Against Capitalism by David SchweickartReview by: Francis FukuyamaForeign Affairs, Vol. 75, No. 6 (Nov. - Dec., 1996), p. 145Published by: Council on Foreign RelationsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20047837 .

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Recent Books

Against Capitalism, by david

schweickart. Boulder: Westview,

1996,387 pp. $24.95 (paper). Unlike many critics of capitalism, Schweickart has done his homework,

taking seriously the arguments of con

temporary neoclassical economics and

its philosophical defenders and carefully critiquing them. He argues that the

marginalism underlying Alfred Mar

shall's theory of value tends to overstate

the social contribution made by owners

of capital, whose sacrifice in terms of

deferred consumption is not comparable to the sacrifice of those who contribute

their labor. His proposed "economic

democracy" alternative is a variant of

Yugoslav worker management, with

state ownership of productive assets and

allocation of new investment resources

by various quasi-public bodies. Despite his efforts to anticipate neoclassical

arguments in advance, he does not

ultimately have adequate answers to

two central questions: first, how worker

management-cum-public-sector finance will avoid serious allocational

inefficiencies, and second, how adequate investment and entrepreneurship will

emerge in the absence of clearly defined

property rights. While he can point to

relatively successful economies that de

part from neoclassical norms, it is not

clear that his will be one of them.

Angeles. The target, however, proves

elusive, as every national, ethnic, or reli

gious hatred sooner or later elides into

some form of sexual oppression. Just as

Lenin was surprised that nation trumped class in 1914, so Eisenstein is dismayed that ethnicity trumps gender today.

While the author would like to see this

priority reversed through global femi nist solidarity, Im not sure she will be

any more successful than socialists of

the Second International. There is a

deep contradiction at the heart of her

agenda: favoring multiculturalist iden

tity politics over what she regards as the

fraudulent universalistic and egalitarian

aspirations of American democracy, she ultimately ends up encouraging

precisely the kind of self-regarding communalism that is the source of

contemporary group hatred.

The News Media, Civil War, and Humanitarian Action, by larry

MINEAR, COLIN SCOTT, AND

thomas G. weiss. Boulder:

Lynne Rienner, 1996,123 pp.

$25.00 (paper, 10.95). This book breaks little new ground in

surveying the interlocking roles of the

media, governments, and nongovern mental organizations in responding to

humanitarian crises. In some cases the

media leads the other institutions; in

others, it distorts priorities and messages. From case studies briefly covering Iberia, northern Iraq, Somalia, the former Yu

goslavia, Haiti, and Rwanda, the authors

conclude that the three need to work to

gether more closely. Much more useful, at this point in the discussion, would

have been a study of cases like Sudan,

Angola, and Afghanistan that received

Hatreds: Racialized and Sexualized

Conflicts in the 21st Century, by

zillah Eisenstein. NewYork:

Roudedge, 1996, 223 pp. $62.95

(paper, $17.95). This book begins with a diatribe against contemporary hatreds, from Bosnia and

Rwanda to Oklahoma City and Los

FOREIGN ?FF AIRS-November/December 1996 [145]

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