Capitalism at a Crossroads: Unfulfilled Expectations and Future Challenges

Capitalism is and has been the dominant economic system in the world during the last 50 years (Meltzer, 2012). Its appeal and promise of a better life eventually led to the collapse of the planned (command) economic system that had existed for about 40 years in Eastern European countries and the U.S.S.R. until the late 1980s and early 1990s. The collapse of the command economic system was heralded in the West as a victory for free market ideology over state authoritarianism and other forms of economic system. However, the antecedents and consequences of the recent Great Recession and financial crisis have resulted in a call for a rethinking of economics and of the way firms and their managers operate in free markets (Ahmad, 2011; Bootle, 2009; Kalatsky, 2010; Krugman, 2009; Stiglitz, 2010; Vidal, 2009; Wolff, 2010). While capitalism has always had many advocates (Cosh, 2007; Friedman, 1982; Hayek, 1948; 1988; Last, 2006; Levin, 2010; Meltzer, 2012; Simon, 2002; Tracinski, 2002), more and more people have begun to express the view that there is a need for a better system (Ababas, 2009; Dugger, 2010; ISEC, 2013), one which allows for the pursuit and existence of other equally important values (such as inner harmony, self-respect, security, and meaningful social relationships) besides wealth accumulation (Abel, 2010; Ahmad, 2011; Crittenden, 2000; Vidal, 2009), and in which there is a greater balance between firms’ and society’s interests.