Exploitation, Unequal Exchange and Dependency: a Philosophical Analysis
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Markets Not Capitalism Explores the Gap Between Radically Freed Markets and the Capitalist-Controlled Markets That Prevail Today
individualist anarchism against bosses, inequality, corporate power, and structural poverty Edited by Gary Chartier & Charles W. Johnson Individualist anarchists believe in mutual exchange, not economic privilege. They believe in freed markets, not capitalism. They defend a distinctive response to the challenges of ending global capitalism and achieving social justice: eliminate the political privileges that prop up capitalists. Massive concentrations of wealth, rigid economic hierarchies, and unsustainable modes of production are not the results of the market form, but of markets deformed and rigged by a network of state-secured controls and privileges to the business class. Markets Not Capitalism explores the gap between radically freed markets and the capitalist-controlled markets that prevail today. It explains how liberating market exchange from state capitalist privilege can abolish structural poverty, help working people take control over the conditions of their labor, and redistribute wealth and social power. Featuring discussions of socialism, capitalism, markets, ownership, labor struggle, grassroots privatization, intellectual property, health care, racism, sexism, and environmental issues, this unique collection brings together classic essays by Cleyre, and such contemporary innovators as Kevin Carson and Roderick Long. It introduces an eye-opening approach to radical social thought, rooted equally in libertarian socialism and market anarchism. “We on the left need a good shake to get us thinking, and these arguments for market anarchism do the job in lively and thoughtful fashion.” – Alexander Cockburn, editor and publisher, Counterpunch “Anarchy is not chaos; nor is it violence. This rich and provocative gathering of essays by anarchists past and present imagines society unburdened by state, markets un-warped by capitalism. -
Some Worries About the Coherence of Left-Libertarianism Mathias Risse
John F. Kennedy School of Government Harvard University Faculty Research Working Papers Series Can There be “Libertarianism without Inequality”? Some Worries About the Coherence of Left-Libertarianism Mathias Risse Nov 2003 RWP03-044 The views expressed in the KSG Faculty Research Working Paper Series are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the John F. Kennedy School of Government or Harvard University. All works posted here are owned and copyrighted by the author(s). Papers may be downloaded for personal use only. Can There be “Libertarianism without Inequality”? Some Worries About the Coherence of Left-Libertarianism1 Mathias Risse John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University October 25, 2003 1. Left-libertarianism is not a new star on the sky of political philosophy, but it was through the recent publication of Peter Vallentyne and Hillel Steiner’s anthologies that it became clearly visible as a contemporary movement with distinct historical roots. “Left- libertarian theories of justice,” says Vallentyne, “hold that agents are full self-owners and that natural resources are owned in some egalitarian manner. Unlike most versions of egalitarianism, left-libertarianism endorses full self-ownership, and thus places specific limits on what others may do to one’s person without one’s permission. Unlike right- libertarianism, it holds that natural resources may be privately appropriated only with the permission of, or with a significant payment to, the members of society. Like right- libertarianism, left-libertarianism holds that the basic rights of individuals are ownership rights. Left-libertarianism is promising because it coherently underwrites both some demands of material equality and some limits on the permissible means of promoting this equality” (Vallentyne and Steiner (2000a), p 1; emphasis added). -
Quong-Left-Libertarianism.Pdf
The Journal of Political Philosophy: Volume 19, Number 1, 2011, pp. 64–89 Symposium: Ownership and Self-ownership Left-Libertarianism: Rawlsian Not Luck Egalitarian Jonathan Quong Politics, University of Manchester HAT should a theory of justice look like? Any successful answer to this Wquestion must find a way of incorporating and reconciling two moral ideas. The first is a particular conception of individual freedom: because we are agents with plans and projects, we should be accorded a sphere of liberty to protect us from being used as mere means for others’ ends. The second moral idea is that of equality: we are moral equals and as such justice requires either that we receive equal shares of something—of whatever it is that should be used as the metric of distributive justice—or else requires that unequal distributions can be justified in a manner that is consistent with the moral equality of persons. These twin ideas—liberty and equality—are things which no sound conception of justice can properly ignore. Thus, like most political philosophers, I take it as given that the correct conception of justice will be some form of liberal egalitarianism. A deep and difficult challenge for all liberal egalitarians is to determine how the twin values of freedom and equality can be reconciled within a single theory of distributive justice. Of the many attempts to achieve this reconciliation, left-libertarianism is one of the most attractive and compelling. By combining the libertarian commitment to full (or nearly full) self-ownership with an egalitarian principle for the ownership of natural resources, left- libertarians offer an account of justice that appears firmly committed both to individual liberty, and to an egalitarian view of how opportunities or advantages must be distributed. -
