Книга известных французских ученых посвящена одному из самых загадочных и в то же время самых обыденных экономических феноменов — деньгам. Деньги известны каждому. Но не так легко ответить даже на очень, казалось бы, простой вопрос: что такое деньги. Авторы пытаются это сделать, основываясь на понятиях миметического поведения, доверия и суверенитета. Они показывают ограниченность традиционных представлений о деньгах и теорий, связанных с подобными представлениями, обосновывают необходимость совершенно нового подхода, далеко выходящего за рамки собственно экономической науки. Обращаясь истокам денег, авторы переосмысливают их эволюцию. Они также предлагают оригинальный взгляд на современную денежную систему, денежную политику, нетрадиционное понимание сути финансовых и банковских кризисов. Книга завершается рассмотрением самых современных платежных систем, особенностей ситуации, связанной с введением евро и оценкой перспектив международной валютно-финансовой системы. Для экономистов, социологов, философов, студентов, аспирантов и преподавателей вузов, а также для всех интересующихся темой денег.

This collection provides exceptional descriptive and analytical insights into changes in corporate governance settings in ten Eastern and Western European countries. It demonstrates that there exist different varieties of capitalisms and paths to transformation of economic institutions. In addition, it offers detailed discussions about national cases as well as the overall European Union effects. This book should be of great interest to scholars and students of comparative national systems, corporate governance and European studies.

Книга продолжает серию публикаций работ иностранных и российских исследователей, посвященных гуманитарным проблемам экономической науки. Автор анализирует две модели капитализма - англо - американскую и `рейнскую` и приходит к выводу о превосходстве `рейнской` модели в силу ее большей экономической и социальной эффективности. Однако, как в соответствии с законом Грэшема `плохие деньги вытесняют хорошие`, так и англо - американская модель вытесняет `рейнскую`. Книга будет полезна всем, кто интересуется сравнением экономических систем, особенно тем, кто размышляет о будущем России и о направленности осуществляемых экономических реформ.

Financial systems are crucial to the allocation of resources in a modern economy. They channel household savings to the corporate sector and allocate investment funds among firms; they allow intertemporal smoothing of consumption by households and expenditures by firms; and they enable households and firms to share risks. These functions are common to the financial systems of most developed economies. Yet the form of these financial systems varies widely. In the United States and the United Kingdom competitive markets dominate the financial landscape, whereas in France, Germany, and Japan banks have traditionally played the most important role. Why do different countries have such different financial systems? Is one system better than all the others? Do different systems merely represent alternative ways of satisfying similar needs? Is the current trend toward market-based systems desirable? Franklin Allen and Douglas Gale argue that the view that market-based systems are best is simplistic. A more nuanced approach is necessary. For example, financial markets may be bad for risk sharing; competition in banking may be inefficient; financial crises can be good as well as bad; and separation of ownership and control can be optimal. Financial institutions are not simply veils, disguising the allocation mechanism without affecting it, but are crucial to overcoming market imperfections. An optimal financial system relies on both financial markets and financial intermediaries.

How do the environments, in which businesses operate, condition their success or failure? Such questions have long been of interest in the fields of business, economics and politics. They have gained in importance as a result of heightened competitive pressures associated with 'globalization'. Whilst some see certain institutions as burdens, others see them as a blessing. This book thoroughly examines the main claims of the most important contribution - the Varieties of Capitalism paradigm - to this debate in recent years.

This book considers why institutional forms of modern capitalist economies differ internationally, and proposes a typology of capitalism based on the theory of institutional complementarity. Different economic models are not simply characterized by different institutional forms, but also by particular patterns of interaction between complementary institutions which are the core characteristics of these models. Institutions are not just simply devices which would be chosen by 'social engineers' in order to perform a function as efficiently as possible; they are the outcome of a political economy process. Therefore, institutional change should be envisaged not as a move towards a hypothetical 'one best way', but as a result of socio-political compromises. Based on a theory of institutions and comparative capitalism, the book proposes an analysis of the diversity of modern economies - from America to Korea - and identifies five different models: the market-based Anglo-Saxon model; Asian capitalism; the Continental European model; the social democratic economies; and the Mediterranean model. Each of these types of capitalism is characterized by specific institutional complementarities. The question of the stability of the Continental European model of capitalism has been open since the beginning of the 1990s: inferior macroeconomic performance compared to Anglo-Saxon economies, alleged unsustainability of its welfare systems, too rigid markets, etc. The book examines the institutional transformations that have taken place within Continental European economies and analyses the political project behind the attempts at transforming the Continental model. It argues that Continental European economies will most likely stay very different from the market-based economies, and caat political strategies promoting institutional change aiming at convergence with the Anglo-Saxon model are bound to meet considerable opposition.

This book uses comparative institutional analysis to explain differences in national economic performance. Countries have their own rules for corporate governance and they have different market arrangements; and these differences in rules and organization affect the way firms behave. Countries also tend to develop conventions of organizational architechture of firms, whether their hierarchies are functional, horizontal, or decentralized. This affects the way in which they process information, and information management is increasingly seen as being of crucial importance to a firm's performance. Aoki accords more importance to these factors than to the factors conventionally used in applying a neoclassical model of economic efficiency. He applies game theory, contract theory, and information theory. By describing the rules and norms in Japan, the USA, and the transitional economies, Aoki shows how firms can achieve competitive advantage in international markets if these conventions and rules are well suited to the industrial sector in which the firms operate. He is particularly concerned with how Japan, with its main bank and lifelong employment systems, as well as information-sharing firm organizational structure, might reform its institutions to maintain competitive advantage in the world economy.

