Zero Sum Political Economy
Description
This book offers an alternative narrative of the global history of political economy. From ancient civilizations to modern times, zero-sum logic has been a fundamental, yet often ignored, driving force behind political and economic systems worldwide. The authors reveal the contradictions within various ideologies -particularly liberalism and neoliberalism- that claim win-win scenarios while in fact relying on zero-sum principles.
By examining systems from mercantilism to digital economies, the book shows how zero-sum logic underpins diverse economic and political doctrines, including authoritarianism, democracy, and policies like austerity. It combines economic history, political philosophy, historical sociology, and geopolitics in an interdisciplinary approach and comprehensive analysis. The book uncovers how zero-sum logic has historically informed both ideology and practice, challenging prevailing narratives and highlighting the paradoxes within our global economic system.
The book will appeal to students, scholars, and researchers from these disciplines, interested in a better understanding of the economic dynamics that shape our world, and the need for a new, cooperative approach to global political economy.
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Persons
Dr. Alex M. Feldman is an economic historian and professor at CIS-Endicott International University of Madrid, Spain. He is the author of "Mercantilist Thought in Byzantium," Journal of Archæological Numismatics 12 (2022-2023), 239-256; Orthodox Mercantilism: Political Economy in the Byzantine Commonwealth (Abingdon-on-Thames: Routledge, 2024); The Monotheisation of Pontic-Caspian Eurasia, 8-13th Centuries (Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP, 2022); "He Who Has the Gold Makes the Rules. A Millennium of Ecumenical Empires & Separatist Merchant-States," in New Studies in Education, Art & Business for a Diverse Society, ed. F. Ubierna (Madrid: Fragua, 2022), 65-84; "Zero-sum Thinking; Mercantilist Thought between West and East," Mnemosyne: The Warburg Institute Online (2021).
Dr. Yannis Stamos is an intellectual historian and Early Career Fellow at the Center for Hellenic Studies, Harvard University. He is the author of The Ideology of the New State in Greece (1936-1941): The Metaxist Synthesis (Abingdon-on-Thames: Routledge, forthcoming); "Deutsche Ideologie ins Griechische übersetzt: Sitsa Karaiskaki und der Nationalsozialismus", in Online-Compendium der deutsch-griechischen Verflechtungen , 2022; "What's in a Name? The Third Hellenic Civilisation," Fascism: Journal of Comparative Fascist Studies 11:2 (2022), 260-290; "Culture and pro-Axis propaganda on Athens Radio Station, 1941-44", Journal of Greek Media & Culture 10:2 (2024), 143-164.
Content
Part 1: The Ancien Regime: The World until 1776.- Chapter 1. Prologue: The Endless Finitude of the Household Regime.- Chapter 2. Law and Wealth.- Chapter 3. Feudalism and Mercantilism.- Part 2: "You know why they call it the 'American Dream'...?" (1776-1929).- Chapter 4. The Birth of Liberal Economic Expansion.- Chapter 5. The First Failure of Liberalism.- Part 3: "...Because you have to be asleep to believe it." (1929-2008).- Chapter 6. Nationalism, Socialism and Zero-sum Thinking.- Chapter 7. Neoliberalism .- Part 4: Refeudalization: The World since 2008.- Chapter 8. The NeoFailure of NeoLiberalism.- Chapter 9. Unipolarity, Multipolarity and Zero-sum thinking.- Chapter 10. Epilogue: History Instructs.