The Capitalism Portal

Capitalism is aneconomic system based on the private ownership of themeans of production and their use for the purpose of obtainingprofit. This socioeconomic system has developed historically through several stages and is defined by a number of basic constituent elements:private property,profit motive,capital accumulation,competitive markets,commodification,wage labor, and an emphasis oninnovation andeconomic growth. Capitalist economies tend to experiencebusiness cycles of economic growth followed byrecessions.

Economists, historians, political economists, and sociologists have adopted different perspectives in their analyses of capitalism and have recognized various forms of it in practice. These includelaissez-faire orfree-market capitalism,state capitalism, andwelfare capitalism. Different forms of capitalism feature varying degrees offree markets,public ownership, obstacles to free competition, and state-sanctionedsocial policies. The degree ofcompetition inmarkets and the role ofintervention andregulation, as well as the scope of state ownership, vary across different models of capitalism. The extent to which different markets are free and the rules defining private property are matters of politics and policy. Most of the existing capitalist economies aremixed economies that combine elements of free markets with state intervention and in some caseseconomic planning.

Capitalism in its modern form emerged fromagrarianism in England, as well asmercantilist practices by European countries between the 16th and 18th centuries. TheIndustrial Revolution of the 18th century establishedcapitalism as a dominant mode of production, characterized by factory work, and a complexdivision of labor. Through the process ofglobalization, capitalism spread across the world in the 19th and 20th centuries, especially beforeWorld War I and after the end of theCold War. During the 19th century, capitalism was largely unregulated by the state, but became more regulated in the post–World War II period throughKeynesianism, followed by a return of more unregulated capitalism starting in the 1980s throughneoliberalism. (Full article...)