The Crisis of Global Capitalism as the Harbinger of De-globalization.

• Author: Magbadelo, John Olushola
• Position: The Political Economy of Global Capitalism and Crisis; The Century of the Emerging World: Development with a Vengeance; A Strategic Understanding of UN Economic Sanctions: International Relations, Law, and Development - Book review

The Political Economy of Global Capitalism and Crisis

By Bill Dunn

New York: Routledge, 2014, 188 pages, $46.95, ISBN: 9780415844390

The Century of the Emerging World: Development with a Vengeance

By Paul Dobrescu

Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2017, xii + 217 pages, [pounds sterling]61.99, ISBN: 9781443873161

A Strategic Understanding of UN Economic Sanctions: International Relations, Law, and Development

By Golnoosh Hakimdavar

New York: Routledge, 2014, 213 pages, $184.44, ISBN: 9780415538220

At no other time in the history of the world has the crisis in the global economy become a serious concern as it is currently the case. The promise of globalization at its inception, which was widely expected by both developed and developing countries as the resultant outcome of a process that would promote beneficial interdependence among countries of the world, seems to be ebbing and fizzling away in contemporary times. These new trends in which governments are beginning to project ultra-nationalistic policies that contradict trade liberalization, interdependence, and the deregulation of economic transactions among countries of the world, which are the lynchpins of globalization, are a clear indication that the world is on the verge of a new order. The emerging economic order has been manifesting in trade renegotiations, stricter immigration laws, the imposition of tariffs, bans on foreign/imported goods, and the erection of barriers to free trade, etc. With this development, the world is heading in a different direction which therefore puts to question the survival of the extant global capitalist order in its current form in the face of the palpable crises buffeting its essence. It is also logical to enquire whether or not capitalism is inherently crisis-ridden, or whether the crisis emanated from the violation of its guiding principles.

In an attempt to provide a theoretical explanation of the crisis-prone nature of the subsisting global economic order, Bill Dunn has written a very important and expository book entitled: The Political Economy of Global Capitalism and Crisis. This book was prompted, understandably, by the author's expressed desire to unravel the causation of the sub-prime crash of 2007/2008 and its debilitating effect on the global economy which spurred protests across the cities of the world where the people demanded radical social change. The book is an account of what the author refers to as "capitalized Crisis" (p. 2). It is about political economy and crises in general and a critique of the prevailing theories on capitalism. The author's discursive style runs through the eleven chapters of the book. In chapter one, which introduces the thrust of the book, the author examines the different theoretical explanations of the global financial crises engendered by the global capitalist system.The chapter describes the subject of economic crises as Marxism's usual concern and agrees that an investigation of the general characteristics of capitalism can provide insight into the current situation (p. 6).

Chapter two highlights why work and exploitation are central to Marxist investigations of the world and the development of a proper historical materialist epistemology -how human societies need to be understood in their material and ecological context; how development should be understood systematically but in their inherent unevenness (pp. 14-27). Chapter three critically examines the applicability of value theory in a society with an incomplete commodified system with a view to pointing out the similarities and differences between various labors in order to unravel the contradictory dynamics of the capitalist economy (pp. 28-45). Chapter four analyzes the heterogeneity of capitalism which is evident in its unbridled quest for the highest profits from wherever such could be found, and highlights the spatial dimensions of its unevenness, including the geographically path-dependent character of accumulation and how different forms of accumulation tend to push and pull in different directions (pp. 46-59).

Chapter five critically assesses the four major Marxist theories of crisis, consisting of wage-push, under-con-sumption and overproduction, disproportionality, and the resultant fall in the rate of profit, and observes that although each of the theories identifies important limits to capitalist accumulation, none separately provides a satisfactory account of crises and recovery. The chapter observes that Marx's Capital, which was unfinished when Marx died, was incomplete and is incapable of providing an explanation for the changes that have taken place in the last 150 years of capitalism's turbulent history. It further points out that even though Marxists believe that capitalism is a crisis-prone system, the dearth of systematic Marxist analyses of how capitalism recovers from crisis represents a significant lacuna (pp. 60-71).

Chapter six articulates the salient roles that states play in societies dominated by capitalism especially in relation to the underlying social...