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    A Study Guide for Political Theories for Students: CAPITALISM
    A Study Guide for Political Theories for Students: CAPITALISM
    A Study Guide for Political Theories for Students: CAPITALISM
    Ebook63 pages1 hour

    A Study Guide for Political Theories for Students: CAPITALISM

    By Gale and Cengage

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    About this ebook

    Designed with busy students in mind, this concise study guide examines major political theories and is organized into the following easily digestible sections: overview, history, theory in depth, theory in action, analysis and critical response, topics for further study, and bibliography.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCengage Learning - Gale
    Release dateJan 27, 2015
    ISBN9781535831048
    A Study Guide for Political Theories for Students: CAPITALISM

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      A Study Guide for Political Theories for Students - Gale

      ideology.

      HISTORY

      Capitalism could not exist without the presence of a market. Marketplaces have existed for several thousand years. There are documented markets and trading relationships between the pharaohs of Egypt and the ancient Levantine kingdoms around 1400 B.C. In 400 B.C., there are records of a rich trading network and commodity exchange in addition to a complicated market in classical Greece and Rome.

      WHO CONTROLS GOVERNMENT? Elected officials

      HOW IS GOVERNMENT PUT INTO POWER? Elected by the masses

      WHAT ROLES DO THE PEOPLE HAVE? Sustain the free market

      WHO CONTROLS PRODUCTION OF GOODS? Owners of capital

      WHO CONTROLS DISTRIBUTION OF GOODS? Owners of capital

      MAJOR FIGURES Adam Smith; John Locke

      HISTORICAL EXAMPLE United States

      CHRONOLOGY

      c. 1400 B.C.: Trading relationships exist between the pharaohs of Egypt and the ancient Levantine kingdoms

      c. 400 B.C.: Marketplaces exist in Greece and Rome

      c. 1200: The Reformation begins in Europe

      1776: Adam Smith's An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations is published

      c. 1800: Industrial Revolution begins in Europe

      1929: Great Depression begins

      1933: The New Deal begins

      1935: The Social Security Act is passed.

      1936: John Maynard Keynes' The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money is published

      1947: The Taft–Hartley Act is passed

      1956: For the first time in world history, the number of people performing services is greater than the number producing goods

      1989: The Berlin Wall falls. Germany is reunified and becomes an important economic power.

      These healthy market and trading systems show the historical basis of money, mercantile groups and the idea of profit, but there was not a market system like exists today. Markets joined suppliers and demanders but what was supplied did not change based on the details of demand. Markets existed to provide luxuries to those who wanted them but did not satisfy the essential needs of society. The essentials were taken care of according to tradition, with slavery as the labor source. Living one's life to benefit another was looked down upon for the free man, however, as articulated by the philosopher Aristotle.

      Capitalism as it is today is relatively new, but the ideas of markets and profits have been in place for thousands of years. Formally, capitalism began during the Middle Ages with the mercantilist period. The ideology has been around since before the philosophers Aristotle and Plato, however. Plato (428–348 B.C.) began to outline some of the structural ideas of capitalism in terms of freedom and liberty, but subscribed more to communist and community based ideology then to the individualism that defines capitalism. Plato argued that guardians were needed to protect people from injustice and from invasion. He felt that they should share the state's wealth by keeping properties public to ensure equality. He also thought that by allowing people to privately own their own homes and properties they would necessarily become enemies rather than neighbors in mutual protection of one another. The theory of communal living continued but the beginnings of individualistic capitalism were sprouting as well, growing with along the ideas of freedom and liberty.

      The idea of capitalism grew from individualistic notions. In religion, this led to the Reformation. In politics, this led to democracy, and with the economy, this led to the capitalistic system. Capitalism has its origins in Rome, in the Middle East, and in Europe in the Middle Ages. Its earliest organized form was called mercantilism, the production and distribution of goods to make a profit.

      Mercantilism

      Mercantilism began in Rome in its simplest form. The merchants bought goods for less than they sold them. The Roman Empire expanded, and mercantilism grew along with it. As the empire began to shrink in the fifth century, however, so too did mercantilism. By the 700s it was only a small slice of the culture of Europe. During this same period, though, capitalistic practices were thriving in Arabia. The Arab culture existed in the trade routes between three empires: Egypt, Persia, and later, the Byzantium. Islam spread across the Middle East, Asia, Spain, and North Africa in the 700s. Mercantilism spread along with Islam, and its success is evidenced by the number of economic words derived from Islam such as traffic and tariff.

      In Europe, the medieval culture relearned the ideas of mercantilism and capitalism from its Arabic neighbors. By the 1300s, Europe had fully absorbed mercantilism and was starting to expand through mobility and mercantilism. Europeans and Arabs alike began to explore the globe. These voyages

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