Capitalism for Realists

Tibor Rutar is Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Maribor, Slovenia, and author of Rational Choice and Democratic Government: A Sociological Approach (Routledge, 2021).

'This book is an engaging investigation of the received wisdom – and received prejudices – about capitalism, neoliberalism, markets, and market activity. With subtlety and nuance, it shows that much of this received wisdom does not stand up to investigation. People of all ideological stripes will learn something from – and be challenged by – this book. It deserves to be read by all those working on the moral foundations of market society.' - Jason Brennan, Georgetown University, USA'If you’re an anti-neoliberal or an anti-capitalist or a Marxist, you owe it to yourself to read this book and grapple with its evidence and reasoning.' - Lane Kenworthy, author of Social Democratic Capitalism and Would Democratic Socialism Be Better?'Rutar [...] tries hard to catalog what parts of the enormous Marxist apparatus are useful, and what parts are unique to Marx. His analytical conclusion, one that I share whole-heartedly, is that there are many parts that are useful, and there are many parts that are unique and can be found only in Marx’s work. The problem is that the overlap, arguments that are both useful and unique to Marx, is not large, and certainly far smaller than the grandiose claims made for Marxism by its most dogmatic adherents.' - Michael C. Munger, Duke University, USA, and author of The Sharing Economy and Tomorrow 3.0'Rutar is that rarest of species: a former Marxist turned social democrat who retains a healthy degree of respect for (non-vulgar) Marxism [...] Capitalism for Realists tries to chart a narrow path between adopting a Marx-inflected critical stance on the modern global economy, while chastising the hard left for not appreciating all the good capitalism has done for the least well off. [...] [A] very thoughtful, well written, and richly analytical book which should provoke a healthy dialogue from across the political spectrum.' - Matt McManus, University of Michigan, USA, author of A How To Guide to Cosmopolitan Socialism and The Political Right and Equality“What ultimately emerges from Capitalism for Realists is that, when one considers the available data, capitalism’s critics are often wide of the mark. Indeed, it would appear that in some cases, capitalism is often correlated with (and is perhaps the cause of) the very opposite of the faults of which it is accused. The writing is accessible in the main, though […] some of the more detailed statistical discussions can be hard to follow, but this evidence is fundamental to the book’s very project of offering a realistic rather than an ideological assessment. Overall, this is a fairly specialist work which offers a nuanced, balanced, evidence-based analysis of how the modern economy works and what its effects might be.” – Neil Jordan, The Centre for Enterprise, Markets and Ethics, UK

• 1. Capitalism’s critics and defenders: A possibility of reconciliation 2. Historic origins: More political-economic in nature than cultural 3. A nuanced look at poverty, exploitation, and inequality 4. Capitalism globalized: The spectre of neoliberalism and the ambitions of industrial policy 5. But capitalism corrupts our morals, does it not? 6. Conclusion: What about the environment?