Democracy Against Capitalism: Renewing Historical MaterialismHistorian and political thinker Ellen Meiksins Wood argues that theories of "postmodern" fragmentation, "difference", and contingency can barely accommodate the idea of capitalism, let alone subject it to critique. In this book she sets out to renew the critical programme of historical materialism by redefining its basic concepts and its theory of history in original and imaginative ways, using them to identify the specificity of capitalism as a system of social relations and political power. She goes on to explore the concept of democracy in both the ancient and modern world, examining its relation to capitalism, and raising questions about how democracy might go beyond the limits imposed on it. |
Contents
Introduction | |
The separation of the economic and the political | |
Rethinking base and superstructure | |
Class as process and relationship | |
History or technological determinism? | |
History or teleology? Marx versus Weber | |
Labour and democracy ancient and modern | |
from ancient to modern | |
Civil society and the politics of identity | |
race gender | |
Conclusion | |
Other editions - View all
Democracy Against Capitalism: Renewing Historical Materialism Ellen Meiksins Wood Limited preview - 1995 |
Democracy Against Capitalism: Renewing Historical Materialism Ellen Meiksins Wood Limited preview - 2016 |
Democracy Against Capitalism: Renewing Historical Materialism Ellen Meiksins Wood Limited preview - 2016 |
Common terms and phrases
Althusserian ancient ancient Greece appropriators and producers argument Athenian democracy Athens autonomy bourgeois Brenner capitalist capitalist economy capitalist society citizen citizenship civic civil society class consciousness class formation class struggle classical coercion coercive constituted critical culture democratic demos direct producers distinctive domination E.P. Thompson economic effect example existence explain exploitation extra-economic feudalism forces of production formal democracy freedom Greek historical materialism historical process historical specificity human Ibid identities ideological imperatives industrial juridical liberal democracy logic Marx Marx's Marxist means of production mechanism medieval mode of production modern objective oppression organization of production particular peasant pluralism polis political economy principles private property production relations productive forces property relations relations of production relationship Roman sense simply slavery slaves social form social relations socialist specificity of capitalism sphere status structural superstructure surplus extraction surplus labour technological determinism teleology theoretical tradition transformation unique Weber Western