Capitalism. Behind Paradigms and Varieties
Capitalism. Behind Paradigms and Varieties

Summary/Abstract: This article is a part of my Ph.D. thesis where I propose an interpretative model of capitalism. Here I limit myself to provide arguments for a unitary treatment of capitalism, at least at an in-depth level of analyses. Without such an argumentation – that many authors pretend not to see the need of – any analysis of the varieties and paradigms of capitalism is unfounded because nothing makes them varieties of capitalism in and of themselves. Methodologically, this task is solved by combining a historic perspective with a systemic one. A list with the historical uses of the word families associated with the term capitalism in various languages serves as a proxy for the first perspective. A list of the definitions for capitalism serves as a proxy for the second one. The generic features of capitalism, that emerge by combining the two perspectives, are: (1) the need for capital, for resources, always expressible in financial terms (resources that are not consumed); (2) that these resources are systematically directed towards investments; (3) the purpose of these investments is always to produce profit; (4) the investments being in any factor of production, labor is considered a factor of production and has a price, the salary; (5) the distribution of the production that results from the investment of resources is made between the factors of production; (6) this distribution depends on the negotiating power of the conscious parties (the owner of the capital and the employee); (7) only ideally, points 1-6 operate without influences, “naturally”; in fact the political institutions interfere with their functioning.

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