The Shift from Fordism to Post-Fordism and Possible Future Routes for Capitalist Organization
Capitalism continues to be a revolutionary form of social organization. Modes of production, the ordering of daily activities, and the material practices and processes of social reproduction have undergone numerous changes since capitalism’s inception. Mapping a history of capitalism’s different stages and forms – both social and institutional – would be an arduous task, complicated by the fact that in each of capitalism’s stages, features and characteristics of past and future stages abound. Nevertheless, the current form of capitalism marks a unique departure from previous stages. Euphemisms and catchphrases concerning late 20th century capitalism have become all too common. "Globalization" has become a catchphrase for academics, journalists, and citizens alike. However, many of the claims about a new, distinguishable form of capitalist organization – a "post-Fordist" or "flexible" system of accumulation – are overstated. Despite the dominance of Neoliberalism following the collapse of Fordism, the current epoch does not occasion an economically, environmentally, or socially sustainable regime of accumulation. In this paper I will explain, drawing from the Regulation School, the shift from Fordism to what many have termed "post-Fordism," and use this analysis to suggest future routes for capitalist organization. Indeed, until a socially reproducible compromise to Neo-liberalism is found, aggressive competition and regulatory undercutting will further amplify destructive business cycles, abject poverty, and environmental destruction.
In order to understand the shift away from Fordism it is first necessary to examine the...
... middle of paper ...
...t within the laws dictated by Neoliberalism, but providing protection to nations, regions, and people from excessive fluctuations in trade and financial activity. "The essence of the after-Fordist regulatory problem is the age-old one of countering the destructive effects of competition." Accumulation must also resolve problems of environmental sustainability, as natural resources continue to dwindle at ever-increasing rates. Indeed, it would be foolish to predict how a global capitalist organization and mode of accumulation will look in twenty years – capitalism continues to transform itself in surprising ways – nevertheless, Regulation Theory is useful is in cautioning against the further ascendancy of Neoliberalism. Indeed, changes to the international regime of accumulation and mode of social protection must occur to realize a sustainable existence for all.
I believe that global capitalism will change in the next 30 years because people, particularly the Proletariats of society today, will be tired of putting up with the Bourgeoisie taking all of their money and leaving them to live a life of extreme poverty. I believe that in the next 30 years the Proletariats will become class-conscious and see the injustice the bourgeoisie is inflicting upon them. Stéphane Haber writes in her journal, “Emancipation from Capitalism?” that “One must be able to disconnect from capitalism and define it as external to certain crucial aspects of who we are and the world that is ours, without which the theme of emancipation would be deprived of certain conditions of its validity, and lose its ontological
...conomically beneficial trade and technology development. In this regard the Epilogue uses sound logic to plausibly answer the wealth question. On the other hand, Mr. Diamond uses the same "national competition" thesis to purport that Asia's large, centralized governments were conspicuously growth-inhibitive. This argument would not seem to pass muster given what we have learned about the role of governments. Professor Wright's slides state that "Centralization may limit predation and even allow for growth" as "centralized predation = incentives to maximize the haul " This clearly refutes Mr. Diamond's argument that centralized, monopolistic Asian governments impaired societal advances. Thus, Guns, Germs, and Steel can scantly explain why China and the Middle East remain emerging markets while Western and Northern Europe enjoy significantly larger national wealth.
Capitalism, is among one of the most important concepts and mainframe of this application paper. According to the 2009 film “Capitalism a Love Story,” capitalism is considered as taking and giving, but mostly taking. Capitalism can also be defined as a mode of production that produces profit for the owners (Dillon, 72). It is based on, and ultimately measured by the inequality and competition between the capitalist owners and the wage workers. A major facet of capitalism is constantly making and designing new things then selling afterwards (Dillon, 34).Capitalism has emerged as far back as the middle ages but had fully flowered around the time o...
