism through popular movements, communal councils, communes and fighting for workers' control. In a relationship of cooperation and conflict with the state, social transformation is approached on 'two tracks', from below and from above. Azzellini’s fascinating account stands out because of the extensive empirical examples and original voices from movements, communal councils, communes and workers.Trade Review"This monograph presents the most detailed account available in English of communal councils and workers' control initiatives in Venezuela that have evolved since the beginning of the Bolivarian Revolution in 1999. [...] ... a sympathetic and yet unapologetic study of the developments of socialism within the Bolivarian Revolution, such as presented in this book, is indispensable to any serious engagement with the project of socialism for the twenty-first century." - Babak Amini, London School of Economics, in: Socialism and Democracy 32/2 (2018)Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Abbreviations 1. Introduction 1.1 Venezuela’s specific path 1.2 The dilemma of the state 1.3 Two-track construction 1.4 Local self-government, communal councils (CCs), and communes 1.5 Cooperatives, co-management, self-management, and workers’ control 1.6 The revolution without Chávez 2. Class, Constituent Power, and Popular Power 2.1 Updating the concept of class Theoretical notes on class and multitude Class composition and breadth in Venezuela 2.2 Socio-territorial segregation and class formation 2.3 From taking power to process: Constituent power and popular power Crisis as a motor of history: Constituent power vs. constituted power The popular constituent process The simultaneity of foci: Resistance, insurrection and constituent power Popular power: The knowledge of resistance 3. Movements and Alternative Construction in Venezuela 3.1 Social movements or popular movements? 3.2 The historical current for change and the ruptures of the continuum 3.3 The new framework of action 3.4 Popular actors and autonomous construction The Bolívar and Zamora Revolutionary Current The Settlers’ Movement National Network of Communards 4. The Communal Councils: Local Self-Administration and Social Transformation 4.1 Participatory budgeting The failed CLPP initiative Metropolitan Council for Planning Public Policies (CMPPP) The Municipal Constituent The Local Work Cabinets in Caracas 4.2 The communal councils The genesis of the CCs Makeup and structure Rigid law and flexible praxis Financing and financial administration Projects Decentralisation or centralisation Development, situation, and contradictions Relationship between CCs and institutions CCs and popular movements Relations between CCs and communities The appropriation of CCs by communities and the question of the state 4.3 The CCs as a means of participation in the barrios of Caracas The ‘Emiliano Hernández’ Communal Council, Magallanes de Catia, Caracas The CC as a body of self-administration Participation as a process of development and of social recognition Participation as a process of democratisation and of building collectivity The CC ‘Unidos por el Chapulún’, Parroquia Nuestra Sra. del Rosario, Baruta CCs in Caracas: Conclusions Participation Relationship between communities and institutions 5. New Collective Business Paradigms 5.1 Cooperatives Roots of cooperativism in Venezuela Governmental policies of support for cooperatives Limitations of state support for cooperatives Internal organisation of cooperatives The problematisation of cooperativism 5.2 New entrepreneurial models Private enterprise and co-management Co-management in state businesses Social Production Companies 6. Workers’ Control, Workers’ Councils, and Class Struggle 6.1 Recuperated companies and nationalisation 6.2 Workers’ control and workers’ councils The movement for workers’ control The Socialist Workers’ Councils The CVG and the 2009–19 Socialist Guayana Plan 6.3 Workers’ control: The example of Inveval From the struggle for pay to the struggle for the factory The workers abandon the cooperative and form a council 6.4 Alcasa: Class struggle for productive transformation against bureaucracy and corruption Revolutionary co-management The victory of bureaucracy and corruption Workers’ control returns The organisational structure of the new Alcasa Worker inventiveness workshops The Alcasa initiatives and the institutional embargo The attack on workers’ control and the negation of the Socialist Guayana Plan 6.5 New struggles for workers’ control 6.6 Approaching the issue of new worker subjectivities in the context of participation and class struggle Horizontality in the factory and change throughout society The new collective self 7. Communes, Production, and the Communal State 7.1. Communes Origin and form Communes and constituted power 7.2 Companies of Communal Social Property and the construction of a communal economy 7.3 Communal state: State or non-state? 8 Local and Worker Co-Management, Two-Track Construction, and Class Struggle: A Preliminary Assessment 8.1 The Bolivarian process and class struggle 8.2 Communal councils, communes, and communal state 8.3 Property models, the administration of the means of production, and class struggle 8.4 Nationalisation, workers’ control, and the Socialist Workers’ Councils 8.5 The relation of constituent and constituted power to class struggle Interviews References Index

