Revitalizing Marxist Theory for Today's Capitalism

by Radhika Desai, Paul Zarembka

Overview

As a few alert mainstream and corporate economists rediscover the certain elements of Marx's analysis of capitalism, the essays in the first part of this volume demonstrate that they have far to go. To their discredit, mainstream understandings whether of capitalism's growth or of Western capitalism's interrelated long-term stagnation and financialization are derailed precisely by political aversion to, or ignorance of, Marxist categories and analyses. The chapters in the second part extend Marxist insights into assessing the value of the so-called information, or knowledge-based, commodities, and offer a Marxist critique of Lenin, the only world leader who earlier had deeply studied his own country's economy. The part also presents two important works in translation. The first, read in Russian by Marx himself, raises serious questions about the relevance of Hegel in the understanding of Capital and offers its own insightful analysis. The other, by a Marxist collective in the 1970s demonstrates the centrality of politics and the class struggle in the simplistically conceived economic devalorization of constant capital. The final part contains a debate on the merits of positivist Marxism sparked by an article in Volume 26 of this research series.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781780522548
Publisher:	Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Publication date:	11/07/2011
Series:	Research in Political Economy , #27
Pages:	300
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 1.10(d)

Table of Contents

List of Contributors vii

Part I Growth and Finance: Mainstream Limitations and Marxist Insights

A Critique of Mainstream Growth Theory: Ways Out of the Neoclassical Science (-Fiction) and Toward Marxism Rémy Herrera 3

From Growth Stagnation to Financial Crisis: Unproductive Labor as a Missing Link in Mainstream Theory Robert Chernomas Fletcher Baragar 65

Crisis Theory and the Great Recession: A Personal Journey, From Marx to Minsky Riccardo Bellofiore 81

"Financial" Vs. "Real": An Overview of the Contradictory Role of Finance Özgür Orhangazi 121

Part II Discovering and Renewing Marxist Theory

Nikolai Sieber: An Introduction to a Political Economist Approved by Marx James D. White 151

Marx's Economic Theory Nikolai Ivanovich Sieber James D. White 155

The Value and Price of Information Commodities: An Assessment of the South Korean Controversy Heesang Jeon 191

Lenin's Economics: A Marxian Critique Seongjin Jeong 223

Class Struggle in Production and Devalorization of Capital A. D. Magaline Nguyen Huu Dong Albert Gueissaz Paul Zarembka 255

Part III Debating Positivist Marxism

Marxism, Crisis, and Economic Laws: A Comment Gary Mongiovi 271

Crisis, Marxism, and Economic Laws: A Response to Gary Mongiovi Alan Freeman 285