Capitalism on Edge investigates the most pressing socioeconomic and ecological challenges facing the United States and Europe in a period that a growing number of left-leaning political theorists view as mired in economic and political crisis. Albena Azmanova challenges the prevailing assessment on the Left that capitalism is no longer secure and is facing collapse. Pointing particularly to the rejuvenation of the world economy in the wake of the 2008 Great Recession, Azmanova contends “that capitalism as an engine of prosperity is doing well” (p. 2).
Azmanova views “precarity capitalism” as the latest variant of capitalism, one that produces economic insecurity and ecological disaster. Although she argues that the capitalist system is healthy overall, precarity capitalism, which emerged in the 2010s, has nevertheless replaced “neoliberal capitalism” and produced attendant joblessness and economic insecurity. Even as capitalism prospers, therefore, Azmanova takes solace in the rise of protests critical of it in the last decade (p. 190). In contrast to left, right, and centrist prescriptions, however, Azmanova suggests that such radical protests point to a new form of capitalism that is not fully defined yet, aside from overcoming “precarious capitalism” through protest politics.
In Azmanova’s construct, the emergence of precarious capitalism actually reveals the resilience of the capitalist system that, simultaneously, casts a majority of Americans and Europeans into economic instability. But precarious capitalism does not produce a systemic capitalist crisis. Despite popular dissatisfaction with capitalism’s failure to provide universal prosperity, Western economies are supported by all constituencies. Counter-hegemonic movements are therefore not against capitalism, but are instead seeking economic prosperity within the system, revealing the capitalist system’s vibrancy. The challenge then, is to address popular discontent against precarity capitalism that has produced what Azmanova designates “a crisis of the crisis of capitalism,” defined as an economic system that is trapped in unending crisis management. Azmanova argues that this “chronic inflammation” contributes to the potential emancipation and “radical overcoming” of precarious capitalism (pp. 2, 15, 152, 190). Today’s political movements are far less threatening to the system, she maintains: “Over the past hundred years, the energies of protest have been gradually deflating from revolution to reform, resistance, and now resilience” (p. 20). Yet, she goes on to argue that, in the last decade, protests to reclaim economic, political, cultural, and employment security are growing (p. 69).
Azmanova contends that the major challenges to society are “poverty, inequality, crime, and environmental degradation” (p. 48). The major shortcoming under precarity is its failure to produce abundant jobs. Capitalism on Edge points to the rise of protests for economic and physical security as of signal importance. Yet even protests on the Left demonstrate support for capitalism, she argues. Azmanova notes the Spanish Indignados proclamation: “We are for the system: the system is against us” (p. 21). But these movements on the Left are juxtaposed against the rise of right-wing electoral mobilization, including Brexit and Donald Trump’s election as president of the United States, as signs of antiestablishment protests—whether of the Right, Left, or center.
What is Azmanova’s solution to the discontent manifested in protests against precarity capitalism? The “millennial generation” or the “new generation” has embraced a vague democratic socialism and will augur in the transformation. In the United States, these are the same currents that elected “a maverick presidential candidate” willing to challenge existing technocratic policies. Azmanova pointedly asserts, “Trump’s presidency signals that the technocratic politics of no alternatives (the TINA policy logic) that had paralyzed Western democracies for the previous three decades is over” (p. 198).
Azmanova correctly observes that the response to precarity capitalism has run the gamut from leftist opposition to capitalism to far-right demands against migration and that its shortcomings can be addressed by social reform and redistribution aimed at reducing economic uncertainty for the majority through “stabilizing production, employment, and income” (p. 193) and building a more humane capitalism. However, for Azmanova, saving capitalism will occur through “overcoming” it via social reform and poverty reduction, rather than through ending inequality. She concludes that capitalist inequality is, in fact, supported by popular majorities (pp. 172, 178, 193–94). Yet statistical evidence over the past 50 years consistently demonstrates that inequality, not poverty, is expanding significantly in the West.
The book’s conclusion points to her remedy: Azmanova sees social protests and radical electoral politics as the path to overcoming precarity capitalism. Pointing to Occupy, Indignados, and other social protest movements as crucial sources for change, she suggests that the solution to the problem seems to have come with the rise of right-wing working-class protest.
The parties of the Left have disappeared, and examples of new parties, such as the Democratic Socialists of America, led by the educated white middle class, seem incapable of building an institutional solution to the crisis. The solution, one might argue, would seem be to return to the legacy of postwar socialism in Europe and learn from its mistakes. However, Azmanova does not examine the possibilities of the state ending poverty, redistributing income, and appealing to class solidarity. Instead, she rejects all socialist models as replacements for the increasingly authoritarian contemporary capitalist model, even if they provide insight into an institutional system that guarantees basic protections.
Azmanova intentionally rejects critiques foregrounding the danger of populism, stating, “I have proposed that we abstain from using the term ‘populism’ altogether” (p. 9). However, the rise of populism evokes the threat of fascism, defeated 75 years ago, and replaced by nominally communist systems. By deflecting an analytic understanding of populism and, by extension, fascism, Azmanova loses sight of a familiar history. The communist and Eastern Bloc governments that Azmanova vilifies with rhetorical flourish throughout the book were established by partisan socialists who defeated fascists in Europe. The rise in populism and appeals to nationalism today are deliberately left unexamined. As such, Capitalism on Edge does not consider the rise or resurgence of racism, white supremacy, and xenophobia. Although Azmanova correctly identifies the proliferation of protest politics, in the absence of an elaboration of potential institutional solutions, she leaves the potential dangers of populism unexplored.
Finally, Capitalism on Edge unfortunately adopts and applies a Eurocentric perspective that ignores the world outside the West. Azmanova disregards the fact that overcoming precarious capitalism may simultaneously require even further subjugation and exploitation of the Global South, where the majority of people live in even greater precarity and instability. Overcoming capitalism through reform may require further pillage of the 85% of the world beyond the United States and Europe. That would be a tragedy.
