IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/h/eme/rpeczz/s0161-7230(2011)0000027013.html
   My bibliography  Save this book chapter

Crisis, Marxism, and Economic Laws: A Response to Gary Mongiovi

In: Revitalizing Marxist Theory for Today's Capitalism

Author

Listed:
  • Alan Freeman

Abstract

Gary Mongiovi accurately cites my thesis, presented inFreeman (2010a)(henceforth referred to asPositivist Marxismand abbreviated toPM), that “capitalism's inner laws express themselves in … different ways during booms and during crises” and that “When the business cycle is in an upswing … the tensions and contradictions that will eventually interrupt the process of capital accumulation are camouflaged by the commodity form, and so appear as natural laws of motion.” He also expresses general agreement with this thesis, but complains that the way I present it is “marred by a gratuitous methodological argument” which is “misleading and therefore stand[s] in the way of productive discussion.” The methodological argument in question is that no theory based on the method of static equilibrium can provide an explanation of endogenous capitalist crisis; this is the main issue I address in this response.PMapplies this argument in order to examine a theoretical current that dominates Western, academic, Marxism. This current interprets Marx's theory as a variant of general equilibrium. In this response I refer to it as simultaneist Marxism (SM).

Suggested Citation

  • Alan Freeman, 2011. "Crisis, Marxism, and Economic Laws: A Response to Gary Mongiovi," Research in Political Economy, in: Revitalizing Marxist Theory for Today's Capitalism, pages 285-296, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    • Handle: RePEc:eme:rpeczz:s0161-7230(2011)0000027013
    DOI: 10.1108/S0161-7230(2011)0000027013
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/S0161-7230(2011)0000027013/full/html?utm_source=repec&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=repec
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers
    File URL: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/S0161-7230(2011)0000027013/full/pdf?utm_source=repec&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=repec
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers
    File URL: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/S0161-7230(2011)0000027013/full/epub?utm_source=repec&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=repec&title=10.1108/S0161-7230(2011)0000027013
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1108/S0161-7230(2011)0000027013?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Freeman, Alan, 2002. "Marx After Marx After Sraffa," MPRA Paper 2619, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Freeman, Alan, 2003. "When Things Go Wrong: the Political Economy of Market Breakdown," MPRA Paper 5586, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Freeman, Alan, 2006. "An Invasive Metaphor: the Concept of Centre of Gravity in Economics," MPRA Paper 6812, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Alan Freeman, 2009. "The Economists of Tomorrow: the Case for a Pluralist Subject Benchmark Statement for Economics," International Review of Economic Education, Economics Network, University of Bristol, vol. 8(2), pages 23-40.
    5. Wells, Julian, 2006. "The dogs that didn’t bark: Marx and Engels and statistical fatalism," MPRA Paper 65215, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Freeman, Alan, 2010. "Trends in Value Theory since 1881," MPRA Paper 48646, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 04 Jan 2011.
    7. Freeman, Alan, 2009. "How much is enough?," MPRA Paper 13262, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Freeman, Alan, 1999. "The limits of Ricardian value: law, contingency and motion in economics," MPRA Paper 2574, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Freeman, Alan, 2009. "Marxism without Marx: a note towards a critique," MPRA Paper 48618, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 17 Nov 2009.
    10. Freeman, Alan, 2009. "Investing In Civilization," MPRA Paper 26807, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 15 Feb 2009.
    11. Radhika Desai, 2010. "Consumption demand in Marx and in the current crisis," Research in Political Economy, in: The National Question and the Question of Crisis, pages 101-143, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Alan Freeman, 2010. "Crisis and “law of motion” in economics: a critique of positivist Marxism," Research in Political Economy, in: The National Question and the Question of Crisis, pages 211-250, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    2. Andrew Mearman & Sebastian Berger & Danielle Guizzo, 2016. "Curriculum reform in UK economics: a critique," Working Papers 20161611, Department of Accounting, Economics and Finance, Bristol Business School, University of the West of England, Bristol.
