IR AND CAPITALISM EXAM REVIEW

Causes of Industrial revolution

agricultural revolution

enclosure acts

new tech

capital investments/banking systems

abundance of natural resources

colonies and trades

a

Enclosure acts

privatized land and farming basically. Parliament allowed landowners to fence common land.

results in efficient farming through fencing because new techniques, urbanization since landless farmers migrated to urban centers where they became labour workers in factories, end of traditional village farming like crop rotation and small scattered plots were combined into larger ones.

domestic systems/ cottage industry

Production at home that was done by home was replaced by factory systems

Agricultural revolution

crop rotation, selective breeding, seed drill

Led to bigger harvest than population growth and then an industrial workforce

laissez-faire

“hands off Gabriella.
no economy involvement from government. supports private property and individual freedom.

Adam smith

Right side. Founder of capitalism and free markets.

invisible hand guides economy.

supply and demand is regulated by this invisible hand, which implies that the free market will be guided by self interest which will naturally regulate price and competition.

Division of labour

workers specialized in smaller tasks. Better efficiency and production due to specialization. assembly lines. downside is boring work and less incentive for workers, the skills lack adaptability for workers who must be retrained for other jobs. 

Iron law of wages

economic theroy that states that in the long run, real wages will always lean towards the minimum level needed for workers retain. 

because, if wages go up above minimum level needed, workers will have more children, which then increase the labour supply and drive wages back down. If wages fall, fewer children will be born and there will not be enough labour supply thus causing the wage to go back up. 

basically the wages will always tend towards the minimum because children affect labour shortage.

Frederick Engels

Left wing (pretty far left sometimes established as capitalist or anarchists). Worked with Karl Marx on the communist manifesto. Observed the harsh factory life in England. helped establish Marxism.

Proletariat

working class of wage earners who own little to no property and must sell their labour to survive. Often used term in Marxist theory to describe the working class especially I.R wag earners who were dependent of their employers.

Karl Marx

theory of class struggle is that history is driven by conflict between social classes defined by their means of production. The bourgeoisie, the owners, and the proletariat, wage earning workers, were the relations with the primary struggle. He argued that owners exploited workers by paying less than the value their labour creates leading to inevitable conflict as workers become more aware of its shared interest of overthrowing capitalist systems in turn for a communist one which would be classless. 

“workers of the world unite”

Karl Marx quote meaning workers everywhere must rebel together

“You have nothing to lose but your chains”

Karl Marx quote. workers oppressed by capitalism will benefit well from rebelling against it.”

From each according to his ability…, to each according to his needs.”

Karl Marx quote. Work by ability, share by need. 

Social Darwinists

Right side. applied survival of the fittest to a society.

justified wealth gaps, imperialism, racism and no welfare.

Collective barganing

`Workers negotiates as a group, union, for better pay and conditions.

Rober owen & Charles Fourier

Utopian Socialism. Better working conditions, education, cooperative communities. Owen: model villages; designed as self-sufficient agricultural communities that aimed to create a new society based on copperation, comunal living, and social equality. 

Liberalism

Focused on individual freedoms, limited governments, and rights.

Classical 19th century: free markets, min government, property rights laissez-faire. More right.

Modern 20th century: Still values rights, but also supports. So, welfare programs, regulation to protect workers/consumers, mixed economy. More left.

Anarchism

No government, hierarchies as they are harmful. A stateless society. Abolition of authority coercion replacing them with voluntary non hierarchical associations and mutual aid.

Fascism

Right side extreme. Extreme nationalism & dictatorship. Anti democracy, anti communist. State>individual. Controls economy buy private ownership is allowed under state control.C

entral PLanning

Left and government authority is used in economy, differs from market economy. key economic mechanism used in communist and socialist systems, left side. A method of controlling the economy by making major decision about what to produce, how and for whom.

Universality

Social Welfare. Education, healthcare, social security and safety nets are ensured by governments.

Inflation

general rise in price cause by more money supply, higher demands, and rising production costs.

Consumer Socereignty

Consumers decide and control production based on buying choices. Customer is king.

Results of the IR

positive: mass production, cheaper, tech progress, advancing transportation and communications, growth of a middle class, higher standards of living.

Negatives: Pollution and urban crowding, child labour, dangerous factory conditions, worker exploitations and low wages, class divisions and strikes, social inequality.

Rejection of liberalism

rejecting IR&F, democracy, capitalism and free markets, limited government, private property, rule of law.

who opposed the working class and why?

Factory owners, landowners, industrialist and bankers, governments.
profit motive, belief in no government interference thus no minimum wage and safety rules, power imbalance, Darwinism where some were seen as naturally superior, labour surplus as there were many workers, they were easy to replace., systems need cheap unskilled labour.