Revitalizing Marxist Theory for Today's Capitalism

Paul Zarembka, Radhika Desai, Paul Zarembka

• Publisher: Emerald Group Publishing Limited
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN: 9781780522548
• eBook ISBN: 9781780522555
• Topic: Economics
• Subtopic: Economic Policy
• Index: Economics

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.

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Revitalizing Marxist Theory for Today’s Capitalism
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of contributors
• PART I: GROWTH AND FINANCE: MAINSTREAM LIMITATIONS AND MARXIST INSIGHTS
• PART II: DISCOVERING AND RENEWING MARXIST THEORY
• PART III: DEBATING POSITIVIST MARXISM