Economic Marxism

the economic Marxism indicates work of Karl Marx on the political economy, and by extension the theories which were inspired some. Strictly speaking, for the economic Marxism, it is necessary to make the distinction between the economy marxienne whose representatives directly assert thought of Marx, the economy Marxiste, which supports its reflection on the Marxism, and finally the economic writings of Marx. To indicate the economic Marxism, one speaks then according to the cases about the economy marxienne, the Marxist economy, the Marxist political economy, the Marxist economic scene, the economic theory of Marx, the economic writings of Marx, the political economy of Marx, etc

Presentation of the economic writings of Marx

Design materialist of the history

The design materialist of the history, inspired of the materialism of Ludwig Feuerbach (sometimes indicated by the expression “materialism historical”, and initially called by Marx “new materialism”), applies to the study of the social life, of the company, of the history of the company. The principal points are the following.

The men make their own history, but on the basis of condition given, inherited the past. Among those, the conditions of the material reproduction of the company are determining.

In addition, the human history does not follow as in the Positivisme comtien a linear unfolding towards progress. Marx takes as a starting point Hegel, which considers that to become it of any reality includes itself/understands in the following triad: the assertion (the thesis), the negation (the antithesis), and negation of the negation (the synthesis). However, so for Hegel this evolution results from the nature of the Esprit, for Marx it falls under the evolution of the human activity. As it is brought to think as the economic conditions and material determine the anatomy of a company. And it is not the conscience of the men which determines reality, but it is the social reality which determines their conscience.

We thus find the idea of Auguste Count according to which the Spirit is determined by historical and social conditions. But, where Marx is dissociated from Count, it is that it tries to make rest this idea on a scientific and material basis. It indeed attaches the conscience to a Mode of production, unit made up of a Infrastructure (natural of the productive forces like the tools and the work, and reports and social of work) and of the superstructure (Religion, Droit, Morale, Idéologie S, Science,…)

For Marx, the evolution of the thought and human society, thus follows a dialectical race. Several modes of production (Feudalism, Slave system, Capitalism…) follow one another. Each mode encountering one moment given to contradictions between the productive institutions and forces, which find their resolution in the mode which succeeds to them.

In the long term, these contradictions must, by the action conscious of Humanity (and the proletariat in particular), to reconcile itself in a synthesis: the Communism.

Roots of the economic Marxism

Marx makes a synthesis between four large economic currents.

the Socialist thought French . Of the manner of Count, Marx thinks that should be discovered historical socio-economic laws. In the same way, as Saint-Simon which considered that there exists a cleavage between the class of the producers and the class of the idlers (middle-class, military, lawyers,…) with the historical base of all antagonisms of class (discrepancy which he wanted to solve by subjecting the company to the interest of the producers, which would not exclude “dictatorship of the proletariat”), Marx observes that the company is divided into several social classes, the two principal ones being middle-class and proletariat. Of course, there are many nuances between philosophy Marxiste and the social philosophy of Saint-Simon. But in all the cases, the Communisme towards which must tighten the company for a great part is inspired by the thinkers French utopians. Marx thinks that the company must move towards the abolition of the private property and the appropriation of the means of production by the workers.
Traditional political economy , with the economic theory of the value-work of David Ricardo.
the theory of the circuit which it borrows from the Physiocrate S.
the theory of the Plus-value and of the exploitation which it borrows from Pierre Joseph Proudhon.

Principle of the exploitation

Studying the Capitalist mode of production, Marx considers that it reveals an opposition between two Social classes (although there can be other classes): the middle-class class which holds the Capital, and the proletarian class, which has only its work (of its labor force, would be righter, because it is rather the capitalist who has the work of the workman). Taking as a starting point the idea of exploitation of the workers launched by Proudhon, as of the thought ricardienne which brings back the economic value to value-work, Marx thinks that the capitalist exploits the worker by subtilizing an appreciation to him (it is “on-work”). Indeed the capitalist pays only the value of the labor force. However the value of the labor force and the value which this force produced are two different things. What costs a workman to be able to work and real costs of its different product enormously. A worker produces more value than it does not cost any him to work and live him and his family. The capitalist " profite" of this basic difference and this is why moreover it is and he becomes capitalist. In the value of the product there is as follows:

the value of the means of production consumed in the manufacture of the product;
the value of paid work (constituted by the value of the labor force used, therefore the amount of the wages);
and another part of the work provided by the workman who is not paid and who constitutes the most been worth empochée by the owner of the means of production which becomes by this mechanism a capitalist.

