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Late Capitalism

By Ernest Mandel

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| Paperback | 9780860917038

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Book Description

Late Capitalism represents the first ever attempt to combine the general theory of the 'laws of motion' of the capitalist mode of production developed by Marx with the concrete history of capitalism in the twentieth century. Mandel sketches the structure of the world market and develops a bold schemContinue

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Late Capitalism

One of the most important (if often misunderstood and misapplied) works of political economy in the 20th century. A must-read for any serious mind.

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Poe Yu-ze Wan said on Feb 24, 2007 | Add your feedback

Old fashion Marxist economics depend on the theory of labor value that is not too far away from Karl Marx's Capital. I read this several years ago...try to review by my poor memory.
I think that the contribution of this book is the neo-Marxist analysis of warfare. Departed from the warfare sta ... (continue)

Old fashion Marxist economics depend on the theory of labor value that is not too far away from Karl Marx's Capital. I read this several years ago...try to review by my poor memory.
I think that the contribution of this book is the neo-Marxist analysis of warfare. Departed from the warfare state argument of Baron, Sweezy and O'Conner, Mandel claimed that the war itself is positive to increase the force of production, not to destroy the overproduction surplus. Therefore, Mandel predicted that the war will reduce the profit rate of capitalism by improving the technology, which will facilitate the coming of the general crisis of world capitalism.
This is also the basic problem of the Marxist analysis of war. The Marxist economists in the 1970s believe that the war will be good anyway to the big business, which sometimes was not true in the historical experience. First of all, the history of war is much earlier than the burgeon of capitalism. The usage of violence is part of the human politics, which may not relate to capitalism. What about the state violence under Maoism?
Second, the nation-states usually refute the need of capitalism and pursue the hegemony and security for non-economic reasons. Moreover, the ruling elites almost always make mistakes when they calculate the benefits that they can get from the war. What can US get from Iraq and Vietnam despite pain and capitalist depression?
A more convincing Marxist analysis may come from world-system aspect. Although Mandel tried to link his work to the long-wave theory, the empirical study was left to the followers...

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戀戀風塵 said on Mar 12, 2007 | Add your feedback