The Future of Capitalism: A Critical Reflection on Capitalism Based on the Works of Bernard Maris and Wolfgang Streeck

Abstract

The economic and political crises of the last decades, together with the recent health crisis caused by the corona virus (COVID-19), have raised a deep debate about the future of democratic institutions, on the one hand, and the current way of capitalist accumulation and its social relations of production, on the other. This article intends to contribute to the contemporary debate on the subject by reflecting on the discussion about the future of capitalism. The discussion developed in this essay is based on the works of the French economist Bernard Maris and the German sociologist Wolfgang Streeck. The two authors have different views about the mode of capitalist accumulation and, not least, they present important contributions to the contemporary discussion about the future or the end of capitalism. Therefore, critical reflection on the works of these two authors will contribute to the current debate on the future of capitalism. The essay is divided into three parts: in the first part, we present the ideas of Bernard Maris about the future of capitalism; in the second part, we discuss the crisis of neoliberal capitalism based on Wolfgang Streeck's reflection. Finally, in the third part, we make some critical remarks about the COVID-19 pandemic based on the ideas of the two authors.