March 23rd - What is capitalism?

After thinking about culture, socialisation and hegemony I need to get on with looking at the economic, social and political system which is increasingly controlling and driving our world.  
'Capitalism' is a word which dominates the intellectual debate, although it's perhaps significant that it doesn't much appear in the media. Capitalism is gradually spreading industrial development throughout the world changing many diverse cultures with the promise not only of the basics of life but with the goodies of Western materialism.    Some claim capitalism will bring the Earth’s starving millions out of poverty while others see it as the root of our 21^st century problems.    I’ve tried to understand exactly what capitalism involves …
Tim Jackson[1] 

‘For the past several hundred years much of the ‘developed’ world has operated under a system of capitalism which has been so successful it has spread from its roots in Europe to the US and is now reaching into all corners of the globe.’

As David Harvey[2] put it:

“Capital is the lifeblood that flows through the body politic of all societies we call capitalist spreading out sometimes as a trickle and other times as a flood into every nook and cranny of the inhabited world.” 

I've gathered that the nub of capitalist economies is that they are those where the ownership and control of the means of production lie in private hands, rather than with the state but I will need to get some idea of the different way capitalism operates in different countries.   
But before that: Just what do capitalists do that has made them so successful that capitalism is being adopted worldwide?  I’ll think about that  …