A Critical Marxist Approach to Capital Theory
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Determination of Constant Capital and Variable Capital
CHAPTER 3 THE DETERMINATION OF CONSTANT CAPITAL AND VARIABLE CAPITAL by Fred Moseley 3.1 The determination of constant capital and variable capital in Volume 1 3.1.1 The circulation of capital 3.1.2 Actual quantities of constant capital and variable capital presupposed 3.1.3 Partial explanation of constant capital and variable capital 3.1.4 Theory of surplus-value 3.2 The determination of constant capital and variable capital in Volume 3 3.2.1 Cost price 3.2.2 Price of production 3.2.3 Cost price is the same for both value and price of production 3.2.4 More complete explanation of constant capital and variable capital 3.2.5 More complete explanation of the value of commodities 3.2.6 Value and price of production of “average” commodities 3.2.7 Cost price is the same for agricultural commodities 3.3 Conclusion 3.3.1 Constant capital and variable capital taken as given 3.5.2 Marx’s two aggregate equalities are valid Appendix: Further textual evidence 1 CHAPTER 3 THE DETERMINATION OF CONSTANT CAPITAL AND VARIABLE CAPITAL We have seen in the previous chapter that the general analytical framework of Marx’s theory of surplus-value is the circulation of capital: M - C ... P ... C’ - (M + DM). The circulation of capital begins with M, a definite quantity of money advanced to purchase means of production and labor-power in the first phase of the circulation of capital. This initial money- capital M consists of two components: constant capital and variable capital; i.e. -
Reichman on Linden, 'Western Marxism and the Soviet Union: a Survey of Critial Theories and Debates Since 1917'
H-Russia Reichman on Linden, 'Western Marxism and the Soviet Union: A Survey of Critial Theories and Debates since 1917' Review published on Monday, November 10, 2008 Marcel van der Linden. Western Marxism and the Soviet Union: A Survey of Critial Theories and Debates since 1917. Leiden: Brill, 2007. ix + 380 pp. $139.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-90-04-15875-7. Reviewed by Henry Reichman Published on H-Russia (November, 2008) Commissioned by Nellie H. Ohr A Fading Tradition This is a revised, corrected, updated, and expanded version of a work that began as a PhD dissertation and was originally published in Dutch in 1989 and again in German in 1992. Marcel van der Linden, a labor historian at Amsterdam University and executive editor of theInternational Review of Social History, summarizes an extraordinarily broad range of Western Marxist thinkers in an effort to understand how Marxists who were politically independent of the Soviet Union "theoretically interpreted developments in the Soviet Union" (p. 4). Noting that "in the history of ideas Marxist theories have not received the attention they deserve" (p. 2) and that "the 'Russian Question' was an absolutely central problem for Marxism in the twentieth century" (p. 1), van der Linden seeks simultaneously to shed light on both the Soviet experience and "the historical development of Marxist thought" (p. 1), succeeding perhaps more in the latter goal than the former. The book opens with a brief introduction, which postulates that the development of Western Marxist thinking about the Soviet Union was shaped by three "contextual clusters:" 1) "The general theory of the forms of society (modes of production) and their succession" adopted by differing Marxist thinkers; 2) the changing "perception of stability and dynamism of Western capitalism"; and 3) the various ways "in which the stability and dynamism of Soviet society was perceived" (pp. -
The Radical Infatuation with Western Marxism Or La Belle Dame Sans Merci?
