Totalitarian Capitalism and Beyond

Anchored in contemporary debates on capitalism and political economy, this study reconsiders the major trends which are currently shaping a new stage of capitalism. With chapters examining globalization, the role of technology and environmental degradation, George Liodakis constructs a politico-economic approach on contemporary capitalism from within a classical Marxist framework of political economy. The volume provides a fitting balance between theory and empirical evidence and significantly enriches the existing scholarship on contemporary capitalism and the potential for social change. This is an important contribution to those interested in international political economy, in particular with developing a new political strategy for going beyond capitalism: a 'reinvention' of a communist perspective.

Contents: Preface; Introduction; Accumulation of capital and uneven development; Historical periodization and the current restructuring of capitalism; The basic trends and characteristics of the emerging totalitarian capitalism; The role of the state in historical perspective; The role of technology in the reproduction and/or supersession of capitalism; Environmental implications of capitalism and the preconditions of reconciliation with nature; Moving beyond totalitarian capitalism: the prospects of Communism today; Political guidelines for a society of associated producers; Transnational prospects of social emancipation; In place of an epilogue; References; Index

Professor George Liodakis, Technical University of Crete, Greece.