Sharing Mother Nature's Gifts: a Reply to Quong and Miller
Sharing Mother Nature’s Gifts: A Reply to Quong and Miller Hillel Steiner University of Manchester Note to participants in the Territory and Justice conference, Dublin 2010: This paper is part of a symposium that will shortly be published in the Journal of Political Philosophy. It is Part II of this paper – my reply to David Miller – that is relevant to the concerns of our conference and that should be comprehensible even in the absence of David’s paper. Of course, I’d very much welcome any comments you might have on any part of the paper. Please send them to me at [email protected] . Thanks. Sharing Mother Nature’s Gifts: A Reply to Quong and Miller Hillel Steiner University of Manchester For nearly forty years now, philosophers working on conceptions of distributive justice have been arguing about whether – and if so, how – responsibility-sensitivity can be an integral feature of their accounts. Some, primarily right libertarians, have contended that it can be if, and only if, the sole foundational right ascribed to individuals is one of self-ownership.1 Others, primarily strict egalitarians, have tended to agree with them and have consequently rejected both responsibility-sensitivity and self-ownership on the grounds that the unequal distributions which those features underwrite are patently unjust. Luck egalitarian theories reject both of these positions, though their reasons for doing so vary somewhat from one such theory to another. Left libertarianism is a luck egalitarian theory or, more precisely, a family of luck egalitarian theories. Among their several reasons for rejecting right libertarianism is the fact that it fails the responsibility-sensitivity test. -
Critical Notice of GA Cohen's Self-Ownership, Freedom
View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by University of Missouri: MOspace “Critical Notice of G.A. Cohen’s Self-Ownership, Freedom, and Equality ”, Canadian Journal of Philosophy 28 (1998): 609-626. Peter Vallentyne SELF-OWNERSHIP FOR EGALITARIANS G.A. Cohen’s book brings together and elaborates on articles that he has written on self- ownership, on Marx’s theory of exploitation, and on the future of socialism. Although seven of the eleven chapters have been previously published (1977-1992), this is not merely a collection of articles. There is a superb introduction that gives an overview of how the chapters fit together and of their historical relation to each other. Most chapters have a new introduction and often a postscript or addendum that connect them with other chapters. And the four new chapters (on justice and market transactions, exploitation in Marx, the concept of self-ownership, and the plausibility of the thesis of self-ownership) are important contributions that round out and bring closure to many of the central issues. As always with Cohen, the writing is crystal clear, and full of compelling examples, deep insights, and powerful arguments. Cohen has long been recognized as one of the most important exponents of analytic Marxism. His innovative, rigorous, and exciting interpretations of Marx’s theories of history and of exploitation have had a major impact on Marxist scholarship. Starting in the mid-1970s he has increasingly turned his attention to normative political philosophy. As Cohen describes it, he was awakened from his “dogmatic socialist slumbers” by Nozick’s famous Wilt Chamberlain example in which people starting from a position of equality (or other favored patterned distribution) freely choose to pay to watch Wilt Chamberlain play, and the net result is inequality (or other unfavored pattern). -
This Thesis Has Been Submitted in Fulfilment of the Requirements for a Postgraduate Degree (E.G
This thesis has been submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for a postgraduate degree (e.g. PhD, MPhil, DClinPsychol) at the University of Edinburgh. Please note the following terms and conditions of use: • This work is protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights, which are retained by the thesis author, unless otherwise stated. • A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. • This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author. • The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author. • When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given. A LeftLeft----LibertarianLibertarian Theory of Rights Arabella Millett Fisher PhD University of Edinburgh 2011 Contents Abstract....................................................................................................................... iv Acknowledgements.......................................................................................................v Declaration.................................................................................................................. vi Introduction..................................................................................................................1 Part I: A Libertarian Theory of Justice...................................................................11 -
