SPECIAL ENGLISH-LANGUAGE EDITION OF THE JOURNALS QUESTIONS OF POLITICAL ECONOMY & THE ECONOMIC REVIVAL OF RUSSIA Publication editors: Aleksandr V. Buzgalin, Doctor of Economic Sciences (DSc), Professor of Lomonosov Moscow State University Natalya G. Yakovleva, PhD (Economics), Research Associate of the Sector of Institutions of Social Policy and Civil Society of the Institute of the Economy, Russian Academy of Sciences МOSCOW ББК 60.5 65.01 65.02 66.3 87.6 Special English-Language Edition of the Journals Questions of Political Economy and The Economic Revival of Russia / Eds. A. Buzgalin, N. Yakovleva. М.: LENAND, 2016. — 116 p. The English-language publication offered here for the attention of readers is the result of cooperation between the journals Questions of Political Economy (http: //interpolitec.su) and The Economic Revival of Russia (http://e-v-r.ru). Included in the issue are reworked versions of some of the best articles published in Russian in these jour- nals during 2015 and 2016. These articles deal with questions of the theory and methodology of political economy, as well as with the results of politico-economic research on the de- velopment of material production and on the features of the Russian economic system. ООО «ЛЕНАНД». 117312, г. Москва, пр-т Шестидесятилетия Октября, д. 11А, стр. 11. Формат 70×100/8. Печ. л. 14,5. Зак. № Отпечатано в АО «ИПК «Чувашия». 428019, Чувашская Республика, Чебоксары, пр-т И. Я. Яковлева, д. 13. ISSN 2412-9666 © Team of authors, 2016 20893 ID 220498 Contents 7 Foreword POST-SOVIET POLITICAL ECONOMY: THE NEW THEORETICAL WORK 14 Sergey D. Bodrunov Towards a New Quality of Material Production: The Future of Russia in the Eurasian Space The article contains a number of theses that justify the sustainable tendency to becoming of the new industrial society which can be called as “the negation of the negation,” a dialectical “removal” both of the late industrialism described by Galbraith and post-industrial trends. Generation of the new industry is based on knowledge intensive technologies that change a nature of economic processes significantly. Russia needs to change in a large degree imperatives of its economic policy, putting industrial development in a priority to encourage own successful incorporation and progress in the new system; Eurasian economic cooperation plays a role of a tool to reach this goal. 32 Alexander V. Buzgalin Global Capital: The New Quality of Market, Money, and Capital in the Global Economy (On the Occasion of the 150th Anniversary of the Publication of Volume I of Karl Marx’s Capital and the 200th Anniversary of the Birth of Karl Marx) This text is a presentation of of the third, 2-volume Russian edition of Aleksandr Buzgalin and Andrey Kolganov book Global Capital, which appeared in earlier editions in 2004 and 2007. The text reveals the basic provisions of the book. The starting-point for the book is its chapter on methodology. Found here are not only critiques of conventional Soviet “Marxism-Leninism” and post-modernism, but also a new rethinking of the classic dialectic (the authors propose a “dialectic of non-linear transformation”) and a theory of the “sunset” of the capitalist mode of production. For the most part, however, the book is devoted to revealing the new quality now assumed by commodities, money and capital within the global economy. The market has become not only global, but a totalitarian force that is no longer a “socially neutral mechanism of coordination”. It is now a product of the hegemony of corporate capital, featuring the intensive and extensive growth of new types of commodity — information, simulacra and so forth. The authors demonstrate the new qualities acquired by value, use-value, price and commodity fetishism within this new market, while exploring the contradictions of new non-limited resources (such as knowledge) and the commodity form of their existence. Money is now a virtual product of fictitious financial capital, possessing a new nature, contradictions and functions, all of which are shown in the book. This analysis of the new nature of money helps the authors reveal the essence of so-called financialisation. Capital has become the result of a complex system of exploitation. In the twenty-first century context of this exploitation includes the “classic” extraction of surplus value from industrial workers combined with internal corporate redistribution of income by “insiders”; international exploitation; and the exploitation of creative labour through the expropriation of intellectual rent. Further, modern capital imposes its hegemony not only on labour, but also on free time, and subjugates not only the labour power of the human individual, but also his or her personality (human and social “capital” are thus irrational forms of the development of the personality and of solidarity). The book also includes a chapter showing how the authors’ analysis of the modern market, money and capital helps to explain the nature of the recent world economic crisis. The book’s final chapter sets out the features of the “Jurassic Park” of Russian capitalism. Also provided in the book is a broad picture of the debates occurring within the Post-Soviet School of Critical Marxism. The latter is a network that includes many well-known Russian authors, who over the past 25 years have produced more than 50 books and hundreds of articles. 