Capitalism: past, present and future
Pierluigi Ciocca’s latest book as a guide to understanding the crisis of today and prospects for tomorrow
Capitalism is a system with a formidable production capacity, but with countless problems that risk leading it to implosion. It truly changed the world a number of centuries ago, and is always observed attentively by its critics and proponents. This is an important issue, which risks being only partially addressed each time, and consequently blurred, misinterpreted and misunderstood. A demon to some, an essential solution to others, capitalism – today in particular – requires understanding without rabble-rousing. This is the purpose of Pierluigi Ciocca’s recently published and latest literary work, Del capitalismo. Un pregio e tre difetti (On capitalism: one virtue and three defects).
Ciocca aims to place the idea of capitalism at the centre of thinking about the present day, but with good understanding: interpretations that reject it rely on the idea of the market, variously embellished by historico-empirical references to institutions, culture and politics in individual countries. But, the author explains, capitalism features a more precise and better configured historical formation, the long arc of which can be well followed, highlighting its strengths and weaknesses, risks, distortions and potential corrections. Indeed Ciocca focuses precisely on corrections, and therefore the tools for updating it and lending it prospects, in the final part of the book. He takes into account the fact that economic growth itself is no longer guaranteed today, and risks deterioration. The author’s message, therefore, is that we urgently require politics, governance of the economy, which must necessarily move beyond the nation state.
Over the book’s approximately 150 pages, capitalism is first clearly illustrated from a historical perspective then analysed according to several interpretations before arriving at crucial questions like growth, inequality, poverty and instability as well as the environment.
Pierluigi Ciocca’s book has the great merit of summarising a complex and varied theme in a limited number of pages and making it accessible – albeit with great attention – to the reader. It is also a book that leaves the door open to a better future than the present: the crisis, if not the implosion, of capitalism must – and can – be avoided.
Del capitalismo. Un pregio e tre difetti
Donzelli, 2024
Pierluigi Ciocca’s latest book as a guide to understanding the crisis of today and prospects for tomorrow
Capitalism is a system with a formidable production capacity, but with countless problems that risk leading it to implosion. It truly changed the world a number of centuries ago, and is always observed attentively by its critics and proponents. This is an important issue, which risks being only partially addressed each time, and consequently blurred, misinterpreted and misunderstood. A demon to some, an essential solution to others, capitalism – today in particular – requires understanding without rabble-rousing. This is the purpose of Pierluigi Ciocca’s recently published and latest literary work, Del capitalismo. Un pregio e tre difetti (On capitalism: one virtue and three defects).
Ciocca aims to place the idea of capitalism at the centre of thinking about the present day, but with good understanding: interpretations that reject it rely on the idea of the market, variously embellished by historico-empirical references to institutions, culture and politics in individual countries. But, the author explains, capitalism features a more precise and better configured historical formation, the long arc of which can be well followed, highlighting its strengths and weaknesses, risks, distortions and potential corrections. Indeed Ciocca focuses precisely on corrections, and therefore the tools for updating it and lending it prospects, in the final part of the book. He takes into account the fact that economic growth itself is no longer guaranteed today, and risks deterioration. The author’s message, therefore, is that we urgently require politics, governance of the economy, which must necessarily move beyond the nation state.
Over the book’s approximately 150 pages, capitalism is first clearly illustrated from a historical perspective then analysed according to several interpretations before arriving at crucial questions like growth, inequality, poverty and instability as well as the environment.
Pierluigi Ciocca’s book has the great merit of summarising a complex and varied theme in a limited number of pages and making it accessible – albeit with great attention – to the reader. It is also a book that leaves the door open to a better future than the present: the crisis, if not the implosion, of capitalism must – and can – be avoided.
Del capitalismo. Un pregio e tre difetti
Donzelli, 2024