Class Struggle or Embedded Markets? Marx,Polanyi and the Meanings and Possibilities of Social Transformation

Marx and Polanyi both held that socialism, in one form or another, was a preferable and possible alternative to capitalism. Their ideas are seen to offer theoretical tools to understand the tensions and contradictions of capitalism, and to inform ways to overcome them. This paper discusses Polanyi's work from a Marxist perspective in order to illuminate his strengths and weaknesses. Its main focus is to discuss Polanyi's juxtaposing of commodification against exploitation, in diagnosing the problems of capitalist expansion. We suggest that by juxtaposing these two moments, Polanyi not only misses out on a crucial arena of capitalist activity (exploitation), but also undermines his own explication of processes of commodification. This has deleterious consequences for his understanding of the prevalence of poverty under capitalism. It also means that his vision of social transformation and of socialism is profoundly different, and potentially antithetical, to that of Marx. We suggest that for Polanyi's conception of de-commodification to gain greater traction it needs to be combined with Marx's analysis of exploitation and class struggle.     

Ecological Political Economy: Towards a Strategic-Relational Approach

This article identifies three distinct traditions in what might be described as ‘ecological political economy’. First, a ‘Promethean’ approach posits that capitalism has a relentless drive towards growth and bears responsibility for the wholesale transformation of nature. Second, critics of sustainable capitalism acknowledge the possibility of capitalist futures with a better management of natural resources and carbon emissions. The Strategic Relational Approach, developed by Bob Jessop and Ngai-Ling Sum, points to a unique third type of ecological political economy. Each approach is shown to have distinct views concerning the commodification of nature, the role of the state and ways to understand ecological and social transitions. The Strategic Relational Approach points to the possibility of counter-hegemonic strategies and collective mobilization to transform the state and so redirect, control and contain capitalist relations with nature.     

Hartmut Elsenhans,Saving Capitalism from the Capitalists

Hartmut Elsenhans's Saving Capitalism from the Capitalists presents an intriguing argument: capitalist elites have induced unsustainable capitalism to the disadvantage of labor and the system as a whole. The author proposes a fairly unconventional solution. He suggests that democratic socialism can be the necessary political complement to our capitalist system. By drawing on the socialist capacity to empower labor and increase mass consumption, we could achieve a more balanced and sustainable capitalism. The book is ideally suited for readers of Keynesian and post Keynesian analysis on contemporary capitalism and it fits in the discourse on problems of low income growth, declining demand, and investment opportunities in major world economies.     

Ownership,control and self-management

The paper briefly summarizes those arguments which explain the paucity of workers' co-operatives under capitalism in terms of their financing arrangements. The possibility is considered that a wage-earners' investment fund of Scandinavian type could act as an external financing agency for a ‘co-operative sector’ within a capitalist economy. A simple model is developed of such an economy with a fund in place. The dynamics of the model are analysed and a number of simulation results reported. These results indicate the economic costs and consequences of various policies which such a fund might pursue.     

Uneven Development and Grounded Comparative Institutional Advantage: Lessons from Sweden and Mondragon

In this paper we use the theory of grounded comparative institutional advantage to analyze the possibilities for progressive development in the face of the uneven development patterns endemic to neoliberal capitalist development. We demonstrate that efforts to promote institutional structures to spur regional development, such as Swedish efforts to create high wage jobs via education, training, and technology diffusion, and the Mondragon Cooperative’s efforts to create and preserve manufacturing jobs via education, technology development and cooperative organization, can be a countervailing power to the forces of capitalist uneven development, if the state becomes a major allocator of investment funds. To succeed in creating stable, progressively-oriented industries in a region within a capitalist economy, there must be cushions for firms against downturns and sectoral shifts, mechanisms for the creation of cutting edge technologies, and a commitment to reallocate investment to key industries. Otherwise the forces of uneven development, spatially and sectorally, will tend to prevail. While the models developed by Sweden and Mondragon hold promise, this approach requires a major political commitment to the region, and a willingness to embrace some of the vagaries of international capitalism.     

