Lars P. Syll — Understanding capitalism

Each year, about a million college students take introductory economics courses; their textbooks are selected from among some two dozen on the market. But this apparent magnitude of choices, Roosevelt says, belies the sameness in their explanation of economics. “Class,” for example, is not an independent entry in the index of the most popular traditional textbook. “In our book,” says Roosevelt, “class is not only in the index, but it has more references to it than almost any other word. 

”There are power groups, power interests, and much of the world is made up of power relationships. Class is about power relations. We think introductory courses should educate people about the economic system in which we live. This concept is central to this book, and that’s what makes it different.”

Putting sociology into economics.

Lars P. Syll’s Blog
Understanding capitalism
Lars P. Syll | Professor, Malmo University

See also Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis, Democracy and Capitalism: Property, Community and the Contradictions of Modern Social Thought (Routledge, 1987) and Arthur MacEwan, Neo-Liberalism or Democracy?: Economic Strategy, Markets, and Alternatives for the 21st Century (ZED, 2000).