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Quote by Immanuel Wallerstein

“What distinguishes the historical social system we are calling historical capitalism is that in this historical system capital came to be used (invested) in a very special way. It came to be used with the primary objective or intent of self-expansion. In this system, past accumulations were 'capital' only to the extend they were used to accumulate more of the same.”

Quote by Immanuel Wallerstein

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Immanuel Wallerstein
Immanuel Wallerstein

Immanuel Wallerstein is a renowned American sociologist known for his contributions to world-systems theory. His research focuses on globalization and international relations, profoundly influencing the understanding of the modern world order. more

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“But even in the absence of direct interference by those who had the power to interfere, the process was usually aborted by the non-availability of one of more elements of the process - the accumulated stock in a money form, the labor-power to be utilized by the producer, the network of distributors, the consumers who were purchasers. One or more elements were missing because, in previous historical social systems, one or more of these elements was not commodified or was insufficiently commodified.”

FormSocialProcessMissingElementsCapitalismLaborDirectHistoricalAbsenceProducersConsumersInterfereInterferenceAvailabilitySocial SystemsDistributorsPurchasers
Author:Immanuel Wallerstein
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“So much were employers of wage-labor unenthusiastic about proletarianization that, in addition to fostering the gender age division of labor, they also encouraged, in their employment patters and through their influence in the political arena, recognition of defined ethnic groups, seeking to link them to specific allocated roles in the labor-force, with different levels of real remuneration for their work. Ethnicity created a cultural crust which consolidated the patterns of semi-proletarian household structures.”

DifferentRealAgePoliticalForceLevelsRolesGroupsInfluenceCapitalismLaborStructurePatternsSeekingGenderEmploymentDefinedRecognitionDivisionLinksHouseholdArenaEmployersEthnicityDifferent LevelsFosteringEthnic GroupsDivision Of LaborRemunerationLabor Force
Author:Immanuel Wallerstein
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“To be sure, the use of force by one party in a market transaction in order to improve his price was no invention of capitalism. Unequal exchange is an ancient practice. What was remarkable about capitalism as a historical system was the way in which this unequal exchange could be hidden; indeed, hidden so well that it is only after five hundred years of the operation of this mechanism that even the avowed opponents of the system have begun to unveil it systematically.”

WayYearsWellsUseOrderForcePartyPracticeFiveHundredCapitalismHistoricalAncientInventionOperationsOpponentsRemarkableMechanismTransactionsUse Of Force
Author:Immanuel Wallerstein
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“As a matter of law the states recognized no constraints on their legislative scope other than those that were self-imposed. Even where particular state constitutions paid ideological lip service to constraints deriving from religious or natural law doctrines, they reserved to some constitutionally-defined body or person the right to interpret these doctrines.”

PersonsSelfMatterStatesBodyLawNaturalReligiousParticularCapitalismConstitutionPaidLipsDoctrineDefinedScopeConstraintsIdeologicalReservedNatural LawLip Service
Book:Capistalist Civilisation
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