Title: MARXIAN POLITICAL ECONOMY: LEGACY AND RENEWAL
Abstract: The article discusses the relevance of a reference to the framework(s) of analysis
of capitalism developed by Marx during the second half of the 19th century in the
analysis of contemporary capitalism. The perspective is simultaneously the history
of modern human societies and, more technically, the economy of capitalism. The contention
is that, in both instances, a Marxian political economy provides the foundations of
our understanding, but a number of adjustments are also required. The analysis of
modern corporations in Volume III of Capital, with the separation of ownership and
management, must be prolonged to present-day institutional features and mechanisms.
The homogeneity of wage labor must be broken to incorporate the class foundations
of the social divide between managers and other categories of production or clerical
workers. The new framework allows for the reassertion of the role of class struggle
as the engine of history. Concerning basic concepts, such as the theories of value
and capital, or mechanisms, such as competition, the business cycle, and technical
and distributional tendencies, the issue is the use of contemporary theoretical and
empirical tools, introducing to a process of sophistication rather than revision.
Publication Year: 2010
Publication Date: 2010-04-01
Language: en
Type: article
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