Late capitalism

Late capitalism (or late-stage capitalism) is a concept in political economy, political science and sociology. It is used by social critics to describe the current or contemporary phase of capitalist civilization. The idea was first used by the German economist and sociologist Werner Sombart (1863-1941) to name the new social order which emerged in the aftermath of World War I. However, beyond some brief comments and outlines, Sombart never provided a systematic or comprehensive theory of late capitalism.

From the 1930s to the 1970s, the idea of "late capitalism" was used by European socialists as a label for a new form of state-regulated capitalism, with a meaning similar (but not identical) to the Marxist-Leninist theory of state monopoly capitalism. Gradually, terms like "neo-capitalism" and "late capitalism" were accepted by many Western Marxists and members of the Frankfurt School to describe the post-World War II social order. The Belgian economist and philosopher Ernest Mandel provided a comprehensive Marxist analysis in his 1972 book Late Capitalism and other writings, without however referring explicitly to Sombart's ideas. In Mandel's vision, late capitalism is the epoch of the bourgeois world society that unexpectedly arose out of World War 2, as a new phase in the global history of capitalist imperialism.

In the 21st century era of the global Internet, mobile telephones and artificial intelligence, the idea of "late capitalism" is again used in left-wing political discussions about the decadence, degeneration, absurdities and ironies of contemporary business culture, often with the suggestion that capitalism is now getting near the end of its existence (or is already being transformed into a post-capitalism of some sort).