Political Economy of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises

Author: Qiu Haiping
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-12-01
Features: This book attempts to guide its analysis of the development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in developed countries using the methodology of Marxist political economy, aiming to provide a reference for research on SMEs in China. In this book, the author proposes several new perspectives that differ from traditional views:
1. The sustained development of SMEs in developed countries is not an accidental short-term phenomenon but a historically inevitable long-term phenomenon. The view that SMEs are insignificant in monopolistic capitalist economies and will eventually disappear is unrealistic.
2. The long-term development of SMEs has historically transformed the social structure of developed countries, thereby altering the ways and paths through which developed capitalism evolves into new socio-economic systems.
3. The reality of the long-term existence and development of SMEs may challenge Marxist predictions about the future socio-economic organization of humanity. The more plausible socialism of the future is likely to be a socialist system combined with or coexisting with a market economy. This conclusion is grounded on the firm fact that social division of labor will continue to develop rather than be eliminated.