资本主义的本质：制度、演化和未来

by Geoffrey M. Hodgson, 杰弗里·霍奇森, 张林 (Translator)

几个世纪前，资本主义开动了经济生产力的一种爆发。市场和私有财产存在了数千年，但是，是其他何种关键制度培育了资本主义在相对近世的出现？直到现在，可用于回答这个问题的概念工具箱仍然是不够的，经济学家和其他社会科学家的注意力已不再放在识别这些关键制度上。在本书中，霍奇森向读者提供了一个更加准确的概念框架。他采用一种被称为法律制度主义的新的理论方法，强调了法律和国家的重要作用。虽然私有财产和市场处于资本主义的中心位置，但它们要依赖于一个有效的法律框架的发展。把这个基于法律的方法应用于分析资本主义在18世纪欧洲的出现，霍奇森明确了与它的兴起相吻合的关键的制度发展，包括18世纪重要的金融制度的发展。这种分析使他站在了一种普遍看法的对立面，即资本主义是人类社会自然的、必然的结果。与此相反，资本主义是一个相对新近的现象，并且是视一个保护私有财产和执行契约的特定形式的国家而定。本书然后考察了这个更准确的概念框架就资本主义在21世纪可能的未来能告诉我们什么，其中一些最重要的问题是全球化的影响、不平等的持续增长，以及中国和其他国家对美国霸权的回应。

Genres: Economics, Politics, History, Philosophy

416 pages, Paperback

First published June 29, 2015

Reviews

[Bookforum Magazine]

"Hodgson's view of capitalism as a relatively recent system embedded in and supported by nonmarket legal and political structures is a great conceptual advance. His argument stands as a long-overdue corrective to conventional treatments of capitalism as a system of interlocking markets that tend toward equilibrium unless disturbed by human interference.

Conceptualizing Capitalism is a magisterial achievement that deserves a wide audience. But it is unlikely to find one among capitalists themselves."

–Michael Lind on Geoffrey M. Hodgson's Conceptualizing Capitalism in the December/January 2016 issue of Bookforum

To read the rest of this review, go to Bookforum:
http://bookforum.com/inprint/022_04

['Pak Phrae · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the fact that the writer, Hodgson, grounds me in institutional clarity and evolutionary systems. It feels... refreshing. Maybe even empowering. It's not just intellectually satisfying, but structurally elegant. Because you don’t just consume ideas—you dissect their foundations. This kind of ontological and epistemological excavation is really my cup of tea.