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Despite being communist-ruled, the People's Republic of China has experienced sustained economic development, especially since 1978, which has produced new categories of wealthy power holders. However, unlike in other parts of Southeast Asia, these individuals are found in the emerging business classes rather than in the ranks of the professional middle classes. Executives & managers of various economic sectors are particularly identified as significant new wielders of economic power. There is little evidence to indicate that the new rich represent the development of an independent capitalism, as the state continues to both control the conditions of operation for most enterprises & structure ownership & control in the economy as a whole. As economic growth & development continue, & as capitalist enterprises expand, it is forecast that other categories of new rich will develop & maintain a close relationship with the party-state. D. M. Smith

"Industrial Policy and Development in Africa" published on by Oxford University Press.

In der gegenwärtigen Diskussion zur Einschätzung der Planungs- bzw. Steuerungskapazität des kapitalistischen Staates, sowohl in den Ansätzen zu einer historisch-materialistischen Staatstheorie wie auch in den aus einer selbstkritisch gewordenen Planungs- und Verwaltungsforschung resultierenden jüngeren politökonomischen und soziologischen Versuchen einer empirischen Bestimmung von Handlungsspielräumen des Staates, ist nach Meinung des Autors eine eigentümliche Beschränkung des Gegenstandes auf den Staatsapparat im engeren Sinne festzustellen. Dabei wird eine Untersuchung der Bedeutung der den Staat heute tragenden politischen Organisationsformen gesellschaftlicher Interessen, insbesondere der Parteien, weitgehend ausgespart. In dem Sinne versteht sich der vorliegende Beitrag als kritische Anmerkung zu einer spezifischen Diskussionssituation und verfolgt das Ziel, auf den bisher vernachlässigten Fragen- und Forschungszusammenhang hinzuweisen, dessen Relevanz zu veranschaulichen und analytisch zu begründen. Die Ausgangsthese ist dabei, dass gerade die etablierten Parteien und das Parteiensystem der Bundesrepublik bisher mit einer weitgehenden organisatorischen und politischen Anpassungsfähigkeit an die veränderten Steuerungs- und Regulierungsnotwendigkeiten des Staates wesentlich dazu beigetragen haben, solche tiefer greifenden Konflikte zu vermeiden, die letztlich eine Gewährleistung der Reproduktionsbedingungen des Gesamtkapitals organisatorisch-politisch verunmöglicht hätten. (ICI2)

Explores housing cooperatives as legacies of state socialism & alternatives to state capitalism, delineating how indigenous & exogenous factors worked to undermine them. To set the context, Zaslavskaya's take on Brezhnev's "mature socialism" is viewed as correct, & the nature of changes to the economic system are examined, leading up to Gorbachev's major restructuring. To explore how this restructuring can be seen as a major schism in the underpinning social philosophy & mode of organization, the recent history of Russian cooperatives is detailed in terms of the 1980s cooperative revival & the cultural & ideological context. Cooperatives cultivate social relations with (1) the shadow economy, (2) economic functionaries, & (3) salaried Communist Party members. Public hostility toward cooperatives is addressed, along with their vulnerabilities & policy alternatives. In citing the pervasiveness of organized crime & corruption in Russia, the specificity of Russian capitalism & culture is noted, drawing on Max Weber's six ideal types of capitalist orientation. Ensuing discussion leads to the notion of social analysis based on path dependency &, thus, an exploration of the Soviet legacy based on the idea of the "distributional economy." The late-1980s emergence of cooperatives is attributed to the executive of the modern state acting as a "committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie." Two groups coalesced around the idea of cooperatives: (A) One group formed an embryonic capitalist class. (B) The second group centered on corruption, embezzlement, & cronyism. Cooperatives were the battleground for these groups, with the outcome a Russian type of capitalism. J. Zendejas

Explores housing cooperatives as legacies of state socialism & alternatives to state capitalism, delineating how indigenous & exogenous factors worked to undermine them. To set the context, Zaslavskaya's take on Brezhnev's "mature socialism" is viewed as correct, & the nature of changes to the economic system are examined, leading up to Gorbachev's major restructuring. To explore how this restructuring can be seen as a major schism in the underpinning social philosophy & mode of organization, the recent history of Russian cooperatives is detailed in terms of the 1980s cooperative revival & the cultural & ideological context. Cooperatives cultivate social relations with (1) the shadow economy, (2) economic functionaries, & (3) salaried Communist Party members. Public hostility toward cooperatives is addressed, along with their vulnerabilities & policy alternatives. In citing the pervasiveness of organized crime & corruption in Russia, the specificity of Russian capitalism & culture is noted, drawing on Max Weber's six ideal types of capitalist orientation. Ensuing discussion leads to the notion of social analysis based on path dependency &, thus, an exploration of the Soviet legacy based on the idea of the "distributional economy." The late-1980s emergence of cooperatives is attributed to the executive of the modern state acting as a "committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie." Two groups coalesced around the idea of cooperatives: (A) One group formed an embryonic capitalist class. (B) The second group centered on corruption, embezzlement, & cronyism. Cooperatives were the battleground for these groups, with the outcome a Russian type of capitalism. J. Zendejas