Canadian Journal of Social and Political Theory/Revue canadienne de theorie politique et sociale , Vol. 6, No. 3 (Fall/Automne, 1982) . THE RADICAL INFATUATION WITH WESTERN MARXISM OR LA BELLE DAME SANS MERCI? Rosaire Langlois Russell Jacoby, Dialectic of Defeat: Contours of Western Marxism, Cambridge University Press, 1981, p. X+202 One of the more striking characteristics of the re-orientation of social and political theory during the past fifteen years or so, has been the resurgence of interest in various types of Marxist theory.' Old theorists were rehabilitated- among them Lukacs and Gramsci-and new thinkers were embraced-notably, Althusser and Habermas . The old faith took on new trappings . This second coming of Marxism bore little resemblance to the old-fashioned version. The very foundations of classical Marxism-for example, the stress on the role of the economy and technology on the organization of social life-were cast aside with a corresponding exaltation of the role of the autonomous human subject . Innocent bystanders could be forgiven for wondering whether the uniqueness and perhaps even the coherence of Marxism had not been compromised altogether . The latest work of Russell Jacoby, while not intended as an encyclopaedic survey of all the theorists and issues within the "Western Marxist" tradition, attempts a partial stocktaking and affords an opportunity for a tentative assessment of the approach .z Jacoby writes as both scholar and passionate partisan. Not all, however, will share his continued enthusiasm. The Dialectic ofDefeat is, at one level, a work of intellectual history. As such, it is a quite interesting and significant effort . -
Unfree Labor, Capitalism and Contemporary Forms of Slavery
Unfree Labor, Capitalism and Contemporary Forms of Slavery Siobhán McGrath Graduate Faculty of Political and Social Science, New School University Economic Development & Global Governance and Independent Study: William Milberg Spring 2005 1. Introduction It is widely accepted that capitalism is characterized by “free” wage labor. But what is “free wage labor”? According to Marx a “free” laborer is “free in the double sense, that as a free man he can dispose of his labour power as his own commodity, and that on the other hand he has no other commodity for sale” – thus obliging the laborer to sell this labor power to an employer, who possesses the means of production. Yet, instances of “unfree labor” – where the worker cannot even “dispose of his labor power as his own commodity1” – abound under capitalism. The question posed by this paper is why. What factors can account for the existence of unfree labor? What role does it play in an economy? Why does it exist in certain forms? In terms of the broadest answers to the question of why unfree labor exists under capitalism, there appear to be various potential hypotheses. ¾ Unfree labor may be theorized as a “pre-capitalist” form of labor that has lingered on, a “vestige” of a formerly dominant mode of production. Similarly, it may be viewed as a “non-capitalist” form of labor that can come into existence under capitalism, but can never become the central form of labor. ¾ An alternate explanation of the relationship between unfree labor and capitalism is that it is part of a process of primary accumulation. -
Harvey's Limits of Capital: Twenty Years After
On the Limits of Limits to Capital Bob Jessop Professor, Department of Sociology Lancaster University Copyright This online paper may be cited or briefly quoted in line with the usual academic conventions. You may also download it for your own personal use. This paper must not be published elsewhere (e.g. mailing lists, bulletin boards etc.) without the author's explicit permission. But please note that • if you copy this paper you must include this copyright note • this paper must not be used for commercial purposes or gain in any way, • you should observe the conventions of academic citation in a version of the following form: Bob Jessop, ‘On the Limits of Limits of Capital’, published by the Department of Sociology, Lancaster University at: http://www.comp.lancs.ac.uk/sociology/soc129rj.htm Harvey's magisterial text is a sustained attempt to develop the basic method, extend the substantive arguments, and overcome some of the theoretical limits of Marx's classic critique of political economy. Yet Limits to Capital has its own limits and these are often rooted in the limits of Capital itself. Let us recall that the latter is an unfinished text. In the 1857 outline of his future magnum opus, Marx stated his intention to write six 'books' (Marx 1973; cf. Harvey 1982: xiv). These would deal in turn with capital, landed property, wage-labour, the state, foreign trade, and the world market and crises. The chosen order of presentation corresponded to his method of analysis, which moved from abstract-simple objects to the reproduction of the totality as a concrete-in-thought. -
Capital, Profit, and Accumulation: the Perspectives of Karl Marx and Henry George Compared