1 Political Economy of Marriage: Construction of Commodity and Gift
Political Economy of Marriage: Construction of Commodity and Gift within Marriage Practices and Transactions in India Abhilasha Srivastava Introduction Are all aspects of human life commodifiable? Are exchange and its corresponding behaviors limited to the economic realm, or are all objects and relationships subject to the cost-benefit analytic exchange? If so, what are the consequences? Does the impingement of market metaphors imply the destruction of non-market relations, or the shrinking of the realm of customs and moral obligations? Is the world of the gift and its accompanying social relations irrelevant to the capitalist calculation of returns? Or conversely, is the consideration of the commodity form irrelevant for a non-market transaction? This paper explores these questions by analyzing preferences and behaviors around marriage formation in India. The difference between commodity and gift has been established as analogous to the distinction between market and non-market relations in the social sciences (Mauss 1954; Polanyi, et. al., 1957, Gregory 2015). This distinction is linked to the degree of sociability involved in the exchange where commodity-exchange and gift-exchange take the opposite poles of the spectrum (Rus 2008). Commodity has come to stand for rationality, individualism, a strict calculus of material gain and loss, and impersonal relations that disappears after the transaction is over. In contrast, gift stands for power, moral obligations, collective concerns, non-material rewards, and the glue for holding together society through social relations that survive and continue even after the exchange (Lapavistsas 2004, Rus 2008). The metaphor has remained important for economics as a discipline because it challenges and brings attention to the appropriate method of differentiating between market and non-market relations (Lapavistsas 2004). -
The Power of Capital: an Introduction to Class, Domination, and Conflict
The Power of Capital: An Introduction to Class, Domination, and Conflict By Alejandro Reuss An ECI Teaching Module on Social and Environmental Issues in Economics Global Development Policy Center Boston University 53 Bay State Road Boston, MA 02155 bu.edu/gdp Economics in Context Initiative, Global Development Policy Center, Boston University, 2020. Permission is hereby granted for instructors to copy this module for instructional purposes. Suggested citation: Reuss, Alejandro. (2020) “The Power of Capital: An Introduction to Class, Domination, and Conflict.” An ECI Teaching Module on Social and Economic Issues, Economics in Context Initiative, Global Development Policy Center, Boston University, 2020. Students may also download the module directly from: http://www.bu.edu/eci/education-materials/teaching-modules/ Comments and feedback from course use are welcomed: Economics in Context Initiative Global Development Policy Center Boston University 53 Bay State Road Boston, MA 02215 http://www.bu.edu/eci/ Email: [email protected] NOTE – terms denoted in bold face are defined in the KEY TERMS AND CONCEPTS section at the end of the module. 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................... 3 1.1 Economics and Power Relations ........................................................................................... 3 1.2 Outline of the Module .......................................................................................................... -
What Egalitarianism Requires: an Interview with John E. Roemer
Erasmus Journal for Philosophy and Economics, Volume 13, Issue 2, Winter 2020, pp. 127–176. https://doi.org/10.23941/ejpe.v13i2.530 What Egalitarianism Requires: An Interview with John E. Roemer JOHN E. ROEMER (Washington, 1945) is the Elizabeth S. and A. Varick Stout Professor of Political Science and Economics at Yale University, where he has taught since 2000. Before joining Yale, he had taught at the University of California, Davis, since 1974. He is also a Fellow of the Econ- ometric Society, and has been a Fellow of the Guggenheim Foundation, and the Russell Sage Foundation. Roemer completed his undergraduate studies in mathematics at Harvard in 1966, and his graduate studies in economics at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1974. Roemer’s work spans the domains of economics, philosophy, and po- litical science, and, most often, applies the tools of general equilibrium and game theory to problems of political economy and distributive jus- tice—problems often stemming from the discussions among political phi- losophers in the second half of the twentieth century. Roemer is one of the founders of the Anglo-Saxon tradition of analytical Marxism, particu- larly in economics, and a member of the September Group—together with Gerald A. Cohen and Jon Elster, among others—since its beginnings in the early 1980s. Roemer is most known for his pioneering work on various types of exploitation, including capitalist and Marxian exploitation (for example, A General Theory of Exploitation and Class, 1982a), for his ex- tensive writings on Marxian economics and philosophy (for example, An- alytical Foundations of Marxian Economic Theory, 1981, and Free to Lose: An Introduction to Marxist Economic Philosophy, 1988a), for his numerous writings on socialism (for example, A Future for Socialism, 1994b), and for his work on the concept and measurement of equality of opportunity (for example, Equality of Opportunity, 1998a). -