Henry Ford is responsible for “perhaps the most revolutionary development in industrial history.” (Watts 2005,
Henry Ford, the man who revolutionized the car industry forever, founded his company under the beliefs that a car wasn’t a high-speed toy for the rich but instead a sturdy vehicle for everyday family needs, like driving to work, getting groceries or driving to church. However, Henry ford did much more than just this feat. He also tried to make peace in WWI before America had joined the war. In addition, Ford made the radical new five dollars a day payment. However, Ford also had his lows. At an early age, his mother died. His first two companies had also been failures. Against many of his closest friends protests, he published an anti-semitic (Jewish) newspaper. Ford had a very interesting and unique life and he changed the automotive industry forever.
Imagine how life would be if our society did not have cars. Today, our society is depended on cars for our daily routines. From getting our food, clothes, and technology to just going to the store across the street, cars are a very important part of our society. In the 18th century, only the wealthy people had access to automobiles, and they only used cars for fancy transportation and to show off their money. This was because of the extreme prices of cars in the 18th century. With these high prices not many people could afford them, especially not the working class. Henry Ford reevaluated the automobile industry in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. With Ford's enthusiasm to mechanics, he perfected the assembly line, developed cheap cars for the common people, and sparked an era of mass production. Because of this, Ford paid higher and his actions allowed the common people to have access to cars.
Neoliberalism, also called free market economy, is a set of economic policies that became widespread in the last 25 years. The concept neoliberalism, have been imposed by financial institutions that fall under the Bretton Woods such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Trade Organization (WTO) and World Bank (Martinez & Garcia, 1996). One of the famous economists published a book called “The Wealth of Nations” in which he said in it that free trade is the best way to develop nations economies (Martinez & Garcia, 1996). He and other economists also encouraged the removal of government intervention in economic matters, no restrictions on manufacturing, removing borders and barriers between nations, and no taxes (Martinez & Garcia, 1996). The main goal of the economic globalization was to reduce poverty and inequality in the poorest regions. However, the effects of the neoliberal policies on people all over the world has been devastating (MIT, 2000).
In the book Consumption by Alan Aldridge, Henry Ford links the ‘Fordist Era’ with the ‘rise of mass consumption’ conception. Henry Ford was known for his influential social innovators around the mass consumption world and for his tremendous creations of many different automobiles. Ford invented the much known “Fordism,” and it was inaugurated in 1914 in Dearborn, Michigan. During the time of “Fordism,” the mass market or the mass consumption had been involved with some closely related trends that include the growing of impersonality, self-service, advertising, packaging, and brands. The ‘Fordist Era,’ is known to be the system that was designed to create low cost goods from many production that was being made during the era. In Henry Ford career, he was able to create unique vehicles and also have his own company and three major points in the ‘Fordist Era,’ that really led a successful career and the rise of mass consumption for Ford was the standardization of the product, special and unique tools that provided workers to operate the “assembly lines,” and the third is higher wages for thousands of workers that fought to have a job during the ‘Fordist Era.” The main idea that Henry Ford enforces the idea of ‘Fordist Era’ with the ‘rise of mass consumption,' is for us as individual to enjoy the make of many products and also was the idea to rise the people prosperity in the world of industrial, and have the individuals be able to have the ability to buy all the elements and commodities that was made and advertised for the society.
So the discussion on internal and external analysis clearly defines that where the competitive advantage of Ford Motors is and where it is lacking. People who have durability as their first priority will go for Ford but they lack in some of their strategies which the management should consider and work on it. We also came to know that Ford is an innovative company from the very first and also serves local demands with the help of related and supporting industry. But in some points they have taken wrong decisions which compel them to sell some of their brands to others. The good news is they are doing hard job to maintain their performance regarding their star and cash cow products to remain in the competition.
