Suchergebnisse

Informed by Robert L. Heilbroner & Peter J. Boettke's (2009) market vs command economy framework, various terms used to describe the "middle way" or "third way" are categorized. Discussion opens with extended definitions of capitalism & socialism, before looking at the concept of "creeping socialism" as it applies to the US political-economic system since the Civil War. A fourfold political-economic classification system is derived from the dimensions of property ownership (private vs public) & control (private vs public). Attention is then given to the category of the "third way" & a possible fourth way: feudalism. References. D. Edelman

This year, 2013, Gabriel Kolko's The Triumph of Conservatism marks its fiftieth anniversary, and thus it is an opportune time to reconsider his thesis and the libertarian response critically. To that end, the authors consider here two major questions: How much of Kolko's (faulty) conceptual framework did libertarians ignore in order to embrace his thesis? What types of weaknesses in Kolko's evidence did libertarians overlook in order to accept his assertion that big business sought special government favor to protect themselves from market forces? Adopting Kolko's theses seemed to give libertarians three precious bullets of intellectual ammunition: 1. The large and allegedly evil corporations of the late nineteenth century had in fact been enemies of free markets. 2. The economic ills of the late nineteenth century could not be associated with capitalism strictly understood. 3. Had government done nothing, free markets would have redressed the ills and evils of the late-nineteenth-century economy. Kolko, however, dismissed the libertarians for having misunderstood his thesis and his evidence. Adapted from the source document.