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The Modes of Production Controversy
“Marxist writing on development and underdevelopment, which barely a decade ago was largely confined to the shrill critiques of a few voices crying in the wilderness, seems well and truly now to have ‘taken off’. Indeed, the growth of this new (or rediscovered) paradigm has been such that . . .” read more
Hegel and Political Economy (Part II)
“Labour is a central notion in the works of Smith and Ricardo, and it is an elaboration of the concept of labour which enables Hegel to say something about human development and human autonomy which goes beyond what is to be found in conventional political economy. The main . . .” read more
The Origins of Capitalist Development: A Critique of Neo-Smithian Marxism
“The appearance of systematic barriers to economic advance in the course of capitalist expansion—the ‘development of underdevelopment’—has posed difficult problems for Marxist theory. There has arisen, in response, a strong tendency sharply to revise Marx’s conceptions regarding economic development. In part, this has been a healthy reaction to . . .” read more
Hegel and Political Economy (Part I)
“In The Formation of the Economic Thought of Karl Marx, Ernest Mandel writes: ‘Hegel had been profoundly affected in his youth by economic studies, in particular by the work of Adam Smith; Marx saw the Hegelian system as a veritable philosophy of labour.’ He goes on to quote . . .” read more
Is US Imperialism Resurgent?
“The Petras and Rhodes article in nlr 97, ‘The Reconsolidation of us Hegemony’ argues that, contrary to the view of many, the United States is not on the decline as a world power. It states: 1. that although the usa suffered some relatively minor setbacks . . .” read more
Reply to Critics
“Albert Szymanski’s attempted refutation of our thesis on the reconsolidation of us imperialism presents a ‘summary’ which does not in fact correspond to what we actually argued; offers statistical data that is largely irrelevant to the issues at stake; ignores important aspects of our position; and is . . .” read more
'Value' in Ricardo and Marx
“The resistance of many Marxists towards assimilating the theoretical developments of the so-called ‘Cambridge School’, and particularly the theory of prices developed by Piero Sraffa, may be explained by the fact that a certain confusion reigns between the meaning of the word ‘value’, as used by Marx in . . .” read more
The Theory of Long Waves: Kondratiev, Trotsky, Mandel
“At the mention of long cycles, most economists will recall Joseph Schumpeter’s classic study, Business Cycles. In that work Schumpeter referred to cyclical movements of approximately fifty years in length as ‘Kondratievs’, after the Russian economist N. D. Kondratiev, who was one of the first writers to attempt . . .” read more
US Imperialism--a Reply to Petras and Rhodes
“The article by James Petras and Robert Rhodes (‘The Reconsolidation of us Hegemony’, nlr 97) makes an important point in criticizing some interpretations of the decline of United States hegemony. However, their attempt to provide an alternative analysis ignores a number of important recent developments in . . .” read more
'Late Capitalism'
“Three years after its publication in Germany, Ernest Mandel’s Late Capitalism has now appeared in a revised and updated English edition. Whatever one’s criticisms, it is a major contribution to the revival of Marxist economics now occurring in Britain and some other Western countries. Indeed it is, in . . .” read more
'State Expenditure in Advanced Capitalism': A Critique
“Ian Gough’s article on ‘State Expenditure in Advanced Capitalism’ (nlr 92) concerns a subject which has been conspicuous by its absence from Marxist theoretical work: the question of the capitalist state’s location with respect to the economy. What are the effects and laws of development of the . . .” read more
The Reconsolidation of American Hegemony
“During the early part of this decade, a number of writers asserted that we were entering a new historical period marking the end of us world supremacy. Mustering an impressive set of dramatic events, the argument against the American century was quite convincing. In the so-called third . . .” read more
Natalie Moszkowska and the Falling Rate of Profit
“In nlr 86, Geoff Hodgson discussed the ‘tendency of the rate of profit to fall’. Though I agree with his general conclusions, I feel it is necessary to add some further arguments in order to make his refutation of the ‘law’ more convincing.” read more
Town and Country in the Transition to Capitalism
“The centrality of the town-country relation in the transition to capitalism in the West and more basically the equation of urbanism with capitalism and progress were already explicitly formulated in the earliest theories of the origins of capitalism—those of 18th-century political economy. For the proponents of the new . . .” read more
State Expenditure in Advanced Capitalism
“The current stage of ‘neo-capitalism’ or ‘state monopoly capitalism’ is characterized by a qualitatively expanded role of the state in capitalist social formations. One expression of this huge politico-economic weight of the modern state is the prolonged expansion in state expenditures, such that they now exceed one half . . .” read more
The Industrial Cycle in Late Capitalism
