Late Capitalism - Critiques

Critiques

• The theme of "the end of history" was developed by the German philosopher Hegel, and was rekindled in the 20th Century by Kojève in his Introduction to the Reading of Hegel. The "end of history" is discussed by Francis Fukuyama in his book of the same name which argues that history has "ended" (in the Hegelian sense) because there is no serious or viable competition to liberal democracy as a form of government and/or to capitalism as an economic system. Thus, the very concept of "late capitalism" is invalidated as there is no evidence of transformation from, or to, any alternative governmental or economic system. Derrida suggested, however, that the success of Fukuyama's book was precisely because it served to cover up and conceal the contradictions and conflicts continuing to pervade late postmodern capitalism. Fukayama was also criticised by Frank Furedi.

• A related term is late bourgeois society as contrasted with early bourgeois society in the 17th and 18th century, and classical bourgeois society in the 19th and early 20th century.

• Marxist-Leninists prefer the concept of state monopoly capitalism, and reject any periodisation of capitalism in terms of "early" and "late" stages as unscientific.