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Book SynopsisThis study offers the first complete overview of the remarkable public finances of the Dutch Republic of the United Provinces. Wantje Fritschy has analysed the development and structure of its public revenue and expenditure. She argues that a ‘tax revolution’ and the ‘fiscal resilience’ of the provinces together were more important for its surprising performance than Holland’s public debt alone, and the institutional and economic characteristics of its ‘urban system’ were more important than wealth due to foreign trade. Comparisons with the fiscal systems of three more centralized states - the Venetian Republic, Britain and the Ottoman Empire - underline the crucial importance of long-term ‘urbanization trajectories’ in understanding early-modern fiscal performance. It was not because it was federal that the Dutch Republic collapsed.Trade Review"The book is one of the most outstanding results of a long sequence of research that has seen the publication of important works and fundamental datasets on the Dutch public finance during the Ancien Regime. [...] The book is a splendid example of the passion of a scholar who has spent many years in researching and thinking". Luciano Pezzolo, in TIJDSCHRIFT SOCIALE & ECON.GESCHIEDENIS 16 (1), 2019.Table of ContentsLIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PREFACE GENERAL INTRODUCTION The question at stake Possible answers Political institutions Mentality Economic factors ‘Urban systems’ and state formation The approach of this book The structure of this book PART ONE The development of the fiscal system of the Dutch Republic Introduction: a new state 0.1 The Union of Utrecht: the start of a new state? 0.2 Historical backgrounds and institutional characteristics From Revolt to Republic The institutional legacy of the Habsburgs The States General, Holland, the Council of State and the stadholder The fiscal articles of the Union of Utrecht 0.3 The concept ‘public finance of the Dutch Republic’, the data and the estimates Public finance of and in the Dutch Republic The reliability of data and estimates 1. Financing the first phase of the revolt against Spain (1566-1572) 1.1 Calvinist donations and the credit of the Prince of Orange 1.2 A prince in search of new sources of finance 1.3 The first financial decisions of the ‘free’ States of Holland 1.4 Conclusion 2. From under-taxed part of an empire to heavily taxed republi 2.1 Holland and the Spanish Empire Holland’s fiscal system under the Habsburgs Alva’s attempt at centralization Castile’s fiscal system 2.2 The development of Holland’s fiscal system until 1609 The increasing amounts needed for the war Holland’s ‘tax revolution’ Direct and indirect taxes The tax burden before and after the Revolt Loans as a source of revenue: ‘short’ term obligations and long term annuities Holland’s ‘real’ financial revolution Holland’s fiscal system at the start of the Twelve Years Truce 2.3 The other provinces The importance of Zeeland The ‘general means’ and the States General The ‘general means’ and the provinces: urban resistance and urban acceptance The ‘quotas-system’ and the fiscal performance of the provinces 2.4 The financial scope of the ‘Generality’ Former royal domains and other confiscated property as sources of public revenue Foreign financial support Generality taxes Generality-loans Privateers booty and customs (‘convooien en licenten’) 2.5 Conclusion 3. Public finance of the Dutch Republic in the 17th and 18 th centuries 3.1 The increasing public expenditure of the Dutch Republic War expenditure Debt service Other public expenditure 3.2 The resilience of the provincial revenue systems The ‘institutional structure’ of the public revenue of the Republic The ‘social-economic structure’ of the public revenue of the provinces Price-increasing taxes on general consumption and tax riots Price-increasing indirect taxes on ‘luxury’ consumption The increasing role of direct taxation The ‘tax morale’ of Dutch citizens The tax burden in Holland and in Overijssel ‘Capital’ or ‘coercion’: the role of loans in Dutch war finance A comparison with the centralized tax system of 1807 3.3 Conclusion PART TWO The fiscal system of the Dutch Republic in international comparative perspective Introduction 4. A comparison with the Venetian Republic 4.1 Common characteristics and long term differences Much in common Differing long term domestic developments Another maritime state and its ‘Year of Disaster’ 4.2 ‘Survive and prosper on the cheap’ The structure of public expenditure A ‘peaceful republic’ and an ‘expenditure bottom’? 