Capitalism, Inclusive Growth, and Social Protection

Inherent Contradiction or Achievable Vision?

Hagen M. Krämer, Faculty of Management Science and Engineering, Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences, Christian R. Proaño, Faculty of Social Sciences, Economics and Business Administration, Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg, Germany, and Mark Setterfield, New School for Social Research, New York, US

After more than four decades of real income stagnation, ever-increasing inequality and household financial distress, this book explores how the very fabric of our society is under threat. It argues that although capitalism is imperfect, it can be improved, and harnessing its forces of production to more suitable social relations of production is key to that improvement.

‘When this book gets published we celebrate the tricentenary of the birth of Adam Smith, who in The Wealth of Nations famously wrote: “what improves the circumstances of the greater part [of society] can never be regarded as an inconvenience to the whole. No society can
surely be flourishing and happy of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable. It is but equity, besides, that they who feed, clothe and lodge the whole body of the people, should have such a share of the produce of their own labour as to be themselves tolerably well fed, clothed and lodged” (WN I.viii.36). The book by Krämer, Proaño and Setterfield demonstrates vividly the continuing and at present again swiftly rising need for inclusive economic development and social protection. It is a must for all those concerned with a good society, which today has become a concern with the survival of humankind.’
– Heinz D. Kurz, University of Graz, Austria

‘This book is a persuasive case for social capitalism as the only path to a sustainable future of liberal democracies. Fair labor markets, shared prosperity, and balanced power between social classes are key features of the solution that Krämer, Proaño, and Setterfield propose to correct the damage done by neoliberal capitalism.’
– Codrina Rada, University of Utah, US

‘Our world is buffeted by economic, financial and political shocks. In this important book, Krämer, Proaño and Setterfield ambitiously hazard an answer. The authors draw on classic works by Marx, Keynes and Schumpeter to help us understand the interaction of structural change and macroeconomic dynamics in the 21st century.
– From the foreword by Barry Eichengreen, University of California, Berkeley, US