He draws from a these fundamental theory according to which the internal tendencies of the capitalist system conceal contradictions indépassables which will start systematically and in a recurring way, of the economic crises. The economic mechanism that it describes is the following.

Economic channel

Marx borrows certain elements of reflection from Ricardo. It distinguishes first of all, the well S which are produced and consumed by the direct producer (and the community in which it lives) and the " goods which are produced for the direct exchange or the trade. Then, Marx uses the distinction between Practical value of goods (subjective and variable of an agent with another and which also changes with the technical development) and Exchange value (acceptable by all the agents, this to precisely allow the exchange). Lastly, Marx supposes that " the valeur" of goods is an objective data, fixed by the quantity of work incorporated in it, it is time socially necessary to produce it. It takes form or is carried out thanks to the exchange and seems " value of échange".

What interests Marx, it is to include/understand the logic which initially brings the simple circulation of the goods and that of the capital then. If the simple circulation of goods M-A-M (goods-money exchange and then money-goods exchange) where the money intervenes like means of circulation (average of purchase) and functions like general equivalent, barter MM (goods exchange against goods) is characterized by a direct exchange of values where the money is not necessary. Circulation M-A-M leads to exchange a product against another via the money. The final goal of the exchanger, who after having sold something which it does not need, buys the goods which it wishes, it is to consume better and more. On the other hand the circulation of capital A-M-A contains in it an objective very other which is that to buy goods to sell them expensive. There the final goal is not consumption but enrichment, to make with the money more money, it is to make capital. The capital is the result of a long process of social development and only appears where the simple circulation of the goods already is very developed. Finally at the more advanced stage the capital assujétit production itself to transform it into capitalist mode of production i.e. to produce not only objects of social utility, goods but practical values especially, values and over all the most been worth. To produce moreover more been worth is the ultimate goal of the capitalist mode of production. It is its raison d'être. It only stimulates the production where it moreover was worth there.

Exploitation of the worker and principle of the appreciation

Marx considers that the committed capital has break up into two shares: the constant Capital C (auxiliary machines, raw materials and matters) and the Variable capital v (wages). The value of has is thus has = C + v .

It supposes moreover than the constant capital does not provide any surplus to the capitalist, it is only the variable capital which is source of value, and this value is proportioned with the time of social work necessary to the production of the goods. This one includes indirect work and direct work.

The exploitation of the capitalists is expressed then in the fact that the labor force used is not paid by the capitalist in proportion to his value. The worker is paid, in the logic of the economics classical, at least vital which allows its subsistence. Under the pressure of a permanent unemployment, the wages will be always brought back in the long run towards the minimum wage. The capitalist thus recovers a difference: the Appreciation, noted pl . One thus has: A' = C + v + pl . One can consequently define:

the rate moreover more been worth: pl/v which expresses the level of exploitation of the worker.
the rate of profit: pl/(c+v) , which measures the profit of the capitalist on the committed capital.

The produced value is then distributed in

the wages which tighten towards the vital minimum
the profits, given by the sum of the appreciations, difference between the total work implemented and necessary work.
interests and revenues. They are regarded by Marx as a distribution of second degree taken on the profits. They depend on monetary or financial factors.

Three possibilities are offered to the capitalists to increase the most been worth:

To increase the duration of the work (it is the absolute appreciation ).
Diminuer working time to produce the equivalent of the minimum of subsistence (it is the relative appreciation ), while weighing for example on the agricultural production, by improving the Technological advance or into important from abroad - what would explain the Impérialisme.
To produce the same quantity of products for the same working time by discovering an technological innovation (it is the differential appreciation ). Only, when this innovation is generalized, because of competition, the relative appreciation disappears, the selling price joined the price of production.

Trend fall of the rate of profit

Marx thus explains the distribution of the capital and the exploitation of the workers, but it remains to him to explain the fundamental contradiction of the capitalism which leads to the recurring appearance of crises.

