Characterizing the organizational dynamics of financial capitalism

Abstract

Based on tectological system analysis developed by Alexander Bogdanov (1873– 1928), the article traces the evolution of financial capitalism in the XIXth and early XXth centuries. The author examines the making of «plutocracy» as a group that speculates on virtual symbolic values at the expense of the production of life-sustaining necessities, and characterizes the connection of «plutocracy» with militarism and the distribution of goods typical for «war communism». An alternative to this, as Bogdanov believed, is a «collectivism» based on a planned economy. The article ends with a complex description of the main reasons for the incompatibility of «plutocracy» and «collectivism».