The Role of Production Relations in Marx's Theory of Capitalist Exploitation
The Role of Production Relations in Marx’s Theory of Capitalist Exploitation* Gilbert L. Skillman Department of Economics Wesleyan University Middletown, CT 06459 E-mail: [email protected] ABSTRACT It is well known that Karl Marx explained profit in capitalist economies as arising primarily from the exploitation of productive labor. Less generally understood is Marx’s theory as to the economic logic of capitalist exploitation, in particular the sense in and degree to which the latter depends on direct capitalist control of production, which Marx termed the subsumption of labor under capital. In Volume I of Capital, Marx focuses exclusively on the purchase and consumption of labor power under capitalist production as the basis of capitalist exploitation, on the grounds that the appropriation of surplus value must be explained on the condition that commodities exchange at their respective values. However, this stipulation manifestly does not follow from the arguments Marx presents, and its apparent implications clash with Marx’s own historical account of exploitation via circuits of capital which did not in fact depend on the subsumption of labor under capital. This paper argues that the logic of capitalist exploitation is instead best understood in terms of Marx’s historical-materialist theory of profit, which depicts capitalist production relations as a historically contingent strategic response to evolving conditions of class conflict over the creation and distribution of surplus product. This account, constructed from Marx’s published and unpublished economic writing, establishes a consistent thread of argumentation linking the Grundrisse with the analysis featured in Volume I of Capital a decade later. -
Where the Action Is: on the Site of Distributive Justice
G. A. COHEN Where the Action Is: On the Site of Distributive Justice I In this paper I defend a claim which can be expressed in the words of a now familiar slogan: the personal is political. That slogan, as it stands, is vague, but I shall mean something reasonably precise by it here, to wit, that principles of distributive justice, principles, that is, about the just distribution of benefits and burdens in society, apply, wherever else they do, to people’s legally unconstrained choices. Those principles, so I claim, apply to the choices that people make within the legally coercive structures to which, so everyone would agree, principles of justice (also) apply. In speaking of the choices that people make within coercive structures, I do not include the choice whether or not to comply with the rules of such structures (to which choice, once again, so everyone would agree, principles of justice [also]apply), but the choices left open by those rules because neither enjoined nor forbidden by them. The slogan that I have appropriated here is widely used by feminists.’ More importantly, however, the idea itself, which I have here used the slogan to formulate, and which I have tried to explicate above, is a fem- inist idea. Notice, however, that, in briefly explaining the idea that I shall defend, I have not mentioned relations between men and women in particular, or the issue of sexism. We can distinguish between the sub- stance and the form of the feminist critique of standard ideas about For comments that influenced the final version of this paper, I thank Gerald Barnes, Diemut Bubeck, Joshua Cohen, Margaret Gilbert, Susan Hurley, John McMurtry, Derek Parfit, Thomas Pogge, John Roemer, Amelie Rorty, Hillel Steiner, Andrew WiJ,liams, Erik Wright, and Arnold Zuboff. -
Libertarian Theories of Intergenerational Justice Hillel
Libertarian Theories of Intergenerational Justice Hillel Steiner and Peter Vallentyne in Justice Between Generations, edited by Axel Gosseries and Lukas Meyer (Oxford University Press, 2009), pp. 50-76. We here discuss and assess various libertarian positions on intergenerational justice. We do not attempt to defend libertarianism. Instead, we work out the most plausible version thereof and identify its implications for intergenerational justice. 1. Justice and Libertarianism The term ‘justice’ is commonly used in several different ways. Sometimes it designates the moral permissibility of political structures (such as legal systems). Sometimes it designates moral fairness (as opposed to efficiency or other considerations that are relevant to moral permissibility). Sometimes it designates legitimacy in the sense of it being morally impermissible for others to interfere forcibly with the act or omission (e.g., my failing to go to dinner with my mother may be wrong but nonetheless legitimate). Finally, sometimes it designates what we owe each other in the sense of respecting everyone’s rights. Of course, these notions are closely related. What we owe each other may, but need not, be partly based on issues of fairness. Legitimacy and permissibility of political structures are largely, but perhaps not entirely, determined by what rights of non-interference individuals have. Nonetheless, these are distinct notions and we shall focus only on what we owe each other. Justice as what we owe each other is not concerned with impersonal duties (duties owed to no one, i.e., that do not correspond to anyone’s rights). If there are impersonal duties, then something can be just but nonetheless morally impermissible.