创造性资本主义与资本主义的创造性消亡

资本主义具有一种内生的创造性,同时又具有一种内生的非创造性,创造性和非创造性悖论根源于资本主义经济的内在矛盾。随着世界市场的不断成熟和全球资本主义经济矛盾的不断加深,资本主义需要寻求新的自我拯救之道。创造性资本主义试图同时利用人性中的利己主义与利他主义。创造性资本主义预示着资本主义终将创造性地消亡,它对未来中国社会主义市场经济体制改革具有重要的启发意义。     

Modern Politics as a Trust Scheme and Its Relevance to Modern Banking

The trust is, by definition, a hybrid between rights in rem and rights in personam. It is also an English legal concept that distinguishes the English common law from the Roman law tradition of continental Europe. The trust is largely absent in the classical writings of Karl Marx and Max Weber on the origins and nature of capitalism. This essay demonstrates that the trust is central to an adequate understanding of capitalism — including the capitalist institutions of modern banking, corporations, and representative democracy — and demonstrates that modern banking and politics are mirror images of each other. Before capitalism, credit economies created institutions to protect debtors or often revived the social order by cancelling debts. The capitalist credit economy, by contrast, considers strict debt obligations a supreme moral good and a way of securing social order. It creates a political scheme to ensure that debt obligations are strictly fulfilled. This essay argues that this scheme is a trust. The trust turns the debts of individuals, whose death can cancel their debt obligations, into the debts of imaginary groups such as the modern state, whose identities and obligations are permanently maintained by replaceable trustees. The essay further holds that without the politics of the trust, modern banking could not have developed.     

The Dilemmas of Technology: A Review Article

During the 1990s, all of the European transition economies (TE) experienced a major recession and suffered from the explosion of income inequality. However, distribution of income between labor and capital differed greatly from one group of post-communist countries to another. The paper discusses and analyzes linkages between models of capitalism that emerged in former communist countries in the 1990s and the outcome of capitalist transition for labor in terms of income distribution and inequality. It is based on the estimates of the Marxian rate of exploitation and other indicators of labor income performance during the reform period.     

国际金融危机背景下西方学者的资本主义危机理论及启示

资本主义危机理论一直是国外马克思主义学者关注的焦点。在资本主义发展的不同时期,他们对于资本主义危机的理解也有所不同。2008年金融危机的爆发,迫使一些西方学者摒弃以往传统的经济视角,转而寻求新的研究范式来解读资本主义的危机,这一时期备受关注的危机理论有:体制危机论,福利国家危机论和资本主义总体性危机论。总体来看,随着资本主义社会的发展,西方学者不再从单一视角出发研究资本主义危机,不再将资本主义危机单纯理解为经济危机,而是趋向多元化的理解。     

State capitalism and the rent-seeking conjecture

The notion that state capitalism (an economic system “in which the state functions as the leading economic actor and uses markets primarily for political gain”) is a new form of capitalism emerging in the global arena has been recently advanced by several authors. This paper explores the problem of the nature of this system in the light of these claims to novelty. What are its main features as described by these authors? Is state capitalism distinctive from other forms of capitalism or other types of economic systems? Are we really witnessing the emergence of a new type of economic system? To address such questions the paper starts by trying to place the model of state capitalism within the traditional comparative economic systems framework. The inconclusive result leads to a different approach in which the concept of rent-seeking society is used to underlie the structural similarities between mercantilism, real life socialism and state capitalism. The article argues that the conjecture that what has been labeled “state capitalism” is yet another form of rent-seeking system is both robust and worth further investigating.     