“It is well known that ever since large-scale capitalist industry achieved domination of the world market, its development has assumed a cyclical character, peculiar only to this mode of production, with successive phases of recession, upswing, boom, overheating, crash, depression and so on. Although Marx left no finished . . .” read more
Communication on Sraffa
“New Left Review has surely made a major contribution to the development of Marxism by publishing a thought-provoking interview with Lucio Colletti, and an important article by Bob Rowthorn, which both appeared in nlr 86 July /August 1974. These two texts together cover a variety of important . . .” read more
"Value, Price and Profit"
“In Capital Volume One Marx set out his theory of value and exploitation and showed, through his concept of the value of labour power, how ‘freedom’ of exchange is quite compatible with exploitation and the existence of surplus value. His argument was both strengthened and simplified by the . . .” read more
Recession and Its Consequences (Discussion)
“In September, when he was touring Australia, Ernest Mandel was invited to join a radio programme in which, through a link-up with London, he and Bill Warren discussed the impending world recession: its immediate and long-run effects, and its consequences for the working class. Naturally, in a . . .” read more
The Theorists of Capitalism
“Even the most abstract theoretical discourses and scientific endeavours are the product of particular societies in a particular historical period. As human beings live in societies and as these societies—like the rest of the universe—have a time dimension, the products of the human mind always have some kind . . .” read more
Neo-Classicism, Neo-Ricardianism and Marxism
“This essay will discuss the system of thought known as Neo-classical economics, the criticisms made of this system by the Neo-Ricardian school, and finally and especially, the relationship of Neo-Ricardianism to Marxism. The treatment of Neo-classical and Neo-Ricardian economics has been made deliberately general, in order to keep . . .” read more
Myths of Development versus Myths of Underdevelopment
“Bill Warren’s article Imperialism and Capitalist Industrialization in nlr 81 is a very important text, although I believe his fundamental line of argument to be misconceived. There is no doubt that he draws attention to many aspects of the vexed question of development in the Third World . . .” read more
Imperialism and the Contradiction of Development
“As a reflection of the direction of some socialist scholarship away from stagnationist theories of underdevelopment, Bill Warren’s article, Imperialism and Capitalist Industrialization addresses an important issue. The ambiguities and lack of theoretical sophistication of such concepts as ‘underdevelopment’ and ‘dependency’ indeed beset current Marxist analyses of the . . .” read more
Rosa Luxemburg: Barbarism and the Collapse of Capitalism
“‘Capitalism, by mightily furthering the development of the productive forces, and in virtue of its inherent contradictions, . . . provide(s) an excellent soil for the historical progress of society towards new economic and social forms.’ Rosa Luxemburg.” read more
Imperialism and Capitalist Industrialization
“Current Marxist views of the relationship of imperialism to the non-socialist underdeveloped countries are that the prospects of independent economic development or independent industrialization in such countries are nil or negligible (unless they take a socialist option); and that the characteristics of backwardness, underdevelopment and dependence which prevent . . .” read more
The Crisis of Profitability: A Critique of the Glyn-Sutcliffe Thesis
“In a chapter on ‘Politics’ in British Capitalism, Workers and the Profit Squeeze , Andrew Glyn and Bob Sutcliffe express the hope that their book will make a contribution to the political struggle for socialism. Towards this end they have gathered together and analysed a great deal of . . .” read more
Marx’s Theory of Productive and Unproductive Labour
“This essay will attempt, first and foremost, a definitive exposition of Marx’s theory of productive and unproductive labour. This theory is presented in the three volumes of Capital and in Theories of Surplus Value—Marx’s projected historico-critical fourth volume. This seems useful and necessary for several reasons. First, as . . .” read more
Dependent Capitalist Development in Latin America
“The theory of imperialist capitalism, as is well known, has so far attained its most significant treatment in Lenin’s works. This is not only because Lenin attempts to explain transformations of the capitalist economies that occurred during the last decade of the 19th century and the first decade . . .” read more
The Function of Labour Immigration in Western European Capitalism
“The domination of the working masses by a small capitalist ruling class has never been based on violence alone. Capitalist rule is based on a range of mechanisms, some objective products of the economic process, others subjective phenomena arising through manipulation of attitudes. Two such mechanisms, which received . . .” read more
White-Settler Colonialism and the Myth of Investment Imperialism
“‘Financial’ imperialism is a fashionable term. It is supposed to be different in nature from the ‘mercantile’ imperialism of the 17th and 18th centuries, to have matured during the last quarter of the 19th century and to have led to the ‘informal’ and then the ‘formal’ take-over of . . .” read more