4 Contents 48 Mikhail I. Voeikov Market Fundamentalism and a New Wave of Vulgarization in Economics The article discusses the conceptions of Western economic theory, which can be treated as a vulgar political economy. Soviet economists have long pointed to the scientific inadequacy of these provisions. Unfortunately, these vulgarisms are now widely presented in Russian textbooks. It is therefore, necessary to turn to the achievements of the Soviet economic science to replace vulgar borrowing. 58 Anatoly A. Porokhovsky Political Economy in the Twenty-First Century (A Reliable Key to Systemic Analysis of the Modern Economy and to Resolving Its Problems) The article reveals the objective process through which political economy arose and developed as a fundamental part of economic theory in general. Discussion questions are set forward on the topic and the method of research. The role of the industrial and information periods in the development of capitalism is examined. The article demonstrates that political economy has a full set of instruments for systematically analysing the modern economy and resolving its problems. 75 Victor T. Ryazanov Political Economy of the Crisis and Its Consequences: the Socialization of Finance and Returning of Real Values to the Economy On basis of the analysis of contemporary economic situation in the world and Russia is made the conclusion about retention in the post-crisis period of the domination of speculative-financial capital in the economic model. For overcoming of the existing disproportions and speculative distortions in the economy is based the need for development and implementation of the program of the socialization of finances. Its importance is determined by the possibility of the formation of the new model of the mixed economy, and for Russia this program comes out as the key condition of diversifying of economy and conducting of the policy of neoindustrialization of the country. 88 Georgy N. Tsagolov Authoritative Point of View about Formation of the New Integral Society Both books are the political and economic chronicle of Russia and fast developing countries of the last 25 years. Analyzing ways of the development of these countries the authors comes to the conclusion that the new societies have appeared in the world. Those are integral or convergent societies the prominent thinkers such as J. K. Galbraith, J. Timbergen, P. Sorokin have dreamed about. And this is the only way to develop for Russia. 99 Natalia G. Yakovleva Political Economy of Education: Statement of the Problem The paper presents the characteristics of the prevailing views on education. For a comprehensive study of the role of education in modern society, including the economy, it is proposed to use the methodology of the political economy and its tools, which allows to study the socio-economic relations, which are formed in the field of education. The starting point for the use of the proposed methodology is to define the sphere of education as a sphere of production (both literally and figuratively) of the main resource of the economy in general and in particular of material production — labor skills and innovation (even more — a creative) potential employee. POST-SOVIET POLITICAL ECONOMY: METHODOLOGY, HISTORY, TEACHING 110 Liudmila Bulavka-Buzgalina Culture and Market Author shows that under the conditions of global hegemony of capital market is becoming totalitarian force, and culture became a commodity. Furthermore, instead of market of useful commodities and Contents 5 objects of art modern market is more and more space of production and of simulacra, ‘consumer society’ is transformed into the ‘society of simulative consumption’. Alternative to this situation is disalienation of personality through dialectical negation of the ‘market fundamentalism’ based on development of social creativity. 117 Gleb A. Maslov Potential of Research Concerned the Impact of Techno-Economic Factors on the Content of Economic Theory In the article there is a justification of high potential of the research concerned the impact of techno- economic factors on the paradigms of Economic theory formation. The existing heritage concerned the development of Economic theory, takes into account this factor. However, there is a huge scope for continuation of this research. Enrichment of scientific knowledge in the sphere of theories changing obtains the extra importance in conditions of qualitative changes in the economic system. 134 Dmitriy A. Pletnev Problem of Alienation: Challenge to the Political Economy of the XXI Century The article deals with modern verges of alienation problem and the possibility of overcoming it with the help of the political economy.