Capitalism from Above and Capitalism from Below: An Essay in Comparative Political Economy

by T. Byres

Overview

The distinction between 'capitalism from above' and 'capitalism from below' is important in the analysis of the agrarian question in poor countries. The 'Prussian path' and the 'American path' are here examined, against existing historical scholarship. Their unfolding, from their earliest roots to the point of final 'agrarian transition' in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, is considered. The dialectic between social relations and productive forces, mediated as it was by the state, is treated and the implications for capitalist industrialisation scrutinised.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780312162412
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan UK
Publication date:	11/08/1996
Series:	Studies; 8
Edition description:	1996
Pages:	490
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.05(d)

Table of Contents

Preface - Foreword - Maps: Prussia and North America - PART 1: THE PROBLEMATIC - Origins, Context and Method - The Agrarian Question, Diversity of Agrarian Transition and the Two Paths: 'Capitalism from Above' and 'Capitalism from Below' - PART 2: THE PRUSSIAN PATH: CAPITALISM FROM ABOVE - From 'One of Europe's Freest Peasantries' to Feudalism and the Eve of Abolition of Serfdom - The Prussian Transition: Full-Blooded Capitalism from Above and Its Consequences - PART 3: THE AMERICAN PATHS - Attempted Feudalism, Primitive Accumulation and Eradication of Native Populations - The South: Slavery - The Postbellum South: From Slavery, Through Unfree Labour to Wage Labour - The North and the West: From Early to Advanced Petty Commodity Production - PART 4: SOME CONCLUSIONS - The Comparison, Some Implications, and the Dangers of Drawing Contemporary Lessons - References - Index