11 Matthew Edel Capital, Profit, and Accumulation: The Perspectives of Karl Marx and Henry George Compared The centenary of Progress and Poverty follows by only a few years that of Volume I of Marx's Capital. These two great works of radical economics both appeared in a period of economic turmoil - a long-swing downturn marked by disruption of existing economic relationships, depression, and the rise of new industrial monopolies. Both books pro- posed systems for analysis of economic conditions and advocated revolu- tionary changes. Both were based on the classical writings of David Ricardo, although their systems and proposals differ in many ways. Both won adherents, and both still have them, although Marx has had more impact on policy. In the present paper, I explore some of the differences between the economic analyses of Marx and George. Centenaries are a time for ecumenical dialogue. More important, the modern world's challenges re- quire greater theoretical precision and cross-fertilization of ideas. I shall focus on the treatment of capital, profits, and accumulation in the two theories. The relationship between Marxist economics and the economics of Henry George has often been an antagonistic one, notwithstanding cer- tain common themes. Rival schools often treat each other only with studied ignorance or calumny. Mutual learning and a clarification of fun- damental axioms through confrontation are foregone. 205 206 LAND AS A TAX BASE Both Karl Marx and Henry George were capable of careful and pene- trating analyses of their predecessors in political economy. Whatever the merits of a description of either man as a "post Ricardian" (surely Samuelson's "minor" is unwarranted), both knew and could explain their differences with Ricardo (1821), Malthus (1798), Wakefield (1849), or Mill (1848). -
The Critique of Real Abstraction: from the Critical Theory of Society to the Critique of Political Economy and Back Again
The Critique of Real Abstraction: from the Critical Theory of Society to the Critique of Political Economy and Back Again Chris O’Kane John Jay, CUNY [email protected] There has been a renewed engagement with the idea of real abstraction in recent years. Scholars associated with the New Reading of Marx, such as Moishe Postone, Chris Arthur, Michael Heinrich, Patrick Murray, Riccardo Bellofiore and others,1 have employed the idea in their important reconstructions of Marx’s critique of political economy. Alberto Toscano, Endnotes, Jason W. Moore and others have utilized and extended these theorizations to concieve of race, gender, and nature as real abstractions. Both the New Reading and these new theories of real abstraction have provided invaluable work; the former in systematizing Marx’s inconsistent and unfinished theory of value as a theory of the abstract social domination of capital accumulation and reproduction; the latter in supplementing such a theory. Yet their exclusive focus on real abstraction in relation to the critique of political economy means that the critical marxian theories of real abstraction -- developed by Alfred Sohn- Rethel, Theodor W. Adorno and Henri Lefebvre -- have been mostly bypassed by the latter and have largely served as the object of trenchant criticism for their insufficient grasp of Marx’s theory of value by the former. Consequently these new readings and new theories of real abstraction elide important aspects of Sohn-Rethel, Adorno and Lefebvre’s critiques of real abstraction; which sought to develop Marx’s critique of political economy into objective-subjective critical theories of the reproduction of capitalist society.2 However, two recent works by 1 Moishe Postone’s interpretation of real abstraction will be discussed below. -
Constant and Variable Capital
1598 constant and variable capital constant and variable capital Macmillan. Palgrave 1 Definition In Das Kapital Marx defined Constant Capital as that part of capital advanced in the means of Licensee: production; he defined Variable Capital as the part of capital advanced in wages (Marx, 1867, Vol. I, ch. 6). These definitions come from his concept of Value: he defined the value of permission. commodities as the amount of labour directly and indirectly necessary to produce commodities without (Vol. I, ch. 1). In other words, the value of commodities is the sum of C and N, where C is the value of the means of production necessary to produce them and N is the amount of labour used distribute that is directly necessary to produce them. The value of the capital advanced in the means of or production is equal to C. copy However, the value of the capital advanced in wages is obviously not equal to N, because it not may is the value of the commodities which labourers can buy with their wages, and has no direct You relationship with the amount of labour which they actually expend. Therefore, while the value of the part of capital that is advanced in the means of production is transferred to the value of the products without quantitative change, the value of the capital advanced in wages undergoes quantitative change in the process of transfer to the value of the products. This is the reason why Marx proposed the definitions of constant capital C and variable capital V. The definition of constant capital and variable capital must not be confused with the definition of fixed capital and liquid capital. -
Marx on Absolute and Relative Wages
Munich Personal RePEc Archive Marx on absolute and relative wages Levrero, Enrico Sergio Roma Tre University, Department of Economics September 2009 Online at https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/20976/ MPRA Paper No. 20976, posted 26 Feb 2010 06:51 UTC Marx on absolute and relative wages Enrico Sergio Levrero, Department of Economics, Roma Tre University∗ Introduction 1. The aim of this paper is to clarify some aspects of Marx’s analysis of the determinants of wages and of the peculiarity of labour as a commodity, concentrating upon three related issues. The first is that of Marx’s notion of the subsistence (or natural) wage rate: subsistence wage will be shown to stem, according to Marx, from socially determined conditions of reproduction of an efficient labouring class. The second issue refers to the distinction between the natural and the market wage rate that can be found in Marx, and his critique of Ricardo’s analysis of the determinants of the price of labour. Here the “law of population peculiar to capitalist mode of production” (that is, Marx’s industrial reserve army mechanism) will be considered, both with respect to cyclical fluctuations of wages and to their trend over time. Moreover, a classification of the social and institutional factors affecting the average wage rate will be advanced. Finally, Marx’s analysis of the effects of technical progress on both absolute and relative wages will be considered, also relating it back to the long-standing debate on the Marxian law of the falling rate of profit, and addressing some possible scenarios of the trend of wages and distribution. -
