IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/new/wpaper/1705.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Socialist alternatives to capitalism I: Marx to Hayek

Author

Listed:
  • Duncan Foley

    (Department of Economics, New School for Social Research)

Abstract

This paper surveys the development of the concept of socialism from the French Revolution to the socialist calculation debate. Karl Marx’s politics of revolutionary socialism led by an empowered proletariat nurtured by capital accumulation envisions socialism as a “top-down” system resting on political institutions, despite Marx’s keen appreciation of the long-period analysis of the organization of social production in the classical political economists. Collectivist thinking in the work of Enrico Barone and Wilfredo Pareto paved the way for the discussion of socialism purely in terms of the allocation of resources. The Soviet experiment abandoned the mixed economy model of the New Economic Policy for a political-bureaucratic administration of production only loosely connected to theoretical concepts of socialism. The socialist calculation debate reductively recast the problem of socialism as a problem of allocation of resources, leading to general equilibrium theory. Friedrich Hayek responded to the socialist calculation debate by shifting the ground of discussion from class relations to information revelation.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Duncan Foley, 2017. "Socialist alternatives to capitalism I: Marx to Hayek," Working Papers 1705, New School for Social Research, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:new:wpaper:1705
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.economicpolicyresearch.org/econ/2017/NSSR_WP_052017.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2017
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ellman,Michael, 2014. "Socialist Planning," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107074736.
    2. Mandler, Michael, 2001. "Dilemmas in Economic Theory: Persisting Foundational Problems of Microeconomics," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195145755.
    3. Jonathan F. Cogliano, 2011. "Smith’s “Perfect Liberty” and Marx’s Equalized Rate of Surplus-Value," Working Papers 1108, New School for Social Research, Department of Economics.
    4. Foley, Duncan K., 2010. "What's wrong with the fundamental existence and welfare theorems?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 75(2), pages 115-131, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. Altruismo, incentivi e informazione: due o tre cose che so sull’esperienza socialista
      by Sergio Cesaratto in Politica&EconomiaBlog on 2017-11-26 14:19:00

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Emilio Carnevali & André Pedersen Ystehede, 2023. "Is socialism back? A review of contemporary economic literature," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(2), pages 239-270, April.

    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. Daniele Cassese & Paolo Pin, 2018. "Decentralized Pure Exchange Processes on Networks," Papers 1803.08836, arXiv.org, revised Mar 2022.
    2. John A Weymark, 2012. "Social Welfare Functions," Vanderbilt University Department of Economics Working Papers vuecon-sub-13-00018, Vanderbilt University Department of Economics.
    3. Cohen, Solomon I., 2014. "Different institutional behavior in different economic systems: Theory and evidence on diverging systems worldwide," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 221-242.
    4. Carlo Milana, 2019. "Solving the Reswitching Paradox in the Sraffian Theory of Capital," Applied Economics and Finance, Redfame publishing, vol. 6(6), pages 97-125, November.
    5. Cowling, Keith & Tomlinson, Philip R., 2002. "Re-Visiting The Roots Of Japan'S Structural Decline:The Role Of The Japanese Corporation," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 624, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    6. Mr. Ales Bulir & Ms. Zuzana Brixiova, 2001. "Growth Slowdown in Bureaucratic Economic Systems: An Issue Revisited," IMF Working Papers 2001/006, International Monetary Fund.
    7. Michael Mandler, 2005. "Well‐Behaved Production Economies," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(4), pages 477-494, November.
    8. Vértesy, László, 2017. "Constitutional Bases of Public Finances in the Central and Eastern European Countries," MPRA Paper 88185, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Péter Földvári & Bas van Leeuwen & Dmitry Didenko, 2015. "Capital formation and economic growth under central planning and transition: A theoretical and empirical analysis, ca. 1920–2008," Acta Oeconomica, Akadémiai Kiadó, Hungary, vol. 65(1), pages 27-50, March.
    10. repec:ilo:ilowps:287851 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. S. Estrin, 1996. "Privatisation in Central and Eastern Europe," CERT Discussion Papers 9605, Centre for Economic Reform and Transformation, Heriot Watt University.
    12. Erik Angner, 2011. "Current Trends in Welfare Measurement," Chapters, in: John B. Davis & D. Wade Hands (ed.), The Elgar Companion to Recent Economic Methodology, chapter 6, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    13. Mario Rizzo, 2014. "James M. Buchanan: Through an Austrian window," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 27(2), pages 135-145, June.
    14. Noe Wiener, 2018. "Measuring Labor Market Segmentation from Incomplete Data," UMASS Amherst Economics Working Papers 2018-01, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Department of Economics.
    15. Jan Hagemejer & Joanna Tyrowicz, 2021. "Structural change and misallocation: Firm‐level evidence from Poland," Economics of Transition and Institutional Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(1), pages 95-122, January.
    16. Dimitrov, Mitko & Estrin, Saul & Richet, Xavier, 1998. "State Enterprises Restructuring in Bulgaria, Albania and Romania," MPRA Paper 57231, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Simpson, James, 2017. "The nature and response to the 1930s agrarian crisis : Spain in a European perspective," IFCS - Working Papers in Economic History.WH 25503, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Instituto Figuerola.
    18. Alfie Antonio Ulloa Urrutia, 2003. "¿Socialista o Subdesarrollado?: Una Propuesta Sobre la Transición Económica de Cuba," Annual Proceedings, The Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy, vol. 13.
    19. Mark Harrison & Inga Zaksauskienė, 2016. "Counter-intelligence in a command economy," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 69(1), pages 131-158, February.
    20. Robert Lepenies, 2014. "Economists as political philosophers : a critique of normative trade theory," RSCAS Working Papers 2014/11, European University Institute.
    21. Duncan K. Foley, 2020. "Socialist alternatives to capitalism II: Vienna to Santa Fe," Review of Evolutionary Political Economy, Springer, vol. 1(3), pages 313-328, November.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:new:wpaper:1705. 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: Mark Setterfield (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/denewus.html .

    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.