Marxist theory

The Marxist theory of money , International Journal of Political... 

It was a case of the newest state" meeting the "oldest class" and attempting to remake it into some reasonable facsimile of a proletariat. Compared to the peasantry, the proletariat was already relatively more legible as a class, and not just because of its central place in Marxist theory. The proletariat s work regimen was regulated by factory hours and by man-made techniques of production. In the case of new industrial projects like the great steel complex at Magnitogorsk, the planners could start virtually from zero, as with Brasilia. The peasants, on the other hand, represented a welter of small, individual household en-... 

See, for example, Margaret M. Bullitt, Toward a Marxist Theory of Aesthetics The Development of Socialist Realism in the Soviet Union," Russian Review 35, no, 1 (January 1976) 53-76. 

No problem is more central to Marxism than the mechanism whereby capitalism destroys itself. At the most general level, this comes about by the "contradiction between the productive forces and the relations of production" (5.1.3)- Yet in his economic writings Marx did not devote much attention to this idea. Or rather, he wrongly thought that some of his more specific views on capitalist crises instantiated that general theory. Of these views, the best-known and the most articulate is the theory of the falling rate of profit (3.4.2). More diffuse are a variety of other theories that may be loosely collected together as "theories of insufficient demand" (3.4.3). Before I examine these theories in detail, 1 state some of the features that a Marxist theory of crises should exhibit. 

On the other hand there can be no doubt that imperfections of competition are massively important in actual capitalist economies, and that the Marxist theory of exploitation ultimately will have to consider the implications of this fact. 1 shall not here pursue the issue, but indicate where some further discussions are found. In 4.1.4 I consider collective bargaining as a determinant of the rate of exploitation. In particular, I discuss a passage from Capital III that has been adduced as evidence that Marx believed the wage bargain to rest on bilateral monopoly. In 4.3.3 I propose a distinction between force and coercion in the labour market, the latter involving the exercise of (economic) power. And in 6.2.1 I discuss how capitalist divide-and-conquer tactics may also affect the rate of exploitation. 

It is not clear what to make of these texts. They may reflect a mere terminological hesitation, ora more substantial doubt about the centrality of economically defined classes in pre-capitalist societies. In favour of the second reading is the opposition between "nobleman" and "commoner", and the emphasis on the "social position" as a main determinant of behaviour. Two facts, however, appear well established. For one thing, social conflict in pre-capitalist societies poses a serious problem for the Marxist theory of class. For another, Marx himself was inconsistent in what he said about classes in these societies. It is not implausible to seek the explanation of the latter fact in the former. 

Classes, as defined, form a social category that may or may not represent a non-arbitrary division of society into separate groups. The Marxist theory of class asserts that agents who belong to one class also tend to have other common properties and to behave in certain common ways. In particular, it asserts that classes are real in the sense that under certain conditions they tend to crystallize into collective actors, that is to achieve class consciousness. In 6.2.11 discuss the meaning of class consciousness,... 

The central question in the Marxist theory of the state is whether it is autonomous with respect to class interests, or entirely reducible to them. The main issue that will concern us here is the causal, or - more generally -... 

If we look closely at Marx s writings, it is difficult to escape the conclusion that what in Marxist theory is supposed to be the "normal case" - the subservience of the state to the interests of the bourgeoisie... 

---