Concept

Late capitalism

Overview

Late capitalism (or late-stage capitalism) is a concept in Marxist political economy,

political science and sociology. It is used by social critics to describe the current or contemporary phase of capitalist civilization. The idea was first used by the German economist and sociologist Werner Sombart (1863-1941) to name the new social order which emerged in the aftermath of World War I. However, beyond some brief comments and outlines, Sombart never provided a systematic or comprehensive theory of late capitalism.

From the 1930s to the 1970s, the idea of "late capitalism" was used by European socialists as a label for a new form of state-regulated capitalism, with a meaning similar (but not identical) to the Marxist-Leninist theory of state monopoly capitalism. Gradually, terms like "neo-capitalism" and "late capitalism" were accepted by many Western Marxists and members of the Frankfurt School to describe the post-World War II social order. The Belgian economist and philosopher Ernest Mandel provided a comprehensive Marxist analysis in his 1972 book Late Capitalism and other writings, without however referring explicitly to Sombart's ideas. In Mandel's vision, late capitalism is the epoch of the bourgeois world society that unexpectedly arose out of World War 2, as a new phase in the global history of capitalist imperialism.

In the 21st century era of the global Internet, mobile telephones and artificial intelligence in social media, the idea of "late capitalism" is again used in left-wing political discussions about the decadence, degeneration, absurdities and ironies of contemporary business culture, often with the suggestion that capitalism is now getting near the end of its existence (or is already being transformed into a post-capitalism of some sort).

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

Possible passages

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By freedom is meant, under the present bourgeois conditions of production, free trade, free selling and buying. But if selling and buying disappears, free selling and buying disappears also. This talk about free selling and buying, and all the other "brave words" of our bourgeoisie about freedom in general, have a meaning, if any, only in contrast with restricted selling and buying, with the fettered traders of the…
Karl Marx, Manifesto of the Communist Party
States what Late capitalism is; the author is tied to Late capitalism in the knowledge graph.
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_Negation of the Negation._ "The historical sketch (of the so called original accumulation of capital in England) is comparatively the best part of Marx's book and it would be even better if it had been developed scientifically and not by means of the Dialectic. The Hegelian negation of the negation is called upon to serve here as a midwife, in default of anything better and clearer, and by means of it the future is…
Friedrich Engels, Landmarks of Scientific Socialism
States what Late capitalism is; the author is tied to Late capitalism in the knowledge graph.
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Ultimately, when stubborn historical facts had dispersed all intoxicating effects of self-deception, this form of Socialism ended in a miserable fit of the blues. _C. German, or “True,” Socialism_ The Socialist and Communist literature of France, a literature that originated under the pressure of a bourgeoisie in power, and that was the expression of the struggle against this power, was introduced into Germany at a…
Karl Marx, The Communist Manifesto
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Late capitalism

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