Discusses the "Americanization of the European Left" as a recent trend in the evolution of political parties. Marxists predicted that the US would lead the world into socialism, but America has instead led the world to abandon it. The Left in Western democracies has moved toward the more ideologically moderate "third way" policies of Bill Clinton & Tony Blair, ending the emphasis on class as the key feature structuring party politics. Western democracies are appealing "more to the growing middle strata than to industrial workers & the impoverished." The decline in union membership has weakened voting based on class at the same time that globalization has reduced the policy scope of governments. Ideological issues have been replaced by social/cultural issues like health, the environment, & gender equality, as the core platform of parties of the Left. Although "Left" & "Right" distinctions still exist, they "will never again be defined by the contest between socialism & capitalism," & parties are seeking a new grand line of cleavage that may not appear in the near future. J. Lindroth

Drawing on Michel Foucault (1979) & Mikhail Bakhtin (1984), the status of the body at the office party is discussed. Under industrialization & capitalism, the body was brought into surveillance, self-surveillance, & disciplinary society in the workplace, while the carnival & bodily practices at carnival were pushed to the margins of society. However, the body is both a working body & a private body with grotesque carnival behaviors. As a testimony to the blurry boundary between work & leisure, & as a (re-)embodiment of workers often disembodied inside formal working hours, office parties are carnivalesque sites of sexual activity, excess eating & drinking, & often violence & abuse. A typical representation of an office party in FHM, a men's magazine, is described in illustration of the public/private & work/nonwork elements in this space. 1 Figure, 18 References. M. Pflum

Uses business conflict analysis to examine the complex relationship between business interests & ultraconservative movements in the US, described as those that go beyond the usual conservative defense of established power relations, but stop short of demanding total elimination of all liberal pluralistic institutions. The focus is on the role of capitalism in bringing these groups together in the New Right that emerged in the 1970s & disintegrated in the 1980s & 1990s. Special attention is given to parallels between policy disputes among right-wing politicians & capitalist factional divisions, beginning with conflicts between members of the business class who supported or opposed the New Deal system. Barry Goldwater's 1964 presidential campaign allowed business nationalists to regain control of the national Republican Party, laid the groundwork for the emergence of the New Right, & was vital for Ronald Reagan's victories. Factors that helped to splinter the right-wing/business coalition include economic trends, Pat Buchanan's isolationist campaign, & Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition. Future prospects for the alliance between business interests & right-wing politics are discussed. J. Lindroth

"Im Frühjahr 2005, mitten im nordrhein-westfälischen Landeswahlkampf, hat die SPD eine Debatte über die 'Macht des Kapitals' angestoßen. Zur gleichen Zeit erlebten viele Länder Nord-Afrikas eine umfangreiche Heuschreckenplage. Vor diesem Hintergrund wurde Franz Müntefering in einem Zeitungsinterview mit den Worten zitiert: 'Manche Finanzinvestoren verschwenden keinen Gedanken an die Menschen, deren Arbeitsplatz sie vernichten. Sie bleiben anonym, haben kein Gesicht, fallen wie Heuschrecken über Unternehmen her, grasen sie ab und ziehen weiter' (Bild am Sonntag, 17. April 2005). Diese biblische Metapher hat eine umfangreiche Debatte ausgelöst: Haben manche Investoren in der Tat das Ziel und die Macht, in Firmen einzudrängen, sie abzugrasen und weiterzuziehen, ohne Rücksichtig auf soziale Belange wie den Erhalt von Arbeitsplätzen? Der Vortrag greift diese Frage auf. Er wird sich besonders mit theoretischen Überlegungen und - den bislang wenigen - empirischen Befunden zum Zusammenhang zwischen institutionellen Investoren und der sozialen Performanz deutscher Großunternehmen auseinandersetzen." (Autorenreferat)

Der Autor untersucht anhand empirischer Daten die These Theo Pirkers, daß die Unterstützung der Arbeiterorganisationen durch die Arbeiterschaft in Deutschland nach 1945 schwächer geworden sei. Als Indikatoren zieht der Autor die Unterstützung der SPD durch die Arbeiterschaft bei Bundestagswahlen von 1953 bis 1983 heran sowie den Grad der gewerkschaftlichen Organisation und das individuelle Arbeiterbewußtsein. Er stellt fest, daß die Arbeiterschaft die SPD bei Bundestagswahlen weitgehend konstant unterstützt habe; der Grad der Unterstützung steige bei gleichzeitiger Gewerkschaftszugehörigkeit. Allerdings habe sich die soziale Schichtung der Gesamtgesellschaft zu Lasten der Arbeiterschaft verschoben, und der Anteil der Bevölkerung mit ausgeprägten Arbeiterbewußtsein zeige eine rückgehende Tendenz. Insgesamt habe die These vom 'Ende der Arbeiterbewegung' mehr Gründe für als gegen sich. Die Analyse schließt mit einem internationalen Vergleich des Arbeiterbewußtseins und daraus resultierenden Wahlverhalten in der Bundesrepublik, in England, Finnland, Österreich, Niederlande, Schweiz und USA. (KF)