He explains it by the concept of trend Baisse of the rate of profit. Marx considers that the capitalists are tempted to increase their production capacities by technological innovations to obtain a temporary advantage over their competitors. It follows that they substitute machines for the labor, in other words they substitute constant capital C for variable capital v , which results in to increase the capital intensive Intensité of the organic Composition of the capital (proportion from C and v in the capital). As the appreciation is given by the use of direct work, and that the Rate of profit is pl/(C + v) , it comes a trend fall from the rate of profit which causes crises.

Admittedly the capitalists try to compensate for it by increasing their outlets (Impérialisme), or by increasing the rate of appreciation, and one could consider a stationary state , but the problem is that the substitution of work by the capital generates unemployment more and more, a reserve army of workers , which unrelentingly leads the company towards social conflicts.

Thus in the long term, capitalism collapses under the weight of its contradictions, it is the permanent state of crisis, which can be avoided only temporarily by the economic expansion at virgin markets, or racing of the technological growth.

Economic Marxism after Marx

The economic Marxism had a great influence on the economic thinking of 19th and the 20th century. This one was made various manners.

Currents in direct prolongation of the political saving in Marx

One generally distinguishes the Marxiens from the Marxiste S (one introduces also sometimes the term of Marxologue to appoint the researchers which study the work of Marx). The delimitation is however rather fuzzy.

Schools marxiennes. One includes in the expression schools marxiennes theories directly inspired of work of Marx, but which dissociates various manners of them. The authors Marxien S return to economic work of Marx while generally leaving side the ideological aspect or metaphysics of the writings of Marx. The school of the regulation falls under this line.
Marxist Schools. Generally, the Marxism returns to doctrines and a whole of fundamental proposals which were drawn from the interpretation of work of Marx. Marx often affirmed to be in dissension with the Marxists, the economists being asserted like closest to the thought of Marx would be then the marxiens. One could include in the Marxist current work of Rosa Luxemburg, of Lenine, Karl Kautsky, Louis Althusser, and many other thinkers. This work is strongly tinted communist ideology which is however only part of the work of Marx.

It should be noted however that various currents of thought seem today to develop approaches which rest a renovated economic Marxism. It is the case in particular of certain currents of thought close to the Altermondialisme. One can think for example of the recent contribution of Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri.

Currents which take as a starting point the economic Marxism

The economic Marxism inspired work of many economists. The concepts introduced by Marx were found in work in the very diverse beginnings. It thus became almost impossible exhaustively to describe the influence of its work. Here some examples of theories which were inspired some.

German historical School. the political saving in Marx strongly influenced the German historical school. Work of Joseph Schumpeter thus translates an interest shown for the writings of Marx.
School of the circuit. the school of the circuit is current partly of Marxist inspiration which insists primarily on work of Marx which is relative to its design of the economic channel. One of the principal representatives of this current is the economist Frederic Poulon.
Post-Marxism
etc

Syntheses between the Marxism and other currents

the Marxism gave place to syntheses with work of the keynésiens. For example, Michal Kalecki will introduce Marxist concepts into its theories.
In the Anglo-Saxon countries is profiled a rather particular Marxist current, the analytical Marxisme. The analytical Marxists reinterpret the fundamental proposals of Marx in the illuminant in the light of the individualistic theories (rationality, interest…), of the Micro-economics and the analytical Philosophy. Jon Elster is regarded as one of the authors more for this current.

Critics of the economic Marxism

Critical by the Marxists . It should be noted that the separation of the Marxism in various branches: economic, political and sociological Marxism is not regarded as relevant by all the Marxists. An author as Karl Korsch will dispute it vigorously for example.
Critical external . The economic Marxism was criticized much by liberal economists or conservatives of various obediences. Criticisms related to various points:

the theory of value work would be exceeded.
the concept of class struggle would not be really any more of topicality or relevant, in particular according to Raymond Aron.
" prévisions" of Marx would not have been carried out: there would not have been of trend fall of the rate of profit.
Marx would confer a too important intentionality on the middle-class class (this one would seem less homogeneous and welded which what Marx would claim).

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