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Capitalism, the State, and the Underlying Drivers of Human Development |
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Michael Walton |
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What are the underlying drivers of human development? This essay argues that long-term human development, in incomes, social conditions, security and so on, is fundamentally driven by capitalist dynamics and State functioning. The big issue is not the State versus the market, or growth versus equity, or dynamism versus security. It is the jointly determined functioning of both capitalism and the State. It is, in particular, a consequence of the extent to which both capitalist and State behaviour is oligarchic, extractive, exploitative and divisive as opposed to being inclusive, innovative, accountable, responsive and effective at mediating distributional conflict. This can be conceptualized, at a point of time, in terms of the nature of the political equilibrium, or in the way in which social contracts work. This is a product of the historically shaped interaction between political and economic elites, and between these and various social groups. Specific policy designs matter, whether in terms of market-related policy, regulation, or designs for social provisioning. But the ways in which policy and institutional choices work, and indeed the choices that societies make, are intimately linked to the nature and functioning of the underlying social contracts, that, in turn, shape capitalist dynamics and State behaviour. |
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