Elite philanthropy in global capitalism: Accumulation to authoritarianism

This article, and the special section it introduces, argues that elite philanthropy is integral to the machinations of global capitalism through its interventions across three key phases in the cyclical maintenance of the capitalist system. First, philanthropy enables capital accumulation both by creating new markets, and by consolidating elite class interests through the intergenerational transfer of wealth and philanthropic legacy. Second, it frames organic crises wrought by capital accumulation as problems amenable to technocratic solutions, diverting attention away from their root causes in exploitative accumulation itself, and defending capitalism. Third, it engineers ‘philanthropic fixes’ to crises that offer temporary ‘fixes’, while creating future assets and markets for capital accumulation, thus perpetuating the cycle. In the rise of contemporary authoritarianism across the globe, we begin to see elite philanthropy supporting capitalism’s cyclical maintenance in new ways. Philanthropy’s influence ultimately lies, we conclude, in its unique ability for ‘scale-making’; as it increasingly works on—as against the commonly thought of, with—the state to secure elites’ class interests.