Reply to Hernandez’s 'The Development of Marx’s Economic Thought'
“Angel Hernandez criticizes my Formation of the Economic Thought of Karl Marx on three essential points. He contends that: 1. in Marx’s mature writings, ‘alienation’ becomes synonymous with capitalist exploitation, as these writings have only one single object: an analysis of the capitalist mode of production; 2. it . . .” read more
The Development of Marx’s Economic Thought
“The Formation of the Economic Thought of Karl Marx, by the Belgian economist Ernest Mandel, forms part of a long-standing controversy over the importance of Marx’s youthful works for the later trajectory of his thought. The present phase of this polemic was inaugurated in the early 1960s. Economists, . . .” read more
Capitalist Planning and the State
“Formalized medium or long-term economic planning has by now been attempted by nearly all the principal industrialized capitalist countries, including the United States—which with the sweeping wage and price controls introduced by Nixon in late 1971 has belatedly joined the ranks of the other capitalist powers in this . . .” read more
The Internationalization of Capital and the Nation State: a Comment
“The central thesis of Robin Murray’s essay in nlr 67 is to the effect that the postwar ‘internationalization of capital’ has tended to weaken the (capitalist) nation State. His argument may be summarized as follows. Since the Second World War there has developed an increasing territorial divergence . . .” read more
Feudalism and Capitalism in Latin America
“Debate on the Left in the last decade over the origins and present nature of Latin American societies has focused on the problem of whether they should be seen as feudal or capitalist in character. A complex and lengthy discussion has taken place whose importance is not diminished . . .” read more
Internationalization of Capital and the Nation State
“Liberal models of the international economy, as of international relations in general, still spring predominantly from an early utilitarianism. The nation state is treated as the basic category in the world: the atom of the system. States are assumed to be rational, self-conscious, self-determining units, analogies of economic . . .” read more
The Critical Condition of British Capital
“Crisis is a word like wolf: it has been cried too often. But for British capitalism it looks as if this time the wolf is really at the door. A number of facts about the recent evolution of the British economy are well known enough—the rise in unemployment . . .” read more
The Specificity of US Imperialism
“Since the Russian Revolution, the rulers of America have been increasingly concerned to justify their imperial system against revolutionary attack. They have employed two constant methods to maintain their domination. The first has been physical—the proliferation of us bases, the mobility of the American fleet, the alertness . . .” read more
The Universal Contradiction
“Messengers of revolution are always welcome. Ernest Mandel’s thesis in ‘Where Is America Going?’ (NLR 54) that a socialist revolution within the United States is on the agenda of the next decade or two is an important corrective to the more gloomy theses being advanced from other quarters. . . .” read more
Ultra-Imperialism
“‘The article below was complete several weeks before the outbreak of the War. It was intended for our number which was to have greeted the planned Congress of the International. Like so much else this Congress has been brought to nothing by the events of the last days. . . .” read more
The Laws of Uneven Development
“Before answering Martin Nicolaus’s critique of ‘Where is America going?’, the origins and intended function of that article should be explained. It is the transcript of a speech given to a seminar of Finnish students at Helsinki, in the framework of a symposium on ‘American imperialism today’. It . . .” read more
Where Is America Going?
“Today, profound forces are working to undermine the social and economic equilibrium which has reigned in the United States for more than 25 years, since the big depressions of 1929–32 and of 1937–38. Some of these are forces of an international character, linked with the national liberation struggles . . .” read more
The Unknown Marx
“When he assessed his intellectual career in 1859, Karl Marx condemned to deserved obscurity all of his previous works but four. The Poverty of Philosophy (1847) first set forth the decisive points of his scientific views, although in polemical form, he wrote; and he implied that the same . . .” read more
Monopoly Capital
“The late Professor Baran once remarked to the present writer that he was ‘perfectly satisfied with the current state of orthodox economic theory’ and considered further mathematical explorations of the properties of conventional economic models a waste of time and energy. A little reflection will suggest that this . . .” read more
Capitalism and the Modernizers
“The last twenty years have seen a boom of unprecedented size in the capitalist world. Never before has capitalism grown so fast for so long. This boom has been accompanied by far reaching institutional changes. Big business is becoming increasingly rational and calculating. It is beginning to plan . . .” read more