Restructuring in U.S. Manufacturing: The Decline of Monopoly Capitalism

Abstract

We outline a framework grounded in Marxist political economy for investigating structural change in particular industries as well as the larger economy. Our approach focuses upon processes of capital and labor restructuring that lie behind the geographical manifestations of industrial change. An empirical study of capitalist restructuring in 51 U.S. manufacturing sectors from 1958–77 reveals the emergence of a distinctively new variant of capitalism, termed “global capitalism,” and a coincident decline in the monopoly capitalist variant which had previously prevailed. Two statistical analyses identify the existence of restructuring, which is defined as transition between monopoly and global capitalism within a particular sector. The results generated by discriminant analysis, confirmed by a cluster analysis, sustain the hypothesis of structural transition in the U.S. economy. We find that by 1977 sixteen U.S. manufacturing industries had experienced transition to the global variant of capitalism while thirty industries remained unchanged. Many of those recording no change were basic industries in regions experiencing significant economic decline during the 1970s.

Tourism Urbanization

“…Along with 'tourism urbanization', they pinpoint a change in the nature of consumption and this is tied to a new regime (or social structure) of capital accumulation, one associated with a new society, including a new form of urbanization. Terms like 'postfordism', 'flexible accumulation', 'global capitalism' and 'disorganized capitalism' have variously been used to identify this emerging regime or society (see Graham et al, 1988;Harvey, 1987;Lash and Urry, 1987;Lipietz, 1986;Scott, 1988). Dating from about the early 1970s (the end of the post-1940s economic boom), it is based on new systems of production and consumption, with tourism urbanization being part of the latter.…”

“…Even a recent lengthy debate on postmodernism within human geography has failed to resolve the mess, with the debaters continuing to use the term in contradictory ways, including calling it a new epistemology, as well as new social processes (see Graham, 1988;Gregory, 1989;Lovering, 1989). This indiscipline is aggravated by the claim made by some that 'it may be hard to pin postmodernism down precisely, but it is not hard to recognise it when you meet it' (Lovering, 1989: l)!…”

Urban Policy and the Post‐Keynesian State in the United Kingdom and the United States

“…In the 1990s, one might add the collapse of the Soviet bloc and the steady integration of formerly 'socialist' nations into the world economy. This change has been variably labelled an 'accumulation crisis' in the transition from state monopoly to global capitalism (Graham et al, 1988), a 'great U-turn' (Harrison and Bluestone, 1988), or the end of one Kondratieff long wave and the beginning of another (Marshall, 1987).…”

Policy Issues in the Urban South

“…During this period of regional restructuring economic changes were brought about by global shifts in manufacturing. While the North maintained an advanced form of global corporate dominance (Graham, et al, 1988), production processes were selectively moved from high labour cost core areas to low-wage countries with quality labour and good infrastructure (Frobel et al, 1980;O'Loughlin, 1989). This resulted in a new international division of labour, the dispersion of production processes from core areas to what Wallerstein (1974) calls semi-peripheral areas, causing the replication of core labour markets in such peripheral regions (Sassen, 1991).…”