'TINA', Aids, and the underdevelopment problem in Africa

The assumption that 'There Is No Alternative' (TINA) to capitalism as practiced in the United States of America and Western Europe has been the bane of aids effectiveness in assisting to solve the underdevelopment problem in Africa. This paper attempts to show that except there is a fundamental reorientation in the conceptualization of capitalism-free market and democracy-the underdevelopment problem would only be further complicated with aids.

Globalization, nation-state and catching up

Globalization and nation-states are not in contradiction, since globalization is the present stage of capitalist development, and the nation-state is the territorial political unit that organizes the space and population in the capitalist system. Since the 1980s, Global Capitalism constitutes the economic system characterized by the opening of all national markets and a fierce competition between nation-states. Developing countries tend to catch up, while rich countries try to neutralize such competitive effort, using globalism as an ideology, and conventional orthodoxy as a strategy. Middle-income countries that are catching up in the realm of globalization are the ones that count with a national development strategy. This is broadly the case of the dynamic Asian countries. In contrast, Latin American countries have no longer their own strategy, and grow less. To add data to the argument, the author conducts an econometric test comparing these two groups of countries, and three variables: the rate of investment, the current account deficit or surplus that would indicate or not a competitive exchange rate, and public deficit.

Michal Kalecki, um pioneiro da teoria econômica do desenvolvimento

Kalecki made important contributions to development economics, which rank him among the founding fathers of this area of our discipline. The objective of this paper is to give an account of his contributions, and in particular of his conception of the peculiarities and the way of functioning of the underdeveloped economies, and of the barriers that limits their capacity for high and sustained long run growth. As most socialist economists of his time, he was skeptic about the possibilities of overcoming underdevelopment under capitalism. However, in contradistinction to other pioneers of development economics, Kalecki did not stress the international forces that hamper development, but put the accent rather in the internal institutions and social and political determinants. In particular, the feudal and semi-feudal conditions in agriculture, the reduced market ensuing from income concentration and widespread monopolization of the economy, and the lack of willingness of entrepreneurs to carry out the necessary investments. Accordingly, his economic policy recommendations emphasized also the domestic aspects involved.

The 2008 financial crisis and neoclassical economics

The 2008 global financial crisis was the consequence of the process of financialization, or the creation of massive fictitious financial wealth, that began in the 1980s, and of the hegemony of a reactionary ideology, namely, neoliberalism, based on self-regulated and efficient markets. Although capitalism is intrinsically unstable, the lessons from the stock-market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression of the 1930s were transformed into theories and institutions or regulations that led to the "30 glorious years of capitalism" (1948-1977) and that could have avoided a financial crisis as profound as the present one. It did not because a coalition of rentiers and "financists" achieved hegemony and, while deregulating the existing financial operations, refused to regulate the financial innovations that made these markets even more risky. Neoclassical economics played the role of a meta-ideology as it legitimized, mathematically and "scientifically", neoliberal ideology and deregulation. From this crisis a new capitalism will emerge, though its character is difficult to predict. It will not be financialized but the tendencies present in the 30 glorious years toward global and knowledge-based capitalism, where professionals will have more say than rentier capitalists, as well as the tendency to improve democracy by making it more social and participative, will b e resumed.

Estado e economia na Coreia do Sul - do Estado desenvolvimentista à crise asiática e à recuperação posterior

The State and the economy in South Korea: from the developmentist state to the Asian crisis and later recovery. The article focuses on the institutions of South Korean capitalism and on the interactions between the state and the economy. The economic model in South Korea was characterized by a very interventionist state, which played a very active role in the process of industrialization. However, South Korea suffered a severe crisis in 1997, attributed by many authors to the distortions inherent to strong state intervention. The article shows that the crisis was a result of the combination between internal economic fragilities and a rapid process of financial deregulation, which undermined the state's capacity of control. The crisis, nevertheless, does not disqualify the role of the national institutions in the very successful process of industrialization. Despite the reforms, the Korean capitalism conserves much of the previous model of business organization and industrial relations. The state continues strong and played active role in the process of economic reforms. There are, nevertheless, doubts about the impacts of the reforms and the new configuration of Korean capitalism. They will depend on the current transformations in world economy and in the East Asian countries.

A sobrevivência das pequenas empresas no desenvolvimento capitalista

The survival of small companies in the capitalist development. The role of small companies in capitalist development has raised, throughout the years, the analytical curiosity of economists and other social scientists. In spite of the enormous disadvantages that they possess in competing with big capital, there are innumerable reasons for their survival. The empirical evidence is clear in attesting the importance of small companies in terms of GDP share and job creation and, at the same time, their difficulties for surviving. This paper presents a theoretical revision, departing from Marx, Marshall, Steindl and Schumpeter up to some contemporary authors, concerning the role of the small companies in capitalist development, emphasizing the reasons and the difficulties for its survival.