The Long Twentieth Century traces the epochal shifts in the relationship between capital accumulation and state formation over a 700-year period. Giovanni Arrighi masterfully synthesizes social theory, comparative history and historical narrative in this account of the structures and agencies which have shaped the course of world history over the millennium. Borrowing from Braudel, Arrighi argues that the history of capitalism has unfolded as a succession of “long centuries” — ages during which a hegemonic power deploying a novel combination of economic and political networks secured control over an expanding world-economic space. The modest beginnings, rise and violent unravel-ing of the links forged between capital, state power, and geopolitics by hegemonic classes and states are explored with dramatic intensity. From this perspective, Arrighi explains the changing fortunes of Florentine, Venetian, Genoese, Dutch, English, and finally American capitalism. The book concludes with an examination of the forces which have shaped and are now poised to undermine America's world power.

Книга видного британского социолога посвящена новому состоянию общественной жизни, которое представляет собой исторический итог модернизации и дерегулирования социально-экономических и политических отношений. Это общество, определяемое автором как индивидуализированное, отличают усиление роли неконтролируемых человеком сил и тенденций, нарастание неуверенности и неопределенности, подавление тех проявлений человеческого духа, которые в прошлом вдохновляли людей к социальным преобразованиям. Благодаря глубокому пониманию реалий эпохи и незаурядному литературному дару автора книга вызвала широкий общественный резонанс и увидела свет в переводе на многие языки. Для социологов, философов, историков, психологов и представителей других социально-гуманитарных наук. Представляет интерес для широкого круга читателей.

In this important book, Ulrich Beck - one of the leading social thinkers in Europe today - examines how work has become unstable in the modern world and presents a new vision for the future. Beck begins by describing how the traditional work society, with its life-long job paths, is giving way to a much less stable world in which skills can be suddenly devalued, jobs obliterated, welfare cover reduced or eliminated. The West would appear to be heading towards a social structure of ambiguity and multiple activity that has hitherto been more characteristic of the developing world. But what appears to be the end of traditional working practices can also be seen as an opportunity to develop new ideas and models for work in the twenty-first century.Beck's alternative vision is centred on the concept of active citizens democratically organized in local, and increasingly also regional or transnational, networks. Against the threat of social exclusion, everyone can and must have a right to be included in a new definition and distribution of work. This will involve constant movement between formal employment (with a major reduction in working hours) and forms of self-organized artistic, cultural and political 'civil labour', providing equal access to comprehensive social protection. The aim must be to turn insecurity around, so that it becomes a positive and enriching discontinuity of life.Drawing on his earlier work on risk and reflexive modernization, The Brave New World of Work is also closely linked to his studies on globalization and individualization. These processes are part of the same challenge upon which a politics of modernity must now base itself. Not only the future of work, but also the very survival of democracy and the welfare state will depend on the development of a newly committed and 'multi-active' transnational citizenship.This book will be of great interest to second- and third-year students in sociology, politics, geography and the social sciences generally. It will also appeal to a broader audience interested in the issues and debates surrounding the changing nature of work.

Книга одного из ведущих исследователей модерна профессора социологии Мюнхенского университета Ульриха Бека (посвящена критическому рассмотрению нынешнего состояния индустриальной цивилизации и тех безрадостных перспектив, которые ожидают человечество на пороге очередного цивилизационного слома. `Общество риска` — книга-предостережение, соединяющая в себе точность диагноза с пониманием неотвратимости происходящего. Ее главная мысль: модернизация размывает контуры индустриального общества, в недрахкоторого рождается другая модель современного мира, названная исследователем `обществом риска`.

Книга известного немецкого социолога, профессора Мюнхенского университета Ульриха Бека посвящена проблеме глобализации. Автор пытается ответить на двойной вопрос: что имеется в виду под глобализацией и где искать политическое решение проблемы.

East Asia's dynamic entrance into the global economy has provided a fruitful avenue for research in economic sociology. In this perceptive and timely volume, the authors theorize Asian capitalism and analyze the economic organization of East Asia. Presenting differing dimensions of a Weberian perspective, the authors first provide a theoretical grounding, then consider capitalism in East Asia comparatively, and finally contrast the economies of East Asia and Europe. The book shows how radically different social and cultural institutions can lead to economies that are organized in remarkably similar ways.

В "Апологии …" французский историк Марк Блок обосновывает как "легитимность" своего ремесла, право историка, в частности и моральное, заниматься тем, чем он занимается, так и "полезность" профессии историка в системе общественного разделения труда. Но сколь бы ни был высок социальный статус историка, позволяющий ему претендовать на особую внутреннюю автономию, в своих исследованиях прошлого он не вправе отстраняться от проблем современной действительности. Предметом исторического исследования согласно концепции автора является человек во времени. Автор исходит их позиции о том, что сознание человека не является единым на протяжении времени, а изменяется под воздействием тех или иных факторов и историку необходимо эту разницу учитывать. Блок убежден: знание прошлого должно помогать человеку "жить лучше".

Книга известного французского исследователя представляет концептуальный взгляд на исторические процессы, эволюцию сословий, анализ развития и структуры отношений собственности, истории права, актуальные для современного понимания общества в его развитии. До настоящего времени российскому читателю эта фундаментальная работа (в 2-х томах) была знакома в основном по множественным ссылкам из других исторических работ. Первая полная публикация на русском языке восполняет этот пробел.