Телеграм канал «Политическая теория и философия (Political theory and philosophy)»

Muskism ft. Quinn Slobodian & Ben Tarnoff

Historian Quinn Slobodian and tech writer Ben Tarnoff talk to Alex Hochuli and Alex Gourevitch about their new book, Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed, and why we should ask "what is Musk a symptom of?"

If Fordism characterised the mid-20th century, are our times those of Muskism What are the touchstones of Muskism that the authors identify: fortress futurism, financial fabulism, state symbiosis? Who is the real Musk, that of vehicles, energy, infrastructure, or that of the post-industrial stuff of social media, finance, AI? What does Muskism promise people? How does it legitimise itself if at all? Is the state actually dependent on Musk, or is Musk dependent on the state? How much of Musk's right-wing turn is necessary to Muskism, and how much is contingent? Is the racial component central?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dxcaUAhlKQw&ra=m

Matthew Cole - Unpaid: The Past, Present, And Future Of Wage Theft

How capitalism steals our time and our labour, and how we can fight back. An extra 15 minutes work here, another 20 minutes wage theft has been described as a silent epidemic blighting the global workforce. And it’s on the rise. In the UK and US alone millions of workers put in billions of unpaid hours amounting to tens of billions in wage theft. The problem pervades throughout the world, in every sector of every country, though it is often worse in low and middle-income countries. But what if wage theft, rather than being a modern bug, is a feature of capitalism itself?

In this original conceptual and empirical work, political economist Matthew Cole uncovers the long history of wage theft, its contemporary machinations and how to overcome it. There are as many ways to steal wages as there are to pay them. But rather than attribute these practices to the actions of a few nefarious employers, Cole shows how wage theft is baked into the very working of the economy. But it doesn't have to be this way. The modern economy has a history, and we can change it. Unpaid explains why wage theft occurs, how employers get away with it, and what we can do to fight back.

Axel Kaehne - Political and Social Thought in Post-Communist Russia (2007)

This is the first comprehensive study of Russian political and social thought in the post-Communist era. The book portrays and critically examines the conceptual and theoretical attempts by Russian scholars and political thinkers to make sense of the challenges of post-communism and the trials of economic, political and social transformation. It brings together the various strands of political thought that have been formulated in the wake of the collapsed communist doctrine. It engages constructively with the numerous attempts by Russian political theorists and social scientists to articulate a coherent model of liberal democracy in their country. The book investigates critical, as well as favourable voices, in the Russian debate on liberal democracy, a debate often marked by eclecticism and, at times, little conceptual discipline. As such, the book will be of great interest both to Russian specialists, and to all those interested in political and social thought more widely.

Gulnaz Sharafutdinova - Political Consequences of Crony Capitalism inside Russia

This book examines the coexistence of crony capitalism and traditionally democratic institutions such as political competition and elections in Russia after the collapse of communism. The combination, Gulnaz Sharafutdinova argues, has produced a distinct pattern of political evolution in contemporary Russia. Elections are meant to ensure government accountability and allow voters to elect a government responsive to their needs, but in postcommunist Russia the institutional forms of democracy did not result in the expected outcomes. Instead, democratic institutions in the context of crony capitalism in which informal elite groups dominate policy making, and preferential treatment from the state, not market forces, is crucial to amassing and holding wealth were widely devalued and discredited.

As Sharafutdinova demonstrates, especially through her close scrutiny of elections in two regions of Russia, Nizhnii Novgorod and the Republic of Tatarstan, crony capitalism made elections especially intense struggles among the elites. Massive amounts of money flowed into campaigns to promote candidates by discrediting their rivals, money purchased candidates and power, and elites thereby solidified their control. As a result, the majority of citizens perceived elections as the means for the elite to access power and wealth rather than as expressions of public will. Through her detailed case studies and her analyses of contemporary Russia in general, Sharafutdinova argues persuasively that the turn toward authoritarianism associated with Vladimir Putin and supported by a majority of Russian citizens was a negative political response to the interaction of electoral processes and crony capitalism.