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Definition: capitalism from Dictionary of Energy

Economics & Business. an economic system in which capital assets are chiefly held by private individuals and companies rather than by public or quasi-public entities, and in which prices and the production and distribution of goods are chiefly determined by conditions in the marketplace rather by government policy.


Capitalism

From Encyclopedia of Business in Today's World
Capitalism is an economic system characterized by private property and freely functioning markets without central planning. Prices in capitalist economic systems are determined by the free and open exchanges of buyers and sellers guided by self-interest but constrained by both an ethical consensus and the rule of law. While capitalism is widely viewed as the most effective system for generating wealth and higher material standards of living, capitalist economies also go through periods of instability, some of which have raised concerns about the overall appeal of the system. In addition to concerns rooted in these periodic cycles, other concerns have been raised regarding broader social issues such as the distribution of income. Most economists believe that the benefits of capitalist systems have far outweighed the costs but this article will present both sides of the argument. To understand capitalism in its present form also requires that we consider the historical developments, both…
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Full text Article capitalism

From Cambridge Dictionary of Sociology
The study of capitalism represents a classical topic in sociology . Both Karl Marx and Max Weber were, for example, deeply interested in capitalism and made it their main focus of research. During much of the twentieth century, on the other hand, sociologists have tended to take capitalism for…
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Full text Article capitalism

From The Penguin Dictionary of Sociology
This type of economic organization in its ‘pure’ form may briefly be defined by: private ownership and control of the economic instruments of production, that is, capital; the gearing of economic activity to making profits; a market framework that regulates this activity; the appropriation of…
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Full text Article Capitalism

From World of Sociology, Gale
The opening of this McDonald’s restaurant marked...
Capitalism, also known as a free market economy or a free enterprise economy, is an economic system (or, in Marxist terminology, a mode of production) characterized by three essential features. First, the factors of production are commercialized and the means of production are privately owned. …
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Full text Article capitalism

From Political Philosophy A-Z
A system of rules and distributive arrangements based on private ownership and a market economy. Capitalism particularly involves private ownership of the means of production and, generally, finds those means of production held in the hands of a minority of the population. Consequently capitalist…
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Full text Article capitalism

From Routledge Dictionary of Economics
A socioeconomic system of production using ROUNDABOUT METHODS OF PRODUCTION. An economy based on private enterprise. The use of markets not planning to allocate economic resources. Production motivated by the profit motive. The physiocrats and classical economists such as smith regarded capitalism…
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Full text Article Capitalism

From The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Business, Labor, and Economic History
The term “capitalism” has frequently been used to describe the American economy. The general usage of the term, however, dates to the late nineteenth century and was largely drawn from Karl Marx's multivolume work Das Kapital . Initially used mainly by Marxist critics of capitalism, the term came to…
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Full text Article capitalism

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
economic system based on private ownership of the means of production, in which personal profit can be acquired through investment of capital and employment of labor. Capitalism is grounded in the concept of free enterprise, which argues that government intervention in the economy should be…
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Full text Article CAPITALISM

From Global Dictionary of Theology
Capitalism is an economic system that consists of the market, the private ownership of the means of production, salaried labor, and private control of investment. Accordingly it is important not to reduce capitalism to the market. In fact, the market existed many centuries before capitalism…
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Full text Article Capitalism

From QFinance: The Ultimate Resource
The domination of capitalism globally depends today on the existence of a Chinese Communist party that gives delocalized capitalist enterprises cheap labour to lower prices and deprive workers of the rights of self-organization. Rancière, Jacques . Quoted in the Guardian (London) (July 4, 2 012). …
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Full text Article Capitalism

From Encyclopedia of American Studies
Etching of Adam Smith by Cadell and Davies...
Capitalism is most properly considered an economic system. It is a system that leaves to private individuals and businesses the economic functions of supply and demand, tha... …
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