Edward Elgar Publishing Capitalism, Inclusive Growth, and Social Protection: Inherent Contradiction or Achievable Vision?

After more than four decades of real income stagnation, ever-increasing inequality and household financial distress, this book explores how the very fabric of our society is under threat. It argues that although capitalism is imperfect, it can be improved, and harnessing its forces of production to more suitable social relations of production is key to that improvement. Highlighting the concept of ‘social capitalism’ and ensuring that it is consistent with our underlying theoretical vision of how capitalism works, chapters address the need for an alternative theory of economic policy-making by combining elements of Marx, Keynes, and Schumpeter (MKS). Applying their emphasis on distributive conflicts, effective demand, and innovation, the MKS system provides an in-depth description of capitalist dynamics and how they reflect observed capitalist history. Based on this approach, Capitalism, Inclusive Growth, and Social Protection suggests that an unregulated capitalistic system is inherently unstable, generates social inequality and is ultimately unviable. This comprehensive book is an excellent resource for scholars concerned with alternatives to prevailing economics who wish to examine more intensively the current problems of capitalism. The analysis will also be of great value to policy makers and representatives of civil society.