The Karl Marx
LENIN LIBRARY VO,LUME I 000'705 THE TEA~HINGS OF KARL MARX • By V. I. LENIN FLORIDA ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY U8AARY SOCIALIST - LABOR COllEClIOK INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHERS 381 FOURTH AVENUE • NEW YORK .J THE TEACHINGS OF KARL MARX BY V. I. LENIN INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHERS I NEW YORK Copyright, 1930, by INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHERS CO., INC. PRINTED IN THE U. S. A. ~72 CONTENTS KARL MARX 5 MARX'S TEACHINGS 10 Philosophic Materialism 10 Dialectics 13 Materialist Conception of History 14 Class Struggle 16 Marx's Economic Doctrine . 18 Socialism 29 Tactics of the Class Struggle of the Proletariat . 32 BIBLIOGRAPHY OF MARXISM 37 THE TEACHINGS OF KARL MARX By V. I. LENIN KARL MARX KARL MARX was born May 5, 1818, in the city of Trier, in the Rhine province of Prussia. His father was a lawyer-a Jew, who in 1824 adopted Protestantism. The family was well-to-do, cultured, bu~ not revolutionary. After graduating from the Gymnasium in Trier, Marx entered first the University at Bonn, later Berlin University, where he studied 'urisprudence, but devoted most of his time to history and philosop y. At th conclusion of his uni versity course in 1841, he submitted his doctoral dissertation on Epicure's philosophy:* Marx at that time was still an adherent of Hegel's idealism. In Berlin he belonged to the circle of "Left Hegelians" (Bruno Bauer and others) who sought to draw atheistic and revolutionary conclusions from Hegel's philosophy. After graduating from the University, Marx moved to Bonn in the expectation of becoming a professor. However, the reactionary policy of the government,-that in 1832 had deprived Ludwig Feuer bach of his chair and in 1836 again refused to allow him to teach, while in 1842 it forbade the Y0ung professor, Bruno Bauer, to give lectures at the University-forced Marx to abandon the idea of pursuing an academic career. -
The Falling Rate of Profit Thesis Reassessed: Owart D a Sociology of Marx’S Value Theory of Labor
University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Masters Theses Graduate School 8-2007 The Falling Rate of Profit Thesis Reassessed: owarT d a Sociology of Marx’s Value Theory of Labor John Hamilton Bradford University of Tennessee - Knoxville Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes Part of the Sociology Commons Recommended Citation Bradford, John Hamilton, "The Falling Rate of Profit Thesis Reassessed: owarT d a Sociology of Marx’s Value Theory of Labor. " Master's Thesis, University of Tennessee, 2007. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes/261 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a thesis written by John Hamilton Bradford entitled "The Falling Rate of Profit Thesis Reassessed: owarT d a Sociology of Marx’s Value Theory of Labor." I have examined the final electronic copy of this thesis for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree of Master of Arts, with a major in Sociology. Harry F. Dahms, Major Professor We have read this thesis and recommend its acceptance: Stephanie Ann Bohon, Robert Gorman Accepted for the Council: Carolyn R. Hodges Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official studentecor r ds.) To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a thesis written by John Hamilton Bradford entitled “The Falling Rate of Profit Thesis Reassessed: Toward a Sociology of Marx’s Value Theory of Labor.” I have examined the final electronic copy of this thesis for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, with a major in Sociology. -
Money As 'Universal Equivalent' and Its Origins in Commodity Exchange
MONEY AS ‘UNIVERSAL EQUIVALENT’ AND ITS ORIGIN IN COMMODITY EXCHANGE COSTAS LAPAVITSAS DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS SCHOOL OF ORIENTAL AND AFRICAN STUDIES UNIVERSITY OF LONDON [email protected] MAY 2003 1 1.Introduction The debate between Zelizer (2000) and Fine and Lapavitsas (2000) in the pages of Economy and Society refers to the conceptualisation of money. Zelizer rejects the theorising of money by neoclassical economics (and some sociology), and claims that the concept of ‘money in general’ is invalid. Fine and Lapavitsas also criticise the neoclassical treatment of money but argue, from a Marxist perspective, that ‘money in general’ remains essential for social science. Intervening, Ingham (2001) finds both sides confused and in need of ‘untangling’. It is worth stressing that, despite appearing to be equally critical of both sides, Ingham (2001: 305) ‘strongly agrees’ with Fine and Lapavitsas on the main issue in contention, and defends the importance of a theory of ‘money in general’. However, he sharply criticises Fine and Lapavitsas for drawing on Marx’s work, which he considers incapable of supporting a theory of ‘money in general’. Complicating things further, Ingham (2001: 305) also declares himself ‘at odds with Fine and Lapavitsas’s interpretation of Marx’s conception of money’. For Ingham, in short, Fine and Lapavitsas are right to stress the importance of ‘money in general’ but wrong to rely on Marx, whom they misinterpret to boot. Responding to these charges is awkward since, on the one hand, Ingham concurs with the main thrust of Fine and Lapavitsas and, on the other, there is little to be gained from contesting what Marx ‘really said’ on the issue of money.