Plasticity Into Power: Comparative-Historical Studies on the Institutional Conditions of Economic and Military Success (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781844675166)

Plasticity into Power works out, through historical examples, a major theme of Unger's work--the relation between institutional and organizational flexibility and the development of our collective ability to produce or to destroy. The message of the book is that the practical success of a society depends on its capacity for permanent innovation. Certain practices and institutions--the history and content of which Unger explores--can nurture this capacity.

Unger pursues this topic through wide-ranging historical inquiries into the European escape from the recurring crises that foreclosed political and economic breakthroughs in the great empires of the past; the invention of revolutionary approaches to the governmental protection of wealth; and the social conditions of military success, viewed as sources of insight into the social foundations of economic growth. Throughout, Plasticity into Power exemplifies a conception of the relation between theory and history that remains faithful to the surprising, open-ended quality of lived experience.

Author: Roberto Mangabeira Unger
ISBN-10: 1844675165
ISBN-13: 9781844675166
Publisher: Verso
Language: English
Published: 11/17/2004
Pages: 231
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.74lbs
Size: 8.70h x 5.36w x 0.59d