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A study was conducted to develop the concept of necrocapitalism, which is defined as contemporary forms of organizational accumulation that involve dispossession and the subjugation of life to the power of death. Ways on how institutional, material, and discursive powers operate in the political economy are examined. Directions for future research are also discussed.

We study dynamic optimal taxation in a class of economies with private information. Optimal allocations in these environments are complicated and history-dependent. Yet, we show that they can be implemented as competitive equilibria in market economies supplemented with simple tax systems. The market structure in these economies is similar to that in Bewley (1986); agents supply labour and trade risk-free claims to future consumption, subject to a budget constraint and a debt limit. Optimal taxes are conditioned only on two observable characteristics-an agent's accumulated stock of claims, or wealth, and her current labour income. We show that optimal taxes are generally non-linear and non-separable in these variables and relate the structure of marginal wealth and income taxation to the properties of agent preferences.

An attempt is made to examine how control is exercised in an era of financial transparency. It is concluded that the dynamics of modern capitalism need to be further studied in light of reciprocal expectations and their consequences.

The debate on sustainable globalized development rests on two clearly stated economic assumptions: that 'development' proceeds, solely and inevitably, through industrialization and the proliferation of capital intensive high-technology, towards the creation of service sector economies; and that globalization, based on a neoliberal, capitalist, free market ideology, provides the only vehicle for such development. Sustainability, according to the proponents of globalized development, is merely a function of market forces, which will generate the solutions for all problems including the environmental dilemmas that loom over the globe today. The social focus of globalized development is clearly the 'individual' and the much-touted goal of development in the context of these debates, is the emancipation of the individual from want. This glorification of the individual, so characteristic of the Enlightenment, has defined all aspects of modernity, leading to approaches that are self-focused and that give little thought to the needs of society or even the social context. The increasing impoverishment of human life and the growing environmental degradation, however, provide a poignant counterpoint to this onrush of capital interests, demanding a reassessment of sustainability separate from the logic of industrialization and globalized development. This paper examines the unfolding of the logic of capitalism, which underlies the structure of the Rostowian model of development and the problems in the assumptions underlying today's globalized development process. The evident impossibility of sustainability in the current growth-based market system leads to the examination of alternatives including a reflexive understanding of the choices and the inclusion of opportunity costs, related to the social, environmental and economic aspects of decision making. The integration of all factors of production into the logic of development provides a sustainable alternative to the current system.

Business research for the success of hypocapitalism in the newly reformed Russian business industry is given. Most successful firms demonstrated some sort of diversification, along with a variant of network capitalism.

Abstract Inter-firm relations vary significantly between capitalist economies as a result of institutional differences, especially in terms of trust and mechanisms ensuring adherence to contractual commitments. The transformation of the [...]

Inter-firm relationships vary greatly between capitalist economies as a result of institutional differences, especially in forms of trust and prevalent mechanisms of ensuring that commercial agreements are kept. The transformation of the command economies of Eastern Europe since 1989 and the intensification of competition in their major markets might be expected to destroy previous connections between suppliers and customers and generate instead short-term, ad hoc contractual relationships. However, this study of ten large enterprises in Hungary found that contractual relations between them tended to be more similar to the Japanese firms studies by Sako in her 'Prices, Quality and Trust' (1992) than to the British ones. This seems to reflect the limited extent of change in products, markets and organizational structures of these firms - and the gradual approach to transformation adopted in Hungary as a whole - as well as their specialization in particular industrial branches and their high degree of mutual dependence through debt. Continued dependence on the state has meant that competition between these firms for political support remains important and so they compete more across industrial sectors than within them. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.), Introduction The post-war success of the Japanese economy, and of various forms of 'flexible specialization' in parts of Europe, have encouraged considerable interest in the varied ways that firms organize [...]

This paper analyzes transition policies in the former Czechoslovakia, in Hungary, and in Poland. The current literature takes for granted that Czechoslovakia and Poland, at least in the initial stages, present clear examples of a shock approach toward the transition, whereas the Hungarian case is mostly perceived as gradual. This paper challenges the dichotomous 'shock-versus-gradualism' dispute, which is believed to blur the key elements of the transition from a centrally planned to a market economy, and maintains that the labels attached to the transition policies applied in these countries are inappropriate.

The significance of Oliver Williamson's Nobel Prize is examined. Williamson's work influenced economic scholars to analyze governance and incentives within and between firms to better recognize how efficiency can be maintained in a capitalist society. Williamson's insights and his pioneering transaction area economics offer clear direction for business strategy and public policy.

Studies of inter-firm relations in modern capitalism have often relied on either an exchange theory or a structural theory of control. Both paradigms prove inadequate in explaining non-Western patterns of inter-firm relations. This study adopts an institutional theory of power to explain the peculiar patterns of horizontal control that obtains in inter-firm relations within and among large Japanese business groups. We develop our argument in four steps. First, we review and assess the adequacy of three different theories of power in capitalist business; second, we describe our case study: two major types of Japanese business groups; third, we identify forms of vertical and horizontal control through our analysis of patterns of inter-firm shareholding, and we show how additional means of control are adopted to reinforce the existing organizational patterns; fourth, we compare and contrast the highly structured and cohesive inter-firm relations in Japanese business with the more loosely organized pattern that is characteristic in the U.S., and we conclude that the current research on capitalist organizational forms will advance by emphasizing not the unchanging, universal nature of capitalist domination, but rather its varied institutional nature and its apparent cross-cultural diversity. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)