Capitalist Convergence? European (dis?)Integration and the Post-crash Restructuring of French and European Capitalisms

ABSTRACT

This article critiques and builds upon first-wave (Höpner and Schäfer 2010. A new phase of European integration: organised capitalisms in post-Ricardian Europe. West European Politics, 33 (2), 344–368) and second-wave (Johnston and Regan 2018. Introduction: is the European Union capable of integrating diverse models of capitalism? New Political Economy, 23 (2), 145–159) European Integration and comparative capitalisms literatures which posit convergence towards a single model of capitalism or growth. It utilises the case study of France to explore the impact of European integration and disintegration on national models of capitalism in the post-crisis era. The article focuses on the impact of integrative and disintegrative dynamics on France’s ‘state-industry-finance nexus’, putting forward three core claims. First, French capitalism is not accurately captured by the above frameworks and remains better characterised by the concept of post-dirigisme. Indeed, comparative capitalisms debates must move beyond a simple bifurcation of capitalist types. Second, European integrative pressures must be viewed as fragmented, differentiating, mediated by domestic state actors and producing capitalist variegation and hybridisation. Countering functionalist tendencies within this literature, it shows how different conceptions of state-market relations crucially mediate the relationship between national capitalisms and European integration. Finally, in the context of Brexit, the dynamics of European disintegration – an issue not discussed so far in these debates – is contributing to a variegated and multi-directional process of capitalist restructuring in post-crisis France.     

Does the road to serfdom lead to the Servile State?

Hilaire Belloc's The Servile State is often seen as an antisocialist tract arguing that “socialism is slavery.” It is typically assumed that an appreciation and defense of free market capitalism, as well as a general dislike of government intervention must motivate the its thesis. Nevertheless The Servile State is an argument against what Belloc saw as unbridled capitalism not collectivism. Belloc defines capitalism to mean a state in which there is a skewed distribution of wealth in society where the majority of people are dispossessed, proletariat, and a minority makes up the capitalist, property owning class. For Belloc capitalism is an inherently unstable system and servile measures arise to ameliorate insecurity and instability.     

A real and monetary analysis of capitalism

Building on ideas of Joseph Schumpeter, this paper constructs and compares a real and a monetary model of capitalism. The paper’s thesis is that real and monetary analysis are both necessary for describing the capitalist cycle. The real model is in four parts. The first part is a simplified static Walrasian exchange. The second part uses a time dynamic to show price and productivity equilibrium over time. The third part defines surplus-value, capital, accumulation, profit and producer’s surplus. The fourth part defines economic evolution and long-term analysis. Each of the four parts has a corresponding Mathematica program and a table of sample data. The real model shows a relationship between long term average profit, GDP and capitalization. A monetary model is then constructed which empirically defines monetary and real products, the capital-market, the real economy and investment. The monetary model is first described under conditions of laissez-faire. The concepts of appreciation, overinvestment and the capitalist cycle are defined with the aid of the real model. Finally, the post laissez-faire capitalist cycle is described with an emphasis on the government policies of post 1980 capitalism. The conclusion of the paper—based on the real and monetary models—is that post 1980 capitalism changes but does not eliminate the capitalist cycle because government policies do not address over-investment, rather these policies abet over-investment.     

The Economic Surplus as a Fund for Social Change and Postneoliberal Governance

The central problem in capitalism today is not one of scarce resources clashing against innate, insatiable wants. Rather, the modern problem of monopoly capitalism is one of abundance of production clashing against scarcity of consumers. Indeed, sustaining growth while fighting against excess capacity proves to be the biggest battle in business today, fought by the capitalist power structure with the tools of neoliberalism and globalization. The economic surplus, roughly sketched, represents that gap between productive resources and consumption, and thus represents the abundance that is possible given current technology. The argument set forth is that the economic surplus remains a powerful tool in describing economic relationships and social justice issues within the context of the Great Capitalist Restoration, but more importantly, that the economic surplus represents a tool for social change. The potential for socially just amelioration and change within post-neoliberal governance is explored with explicit reference to the qualitative and instrumental framework proposed by Ron Stanfield in his somewhat overlooked but incredibly important piece, “The Fund for Social Change” (1992).     

