Economic Elites, Crises, and Democracy : Alternatives Beyond Neoliberal Capitalism

Andrés Solimano examines the growing divide between rich elites and everyone else, the fragmentation of the middle class under global capitalism, the economy's tendencies to experience frequent financial crises, the limits of austerity policies, and the internationalization of elites, migrant diaspora, and social movements.

Economic Elites, Crises, and Democracy analyzes critical topics of contemporaneous capitalism. Andrés Solimano, President of the International Center for Globalization and Development, focuses on economic elites and the super rich, the nature of entrepreneurship, the rise of corporate´ s technostructure, the internal fragmentation of the middle class, and the marginalization of the working poor. While examining historical episodes of economic and financial crises from the 19th century to the present, he reviews a variety of related economic theories and policies, including austerity, which have been enacted in attempts to overcome these crises. Solimano also examines patterns of international mobility of capital and knowledge elites along with the rise of global social movements and migration diasporas. The book ends with an analysis of the concept, modalities, and potential areas of the application of economic democracy to reform 21st century global capitalism.