    3. Andrew Mearman, 2010. "What is this thing called ‘heterodox economics’?," Working Papers 1006, Department of Accounting, Economics and Finance, Bristol Business School, University of the West of England, Bristol.
    4. Freeman, Alan, 2009. "Marxism without Marx: a note towards a critique," MPRA Paper 48618, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 17 Nov 2009.
    5. Andrew Mearman, 2012. "Pluralist economics curricula: do they work; and how would we know?," Working Papers 20121203, Department of Accounting, Economics and Finance, Bristol Business School, University of the West of England, Bristol.
    6. Freeman, Alan & Desai, Radhika, 2009. "How Bad is US Unemployment?," MPRA Paper 13740, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Haucap, Justus & Thomas, Tobias & Wagner, Gert G., 2015. "Zu wenig Einfluss des ökonomischen Sachverstands? Empirische Befunde zum Einfluss von Ökonomen und anderen Wissenschaftlern auf die Wirtschaftspolitik," DICE Ordnungspolitische Perspektiven 70, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE).
    8. Nicolás Grinberg, 2021. "Ground‐Rent and Capital Accumulation in Australia," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 54(2), pages 231-254, June.
    9. Andy Denis, 2013. "Pluralism in economics education," Chapters, in: Jesper Jespersen & Mogens Ove Madsen (ed.), Teaching Post Keynesian Economics, chapter 5, pages 88-105, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    10. Justus Haucap, 2020. "Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Politikberatung in Deutschland: Stärken, Schwächen, Optimierungspotenzial," Springer Books, in: Dirk Loerwald (ed.), Ökonomische Erkenntnisse verständlich vermitteln, pages 45-78, Springer.
    11. Robert Garnett & John Reardon, 2011. "Big Think: A Model for Critical Inquiry in Economics Courses," Working Papers 201102, Texas Christian University, Department of Economics.
    12. Thomas Goda & Özlem Onaran & Engelbert Stockhammer, 2014. "A case for redistribution? Income inequality and wealth concentration in the recent crisis," Documentos de Trabajo de Valor Público 12186, Universidad EAFIT.
    13. Doctorovich Anatoly Borisovich & Kushlin Valery Ivanovich & Ustenko Victoria Sergeevna, 2014. "International experience of development and realization of the strategy of human resources management," Published Papers nvg111, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration.
    14. Özgür Orhangazi, 2011. "“Financial” vs. “Real”: An Overview of the Contradictory Role of Finance," Research in Political Economy, in: Revitalizing Marxist Theory for Today's Capitalism, pages 121-148, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    15. Freeman, Alan & Kagarlitsky, Boris, 2004. "World Empire - or a world of Empires?," MPRA Paper 52543, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 27 Dec 2013.
    16. Víctor A. Beker, 2021. "Economics and pluralism," Asociación Argentina de Economía Política: Working Papers 4435, Asociación Argentina de Economía Política.
    17. Katarzyna Gruszka & Annika Scharbert & Michael Soder, 2016. "Changing the world one student at a time? Uncovering subjective understandings of economics instructors' roles," Ecological Economics Papers ieep7, Institute of Ecological Economics.
    18. Freeman, Alan, 2011. "Association for Heterodox Economics Submission to UK Science and Technology Parliamentary Select Committee on peer review," MPRA Paper 64702, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 10 Mar 2011.
    19. Kirchgässner, Gebhard, 2014. "On the Process of Scientific Policy Advice - With Special Reference to Economic Policy," Economics Working Paper Series 1438, University of St. Gallen, School of Economics and Political Science.
    20. Robert Garnett & Andrew Mearman, 2011. "Contending Perspectives, Twenty Years On: What Have Our Students Learned?," Working Papers 201104, Texas Christian University, Department of Economics.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • B1 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought through 1925
    • B14 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought through 1925 - - - Socialist; Marxist
    • B3 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought: Individuals
    • B5 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Current Heterodox Approaches

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eme:rpeczz:s0161-7230(2011)0000027013. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Emerald Support (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.