The Making of an Atlantic Ruling Class

by Van Der Pijl, Kees

• ISBN13: 9781844678716
• ISBN10: 1844678717
• Edition: 00
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-09-11
• Publisher: VERSO

Summary

With The Making of an Atlantic Ruling Class, Kees van der Pijl put class formation at the heart of our understanding of world politics and the global economy. This landmark study dissects one of the most decisive phenomena of the twentieth century-the rise of an Atlantic ruling class of multinational banks and corporations. A new preface by the author evaluates the book's significance in the light of recent political and economic developments.

Author Biography

Kees van der Pijl is Professor of International Relations at the University of Sussex and the author of The Foreign Encounter in Myth and Religion; Nomads, Empires, States; Global Rivalries from the Cold War to Iraq; and Transnational Classes and International Relations.

Table of Contents

Preface to the 2012 Edition	p. xi
Acknowledgements	p. xxviii
Introduction	p. xxx
Class Formation on an Atlantic Scale	p. 1
Determinants of Class Formation	p. 1
Capital Fractions in Marxist Theory	p. 4
Hegemonic Concepts of Control	p. 9
The Money-Capital Concept	p. 10
The Pre-Capitalist Critique	p. 12
The Productive-Capital Concept	p. 15
Strategies of Internationalization	p. 20
European Regionalism	p. 22
The Concept of Atlantic Unity	p. 26
Conclusions	p. 31
The Atlantic Economy in the Liberal Era	p. 35
The Pax Britannica	p. 36
Wall Street in the Atlantic Circuit	p. 40
Continental European Capital	p. 43
The Wilson Offensive	p. 50
Capitalist Universalism and Anglo-Saxon Chauvinism	p. 50
The Crusade for Democracy	p. 55
Gompers and European Reformism	p. 57
The Resurrection of Atlantic Capitalism?	p. 61
The Dawes Plan	p. 63
The Paneuropa Union	p. 67
Germany and the Crisis of Liberal Internationalism	p. 69
The New Deal Synthesis	p. 76
The Rise of the State-Monopoly Tendency	p. 76
The Rockefeller Nexus	p. 78
Hi-Tech Industries of the 1920s	p. 84
The Corporate-Liberal Synthesis	p. 90
Corporatism in Labour Relations	p. 94
The New Deal Versus Rentier Control	p. 100
The Subordination of Money Capital in Europe	p. 103
The Atlantic Charter and the Roosevelt Offensive	p. 107
Internationalization of the New Deal	p. 108
Ideologues of Intervention	p. 110
The British Predicament	p. 115
The European Bourgeoisie in Exile	p. 119
The Impact on Nazi Europe	p. 121
America's 'Vichy Gamble'	p. 121
The Agony of the Axis Liberals	p. 127
The Shift to Cold War Conservatism	p. 131
Atlantic Unity Against the Soviet Threat	p. 134
The Marshall Offensive and Capitalist Restoration in Europe	p. 138
Corporatist Stalemate in Liberated Europe	p. 138
Contraction of American Involvement	p. 143
The 1947 Turning-Point	p. 146
American Unions Versus European Labour	p. 150
The Realignment of the European Bourgeoisies	p. 156
Reorientation of European Liberalism	p. 161
The Context of Decolonization	p. 166
Liberalism within Christian Democracy	p. 171
The Kennedy Offensive and the New Liberalism	p. 178
Centrifugal Tendencies in the 1950s	p. 178
Atlantic Unity Under Stress	p. 182
State Monopolism Revived	p. 188
Kennedy's Grand Design	p. 195
The 'Atlantic Partnership' Concept	p. 202
The Imperial Imperative	p. 207
Redistribution in the Periphery	p. 208
The Role of the AFL-CIO	p. 212
The Meridian of Atlanticism	p. 214
The Consolidation of Corporate Liberalism	p. 214
Social Democracy and the 'New Working Class'	p. 215
European Liberals and the Perils of Partnership	p. 221
The Christian Democratic Response	p. 230
The Emergence of Atlantic Fordism	p. 233
An Atlantic Format of Labour Relations	p. 237
The Flow of Portfolio Capital	p. 238
Vietnam and de Gaulle	p. 241
The Crisis of Atlantic Integration	p. 244
Europe Versus America	p. 244
Le Défi américaine	p. 245
Nixon's New Order	p. 254
The Disintegration of Corporate Liberalism	p. 259
The Resurgence of Money Capital	p. 262
A New Empire of High Finance	p. 265
Epilogue: From Trilateralism to Unilateralism	p. 272
Appendix	p. 272
Notes	p. 289
Index	p. 318
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