Uma mestra na periferia do capitalismo: a economia política de Maria da Conceição Tavares

A master in the periphery of capitalism. Maria da Conceição Tavares is an eminent figure in Brazilian economic thought, especially in heterodox circles. She has tackled various issues, such as underdevelopment, from the perspective of a "critique of political economy". The purpose of this article is to identify the main theoretical references, as well as the methodological stance, in Tavares's works, by revisiting the author's critical dialogue with some strands of Political Economy. Although Tavares's work sets up a dialogue with various economists, the paper will focus on her interpretation of Marx, Keynes and Kalecki, whose ideas are of utmost importance for the construction of her analytical framework.

Democracy over governance

Varieties of institutional economics are available to evaluate varieties of capitalism. These methodologies dig behind preferences and technology to arrive at the ground on which agents make choices. The individual is at the foundation of these edifices, neoclassical and otherwise. Consequently, the denouement of all these models is that the market knows best in the absence of effective counterfactuals. A natural corollary is that the task of the government is to set effective mechanisms in place in order to approach the best outcomes. In contrast, we propose a framework which contends with the modern economy as an aggregate that evolves in historical time. Problems like effective demand failures are endemic to capitalist economies. Therefore, systematic State intervention is essential to their functioning. In particular, political economy teaches us that intervention must be in the interest of wage earners. In contrast to the earlier model, the fabric of norms and conventions that facilitate the growth and development of economies must emerge from the consciousness and practices of the working class.

Incerteza e não ergodicidade: crítica aos neoclássicos

The starting point of this essay is to show that, in our view, the problem of the traditional economics is not in the deductive method nor the mathematical methods used, but to attribute to economic agents "power" on the future and prescribe the existence of ergodic stochastic processes in their economic analyzes. Thus, building a theory on the ground whose bases are not able to sustain a proper understanding of the world, mainstream economics has difficulties in using the modeling for establishing deductions and conclusions that help understanding the system. Thus, the logical-mathematical rigor in economic models and deduction can be used with appropriate axioms, which is not the case of mainstream economics. Our hypothesis is that the inability of the mainstream in predicting economic crisis is due to the non-recognition of some principles that best describe the dynamics of financialized contemporary capitalism, as the principles of non-ergodicity and Keynesian uncertainty.

Financialization and financial profit

This article starts from the critical review of the concept of financial capital. I consider it is necessary not to confuse this category with of financialization, which has acquired a certificate of naturalization from the rise of neoliberalism. Although financial monopoly-financial capital is the hegemonic segment of the bourgeoisie in the major capitalist countries, their dominance does not imply, a fortiori, financialization of economic activity, since it depends of the conditions of the process reproduction of capital. The emergence of joint stock companies modified the formation of the average rate of profit. The "promoter profit" becomes one of the main forms of income of monopoly-financial capital. It is postulated that financial profit is a kind of "extraordinary surplus-value" which is appropriated by monopoly-financial capital by means of the monopolistic control it exerts on the issue and circulation of fictitious capital.

Just how capitalist is China?

In this paper, we review old and modern conceptions of "capitalism" and then we evaluate how "well" China fares on three touchstones of capitalism: competitive markets, generalization of wage-labour, and private ownership of the means of production. While we accept that China has come a long way under the first two criteria since the 1980s, we do not deem China yet to be a full-fledged capitalist economy for the State still wields great power through the allocation of massive state resources and control of large and highly profitable state enterprises, which dominate key sectors of the economy.

Dr Brasilia and Mr. Nacala: the apparent duality behind the Brazilian state-capital nexus

In August 2010 Brazil decided to limit foreign direct investments (FDIs) in land, and attracted the attention of politicians as much as the fears of businessmen. However, few months before, in September 2009, it had concluded a trilateral agreement with Japan and Mozambique to implement agribusiness and contract farming on an area of ten million hectares in the Mozambican region of Nacala. In light of that, the paper analyses the apparent duality of the Brazilian politics, and concludes that, exactly like in the case of the novel by Robert Louis Stevenson, it is not a matter of pathology, but a voluntarily induced double personality which is strategic in positioning Brazil at the core of the global capitalist system.

Nature of the state economic expanded functions in the Brazilian economy*

ABSTRACT The paper discusses the dynamics of capital accumulation in Latin America economies. The hypothesis is that in these economies the role of the State is comparatively broader than in the economies of the centers of the capitalism by structural reasons. The argument is mainly based on Marx and Kalecki, besides historical elements of Latin America economies, particularly the Brazilian economy. Then the paper explores the dynamics consequences of this nature at the national levels, concluding that this condition gives a higher degree of instability.

