Advanced capitalism

Part of a series on the
Frankfurt School
Major works
Reason and Revolution The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction Eclipse of Reason The Fear of Freedom Dialectic of Enlightenment Minima Moralia Eros and Civilization One-Dimensional Man Negative Dialectics The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere The Theory of Communicative Action
Notable theorists
Max Horkheimer · Theodor Adorno Herbert Marcuse · Walter Benjamin Erich Fromm · Friedrich Pollock Leo Löwenthal · Jürgen Habermas
Important concepts
Critical Theory · Dialectic · Praxis Psychoanalysis · Antipositivism Popular culture · Culture industry Advanced capitalism · Privatism Non-Identity · Communicative Rationality Legitimation Crisis
v t e

In political philosophy, advanced capitalism is the situation that pertains in a society in which the capitalist model has been integrated and developed deeply and extensively and for a prolonged period. The expression advanced capitalism distinguishes such societies from the historical previous forms of capitalism, mercantilism and industrial capitalism, and partially overlaps with the concepts of a developed country, of the post-industrial age, of finance capitalism, of post-Fordism, of the spectacular society, and of "developed", "modern" and "complex" capitalism.

Jürgen Habermas has been a major contributor to the analysis of advanced-capitalistic societies. According to Habermas, a key feature of advanced-capitalism is "privatism", meaning "political abstinence combined with an orientation to career, leisure and consumption" as well as "family orientation".^[1] Another key trait of complex capitalism is commodity fetishism.^[2]Antonio Gramsci, formulating his influential concept of cultural hegemony, said that in advanced capitalist societies, innovations such as compulsory schooling, mass media, and popular culture indoctrinate people with the opinions convenient to the powerful.

Bibliography

• Habermas, J. [1973] Legitimation Crisis (eng. translation by T. McCarthy). Boston: Beacon. from google books; excerpt
• Sombart, Werner (1916) Der moderne Kapitalismus. Historisch-systematische Darstellung des gesamteuropäischen Wirtschaftslebens von seinen Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart. Final edn. 1916, repr. 1969, paperback edn. (3 vols. in 6): 1987 Munich: dtv. (Also in Spanish; no English translation yet.)
• Ian Gough State Expenditure in Advanced Capitalism New Left Review
• Fredric Jameson (1991) Postmodernism or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism
• Ernest Mandel Late Capitalism

See also

• Post-Fordism
• Capitalist mode of production
• Late capitalism
• State monopoly capitalism

References