The Fordist era and the rise of mass consumption relate to each other by two important factors: simplification or generalization and personal detachment. The Fordist era made a huge impact on society during the early twentieth century. Henry Ford was able to make labor easier by using industrial machines to make his model vehicles. Although the industrial revolution provided an assembly line before Ford’s time, he was able to put them into real use. This meant that workers would not have to provide as much labor on making Ford’s vehicles because machinery would do most of the leg work. Now that machines were able to produce Ford’s vehicles through the same process of placing its parts together, labor was barely needed from the workers. The simplified effort that Ford provided to his workers allowed for “mass production of standardized goods” of his automobiles. (Aldridge, 35)
Lynn Harsh (Nov. 2002). ‘Capitalism – A Deal with the Devil?’. Retrieved on Mar. 23 from:
Our lives are greatly affected by our culture, ecological environment, political environment and our economic structure. The overarching method of organizing a complex modern society relies heavily on the founding economic theories regarding method of production, method of organization, and the distribution of wealth among the members of. This paper, specifically deals with the views and theoretical backgrounds of two dominant theories of the past century, Keynesianism and Neo-liberalism. Our social economic order is product of the two theories and has evolved through many stages to come to where it is today. The two ideologies rely on different foundations for their economic outcomes but both encourage capitalism and claim it to be the superior form of economic organization. Within the last quarter of the 20th century, neo-liberalism has become the dominant ideology driving political and economic decisions of most developed nations. This dominant ideology creates disparities in wealth and creates inequality through the promotion of competitive markets free from regulation. Neo-liberal’s ability to reduce national government’s size limits the powers and capabilities of elected representatives and allows corporations to become much larger and exert far greater force on national and provincial governments to act in their favour. Hence, it is extremely important at this time to learn about the underlying power relations in our economy and how the two ideologies compare on important aspects of political economy. In comparing the two theories with respect to managing the level of unemployment, funding the welfare sates, and pursuing national or international objectives, I will argue that Keynesianism provides far greater stability, equ...
Fordism which is a term that was named after a man named Henry Ford, is a notion based on the industrial mass production in the 20th century. What is Fordism? As Renault defines it, “Fordism can be conceived as a specific mode of framing of the dynamics of capitalist accumulation within a specified institutional system” (Renault). Fordism took its name from the mass production of Ford motors. With Fordism, there was a huge change in productions, there was a “rationalization of the labor process”, which led to a loss of workers, a reduction in unit prices, an increase in production and an increase in the volume of production. Renault states that “Fordism has unquestionably ensured the highest level yet of democracy and social justice” (Renault). Fordism made it possible to sell more, which became an increase in demand. Fordism is a method of industrial production; it is aimed to get its products at maximization by highly controlling it and dividing its production tasks. Henry Ford was famous because he invented the Model T car and he revolutionized the system of mass production. Becau...
Capitalism is a very complex system that is discuss by many authors, scholars and economists. Robert Heilbroner is a famous American economist who creatively discusses the system of capitalism in Twenty First Century Capitalism. He reveals the abstruse capitalism system and its role in society. Heilbroner begins by comparing traditional society with modern capitalist society and differentiate capital with wealth, which facilitate the reader to understand the basic definition of capitalism. He then illustrates the most crucial aspect of capitalism, that is, the two realms of capitalism. According to Heilbroner, the two realms of capitalism are state and economy or government and business. The relation between these realms is interesting in its nature, because one aspect of their relationship make them beneficial for society and another aspect turn them into dysfunctional in society. Realm of the state and the economy are beneficial when they rely on each other, as they support each other they results in peaceful state and economy of a society. At the same time, they have power to proceed independently. As soon as they split, they are dysfunctional for society because state might block the path of the economy to grow freely and economy can independently survive without supporting the government resulting in weak society. Western societies are the living example of capitalism. They present very languish condition of moral and social values, however, they proudly presents their materialistic life. This unbalance situation is because of the contribution of capitalism in modern society. The insatiable feature of capitalism results into accumulation of capital, which diminish the value of the human being and enhance the value of money an...
Shawki, Ahmed, Paul D’Amato (2000), “Briefing: The Shape of World Capitalism,” International Socialist Review, [http://www.isreview.org/issues/11/world_capitalism.shtml], accessed 19 May 2012.