Alkoholin verkkokauppamarkkinat Suomessa

Opinnäytetyö alkoholin verkkokauppamarkkinoista Suomessa on katsaus markkinoihin, jotka ovat olleet esillä mediassa viime aikoina hyvinkin paljon. Opinnäytetyössä analysoidaan Michael Porterin viiden kilpailuvoiman mallin avulla toimialaa. Porterin viisi kilpailuvoimaa ovat toimialan nykyinen kilpailu, tavarantoimittajien neuvotteluvoima, kuluttajien neuvotteluvoima, uusien kilpailijoiden uhka sekä korvaavien tuotteiden tai palveuluiden uhka. Tämän lisäksi työssä tarkastellaan lainsäädäntöä kuudentena kilpailuvoimana, sillä se asettaa merkittävät kilpailulliset reunaehdot. Toimiala-analyysin jälkeen siirrytään varsinaiseen tutkimusongelmaan, jossa pohditaan, kannattaako Alkon perustaa verkkokauppa? Tähän liittyen apututkimuskysymyksissä pohditaan mitä lisäarvoa alkoholin verkkokauppa luo ylipäätään kuluttajille sekä tavarantoimittajille/maahantuojille. Opinnäytetyöhön on liitetty ajatuksia, joita on kerätty haastattelemalla kolmea eri henkilöä, joilta löytyy merkittävästi tietoa alkoholimarkkinoista. Alko Oy ei ole osallisena, vaan opinnäytetyö on kirjoitettu täysin objektiivisesti, vaikka siinä onkin paljon kirjoittan omaa empiriaa. Haastattelut ovat tarkoituksella jätetty keskustelunomaisiksi, ja ovat siten melko subjektiivisia näkemyksiä eri ihmisten silmin. Monopolit herättävät keskustelua ja Alkon asema yhteiskunnallisena monopolina onkin asetettu kriittiseen tarkasteluun tutkimuksessa. Teoriassa käsiteltiin myös Alkon palvelualttiutta 4C –mallin avulla sekä Alkoa yrityksenä analysoitiin SWOT –analyysilla. Näiden teorioiden, toimiala-analyysin, haastatteluiden, kirjoittajan oman näkemyksen sekä eri lähteistä löydetyn informaation myötä voidaan todeta, että Alkon verkkokaupalle on tarve, joka on ollut olemassa jo pitkään. Monopoliaseman oletetaan olleen syy tälle hitaalle kehitykselle. Kuluttajien lisäarvoa olisi ehdottomasti kotiinkuljetus, mutta sitä Alko ei tarjoa. Toisaalta verkkokaupan myötä laajeneva tuotevalikoima on selkeä lisäarvo. Tavarantoimittajien/maahantuojien lisäarvoa ei vielä pystytty selvittämään, koska siihen suhtauduttiin ristiriitaisesti.

Co-creating Value For Smart Phone Operating Systems Via Virtual Discussion Forums

In the traditional way, value is created by manufacturer or producer of a product without engaging the customers. So, traditionally value creation is a monopoly in the part of a manufacturer. After gathering all the raw materials the manufacturers are inserting value to a product. And the inserted value is recognized in the time of consuming the product. In the modern time though there is traditional way of value creation but with the increase of more educated, smart, and technically sound customers the idea of value creation has changed. Now, customers are also contributing in value creation as value co-creator even before the product is consumed. This scenario has been encountered in the thesis with the main purpose of how value is cocreated in smart phone operating systems. The purpose is further divided into the following supobjectives: o What is value co-creation in smart phone operating systems? o Who participates in value co-creation in smart phone operating systems? o What are the procedures that are involved in value co-creation in smart phone operating systems? The research was conducted as a qualitative desk study by observing two of the leading smart phone operating system providers. Data has been collected from the official discussion forum of both the operating system providers. Other general concepts relating to the purpose of the study has been encountered through literature review. The research findings reveal that customers and companies both together co-create value of anticipated level when they communicate and interact with each other. However, most of the time customer to customer interactions, dialogues and discussions that come out in the core conversation help the value co-creation. The value co-creation framework sets up the customer at the main focus of value creation theory. By nullifying the inherited notion that companies only create value within its boundary and provide it to their customers in exchange of currencies. Rationally, it has been commenced that the firms are merely compromising value propositions to its customers. But the value has been co-created in a point where offerings are combined and interacted with customers’ capabilities, knowledge, resources and perceptions. This new perspective has radically altered the prospect of firms towards its customers. Typically customers are now taking part in value cocreation as a crucial member.