金融危机下的资本主义将何去何从

2008年全球金融危机爆发以来,世界主要资本主义国家出现了经济增长停滞、失业率畸高、贫富差距扩大等现象,经济与社会的困境引发了西方学术界对资本主义经济、社会,乃至政治发展模式的反思,企图通过反思找到引发危机的真正原因,并促进资本主义的自我调整和完善。一方面,我们应该看到,金融危机反映了资本主义制度致命的缺陷,其根源就在于资本主义基本矛盾,只要资本主义制度存在,危机的爆发将是不可避免的;另一方面,我们也应意识到,仅凭这一场危机就断言资本主义从此将退出历史舞台,恐怕还为时过早。     

History,Space and Nature: Building Theory from the Exception

Uneven Development endeavours to derive a theory of uneven geographical development by putting in motion a ‘historical dialogue’ between Marx's critical theorisation of capitalism and the geograhical reality of capitalism at the close of the twentieth century, and by theorising the relations between material nature and the spatial dynamics of capitalist accumulation. The result, however, is a theory of uneven development predicated on a logical rather than a historical conception of capitalism, which furthermore supersedes the question of the production of nature in conceptualising the spatial dynamics of (contemporary) capitalism. This article argues for a re-theorisation of uneven geographical development that considers the production of nature, namely extractive industry, as a point of departure in theorising the spatial dynamics of contemporary capitalist accumulation, focusing briefly on the concentration and centralisation of capital.     

‘Conscience Capitalism’ and the Neoliberalisation of the Non-Profit Sector

This article analyses a range of initiatives, labelled as ‘conscience capitalist’, that have become prominent since the 2008 financial crash. Conscience capitalism encompasses projects emerging in both the for- and non-profit sectors that seek to connect neoliberal capitalism with concepts of morality and conscience. The article begins by unpacking conscience capitalism, showing how its for-profit advocates seek to transform capitalism by orienting it towards accounting for social and environmental externalities, and how its non-profit supporters seek to incorporate components of neoliberalism to serve their environmentally and/or socially focused agendas. Conscience capitalism appears to be a re-evaluation and call for reform of the prominent forms of neoliberalism. However, this article argues that, rather than comprising a hindrance, conscience capitalism offers a means of advancing the project. This is evident in its attempts to reconstitute social and environmental externalities in terms relatable to the market, and represent social and environmental problems in quantitative terms in which the success of market-based solutions can be read. Acknowledging some of the successes of conscience capitalist campaigns, the article concludes by arguing that this continued neoliberalisation of the non-profit sector favours campaigns consistent with neoliberalism and has the potential to undermine the democratic governance of non-profits.     

Legal institutionalism: Capitalism and the constitutive role of law

Social scientists have paid insufficient attention to the role of law in constituting the economic institutions of capitalism. Part of this neglect emanates for inadequate conceptions of the nature of law itself. Spontaneous conceptions of law and property rights that downplay the role of the state are criticized here, because they typically assume relatively small numbers of agents and underplay the complexity and uncertainty in developed capitalist systems. In developed capitalist economies, law is sustained through interaction between private agents, courts and the legislative apparatus. Law is also a key institution for overcoming contracting uncertainties. It is furthermore a part of the power structure of society, and a major means by which power is exercised. This argument is illustrated by considering institutions such as property and the firm. Complex systems of law have played a crucial role in capitalist development and are also vital for developing economies.     

当代资本主义的新变化与资本主义生产方式的部分质变——兼与徐崇温先生商榷

当代资本主义的新变化既不是资本主义本质的根本改变，也不只是资本主义统治与剥削的手段、形式和斗争策略的改变，而是资本主义社会经济结构的部分质变。当代资本主义生产方式的积极扬弃，已经跨越了资本主义生产方式的临界点，超越了资本主义生产方式的界限，包含某些社会主义因素，逐渐向社会主义和平发展。因此，绝对不能抱着教条主义的态度，简单地用机械的、绝对的和主观的方法，而应当用辨证方法和历史唯物主义的科学方法来认识当代资本主义的新变化，根据新的历史条件来创造性地发展马克思主义理论，实现马克思主义理论的与时俱进和创新发展。     

Market Structure and Interfirm Integration in the Petroleum Industry

Since March 2008 we have witnessed a flurry of government "bailouts," directed to assist financial institutions. What has made these more or less acceptable to the public is the hope that they are temporary, implemented in a state of emergency, and that they offer market solutions and won't structurally change capitalist relations. However, no temporary stimulus and bailouts can address the systemic instability in financial capitalism identified by Post Keynesians and Institutionalists.