4.3 Taxation in a centralized and a federal urbanized republic Differences in public revenue and in wealth The fiscal contributions of ‘centre ’ and ‘periphery’ in the two republics 4.4 Differing debt developments ‘Mountains of debt’, forced loans and ‘citizenship’ Voluntary loans based on trust and private interest Debt sizes, interest burdens and interest rates Public banks and public loans in both republics 4.5 Conclusion 5. A comparison with Great Britain 5.1 The comparability of Britain and the Netherlands 5.2 National public finance: a long term perspective 5.3 Public expenditure in two maritime states Total public expenditure before and after c. 1690 A comparison of military expenditure before 1688 The structure of Dutch and British public expenditure since c. 1690 5.4 Public revenue in two commercial states Total public revenue compared Non-parliamentary and parliamentary taxation Customs in a large monarchy and a small republic Indirect taxation, urbanization and centralization The EIC, the VOC and public revenue 5.5 A comparison of loan financing and public debt Foreign merchants and the king’s subjects versus cities and citizens Downing and the Dutch example ‘1672’ in Britain The long road of Britain’s ‘financial revolution’ A quantitative comparison of the British and the Dutch public debt 5.6 Conclusion 6. A comparison with the Ottoman Empire 6.1 Two incomparable states Why was Ottoman public revenue so low? 6.2 Contrastive long term trajectories of state formation Contrasting population developments Contrasting patterns of land use ‘State-driven’ versus ‘economy-driven’ urbanization trajectories The consequences for public finance of different urbanization trajectories 6.3 A quantitative comparison of public revenue The extremely low level of state revenue in the Ottoman Empire The marginal importance of domestic indirect taxation ‘Coin clipping’ as a source of public revenue 6.4 Deficits, ‘advance payments’, advances and debt Iltizam The malikane-system The esham-system Public debts and the interest prohibition 6.5 Conclusion GENERAL CONCLUSION Epilogue APPENDIX: The taxes in the Dutch Republic ABBREVIATIONS PRIMARY SOURCES AND DATABASES REFERENCES INDEX

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Book SynopsisCo-operativism and Local Development in Cuba consists of a series of pathbreaking essays on the role of co-operativism, and the new co-operatives, in the democratic transformation of Cuba and the government’s plan to update the model in the current context. The contributors are well-known specialists on Cuba, co-operativism and local development. With a shared concern for how an increased focus on co-operativism and local development can contribute to the updating of the Cuban model and the advance of socialism, the contributors to the book have placed an analysis of the issues involved in the broader context of the international co-operative movement and the ongoing capitalist development process in Latin America. Contributors include: Milford Bateman, Al Campbell, Grizel Donéstevez Sánchez, Cliff DuRand, Olga Fernández Ríos, Julio C. Gambina, Camila Piñeiro Harnecker, Sonja Novković, Dayrelis Ojeda Suris, Gabriela Roffinelli, Frederick. S. Royce, Dean Sinković, Henry Veltmeyer, Marcelo Vieta.Trade Review"This volume brings together an array of social scientists who reflect on the emergence of a new form of co-operativism in Cuba as part of a wider reform agenda. The contributions in the book examine the progression of co-operativism in Cuba in a historical context as well as its current manifestation and potential for transforming Cuba’s economy. This is a timely and relevant contribution to understanding co-operatives and other social and solidarity economy entities as part of a broad effort to create an alternative to neoliberalism not only in Cuba but also in the larger Latin America region." --Simel Esim, Cooperatives Programme, ILO, www.ilo.org/coop "A timely, candid and sober multidisciplinary appraisal of how an already solidarity-oriented society like Cuba might be prepared and challenged to take the next crucial steps to develop a truly worker co-operative-based socialism." --Peter Ranis, Professor Emeritus Political Science, City University of New YorkTable of ContentsFigures and Tables Notes on Contributors Introduction: Updating the Cuban Model 1Building Alternatives Beyond Capital  Julio C. Gambina and Gabriela Roffinelli 2The Social and Solidarity Economy in Latin America  Henry Veltmeyer 3New Co-operativism in Latin America: Implications for Cuba  Marcelo Vieta 4The New Guidelines: Economic Changes and Its Political and Social Impact  Olga Fernández Ríos 5Co-operatives in Socialist Construction  Cliff DuRand 6Co-operativism in Cuba Prior to 2012  Grizel Donéstevez Sánchez 7Agricultural Production Co-operatives in Cuba: Toward Sustainability  Frederick S. Royce 8Cuba’s Co-operative Sector and the Project of Deep Reforms  Al Campbell 9Co-operatives in Cuba’s New Socio-economic Model: What Has been Done and What Could be Done?  Camila Piñeiro Harnecker 10The Role of Co-operatives in Transforming Cuba’s Economy  Sonja Novković 11Supporting Co-operative Development in Cuba: Getting the Local Institutions Right  Milford Bateman, Dayrelis Ojeda Suris and Dean Sinković Conclusion Index

