Editing Capitalism (section)

=== Private property ===
{{Main|Private property}}
The relationship between the [[State (polity)|state]], its formal mechanisms, and capitalist societies has been debated in many fields of social and political theory, with active discussion since the 19th century. [[Hernando de Soto (economist)|Hernando de Soto]] is a contemporary Peruvian economist who has argued that an important characteristic of capitalism is the functioning state protection of property rights in a formal property system where ownership and transactions are clearly recorded.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2001/03/desoto.htm|title=The mystery of capital|author=Hernando de Soto|access-date=26 February 2008|archive-date=8 February 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080208180121/http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2001/03/desoto.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>

According to de Soto, this is the process by which physical assets are transformed into capital, which in turn may be used in many more ways and much more efficiently in the market economy. A number of Marxian economists have argued that the [[inclosure act]]s in England and similar legislation elsewhere were an integral part of capitalist [[primitive accumulation]] and that specific legal frameworks of private land ownership have been integral to the development of capitalism.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch27.htm|title=Capital, v. 1. Part VIII: primitive accumulation|author=Karl Marx|access-date=26 February 2008|archive-date=3 March 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080303162047/http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch27.htm|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |author=N.F.R. Crafts |title=Enclosure and labor supply revisited |journal=Explorations in Economic History |issue=2 |date=April 1978 |pages=172–183 |doi=10.1016/0014-4983(78)90019-0 |volume=15}}</ref>

Private property rights are not absolute, as in many countries the state has the power to seize private property, typically for public use, under the powers of [[eminent domain]].