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Book SynopsisHow do corporations use their instrumental and structural power within markets and states to advance their policy agendas? Capitalism and Class Power examines corporate power through chapters on the U.S. military industrial complex, the rise of billionaire wealth in the U.S., the role of a transnational investment bloc in U.S.–Saudi relations, the rise of global disinformation firms, Canadian imperialism in the English-speaking Caribbean, the power of an EU corporate bloc in Caribbean trade agreements, the relationship between capitalism and poverty in rich capitalist countries, and the relationship between “neoliberalism” and capitalism. Professor Cox concludes the volume with reflections on the importance of corporate power research to achieving systemic change. Contributors are: Melissa Boissiere, Aram Eisenschitz, Jamie A. Gough, Adam D. Hernandez, Tamanisha J. John, Mazaher Koruzhde, Rob Piper and Bryant William Sculos. Ronald W. Cox is Professor of Politics and International Relations at Florida International University. He has published six books on corporate power in the global economy and is editor of the open access online journal Class, Race and Corporate Power.Table of ContentsAcknowledgements List of Figures and Tables Notes on Contributors 1 Introduction   Ronald W. Cox 2 Class Power and the Military-Industrial Complex in the United States   Ronald W. Cox 3 The Billionaire Dimension of Class Power within Economic Sectors   Rob Piper 4 The Transnational Investment Bloc in the U.S. and Persian Gulf   Mazaher Koruzhde and Ronald W. Cox 5 Fake News and Social Media Neoliberalism and the Case of Bell Pottinger   Adam D. Hernandez 6 Canadian Imperialism in Caribbean Structural Adjustment, 1980–2000   Tamanisha J. John 7 Corporate Power and the Transition from Lomé to the cariforum-eu epa   Melissa Boissiere 8 The Necessity of Poverty in the High-Income Countries   Jamie A. Gough and Aram Eisenschitz 9 The Limits of the Concept of Neoliberalism   Bryant William Sculos 10 Corporate Power and Praxis in Critical Scholarship   Ronald W. Cox Index

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Book Synopsis"Multinational enterprises often seem to be on a 'roller coaster' when managing their operations in transition economies, especially because of the volatile business and political environment. By combining agency and stewardship theory, this book describes the subtle equilibrium between formal control and day-to-day coordination in the Headquarters-Subsidiary (HQ-S) governance relationship. Using the Polish situation as an example, it places HQ-S governance in the context of a transitional economy while taking the cultural differences between the headquarters and subsidiary country into account. This explorative empirical study shows that the use of strategic and operational control mechanisms work as a transparent ‘platform’ on which coordination and attuning mechanisms can be build to deal with the day-to-day management challenges in a transition economy. Creating flexibility and learning capabilities at the subsidiary level, rather than maintaining a subsidiary in a state of dependence can clearly contribute to the success of international operations. However, it also reveals that there is no simple and uniform recipe for managing subsidiaries. The road from governance to performance is not a one-way street and alternative routes are available to accelerate performance. This book is a valuable resource to all directors and managers of multinational enterprises, as well as academic researchers who concern themselves with the study of multinational enterprises in transition economies."

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Book SynopsisInternational trade agreements and reforms of the European Common Agricultural Policy increase the importance of agricultural risk management as a means to stabilise farm incomes. 'Income stabilisation in European agriculture' addresses farm income and risk management issues from various perspectives. A cohesive work is brought together on historic income data, quantitative analyses of future policy scenarios, actual farmers' perceptions and an updated view on various risk management instruments. In-depth analyses focus on Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain. Overall findings are synthesised in policy recommendations for agricultural risk management in European agriculture. For academia, this publication brings together an interesting variety of quantitative and qualitative methods to understand and interpret risk management concepts in agriculture. For public and private stakeholders analyses and reflections can be used in debating the domain of policy reforms, risk exposure and risk management in European agriculture.

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