Economic Surplus, the Baran Ratio, and Capital Accumulation

2019 ◽  
pp. 25-39
Author(s):  
Zhun Xu
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Political Economy ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
Capital Accumulation ◽  
Capital Formation ◽  
The Political ◽  
Ruling Class ◽  
Economic Surplus ◽  
Effective Utilization ◽  
Seminal Contribution

In 1957, in the Political Economy of Growth, Paul Baran made a seminal contribution to our understanding of the connection between economic surplus—a concept he introduced into the development discussion—and growth. Given that the ruling class controls the surplus of society, how the surplus is used—whether it is invested, consumed, or simply wasted—is at its discretion. The effective utilization of surplus implies a reasonable rate of capital accumulation and economic development. In the following study of the utilization of surplus I compare the size of surplus and gross capital formation in a variety of countries starting from the mid–nineteenth century.

The Political Economy of Opium Smuggling in Early Nineteenth Century India: Leakage or Resistance?

2009 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-111 ◽  
Author(s):  
CLAUDE MARKOVITS
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Political Economy ◽  
Capital Accumulation ◽  
Central India ◽  
East India Company ◽  
Recent Book ◽  
The Political ◽  
Western India ◽  
Trading System

AbstractThis article looks at the political economy of opium smuggling in India in the first decades of the nineteenth century, in particular in relation to Sindh, one of the last independent polities in the subcontinent. After a description of the smuggling of ‘Malwa’ opium (grown in the princely states of Central India) into China—in defiance of the monopoly of the East India Company over ‘Bengal’ or ‘Patna’ opium, grown in Bihar—it considers the role of Indian merchants and capitalists in its emergence and development, and critiques the argument put forward in a recent book by Amar Farooqi that it represented both a form of ‘subversion’ and that it contributed decisively to capital accumulation in Western India. This article concludes by analysing the role of the opium trade in integrating Sindh into the British imperial trading system, arguing that it was more effective in boosting Empire than in nurturing indigenous capitalism in India.

The Contributions of the political economy approach: An analysis of Socio-economic development in Indonesia

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Falih Suaedi ◽  
Muhmmad Saud
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Comparative Politics ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
The Political ◽  
Developmental Studies ◽  
Socio Economic Development ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
Political Economy Approach

This article explores in what ways political economy as an analytical framework for developmental studies has contributed to scholarships on Indonesian’s contemporary discourse of development. In doing so, it reviews important scholarly works on Indonesian political and economic development since the 1980s. The argument is that given sharp critiques directed at its conceptual and empirical utility for understanding changes taking place in modern Indonesian polity and society, the political economy approach continues to be a significant tool of research specifically in broader context of comparative politics applied to Indonesia and other countries in Southeast Asia. The focus of this exploration, however, has shifted from the formation of Indonesian bourgeoisie to the reconstitution of bourgeois oligarchy consisting of the alliance between the politico-bureaucratic elite and business families. With this in mind, the parallel relationship of capitalist establishment and the development of the state power in Indonesia is explainable.<br>

scholarly journals The Sociology of Agriculture in Transition: The Political Economy of Agriculture after Biotechnology

2010 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 243-270 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriela Pechlaner
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Capital Accumulation ◽  
Agricultural Biotechnology ◽  
Agricultural Practices ◽  
Patent Infringement ◽  
The Political ◽  
Corporate Ownership ◽  
Seed Saving ◽  
Traditional Agricultural Practices ◽  
Sociology Of Agriculture

ABSTRACT Due to its particularities as a nature-based process, agriculture’s ‘exceptionalism’ to capitalist industrialization has garnered much debate. One of the more productive consequences of this debate has been the development of conceptual tools that account for its distinction from typical capital accumulation patterns, such as Goodman, Sorj and Wilkinson’s (1987) classic concepts of “appropriationism” and “substitutionism.” The advent of agricultural biotechnology is now testing the limits of even these more refined conceptualizations, however, as the technology’s associated proprietary framework is reorganizing many traditional agricultural practices. Drawing on empirical examples of biotechnology-induced change—e.g. restrictions on seed saving, grower contracts, and patent infringement lawsuits—this paper argues that there is a need for a new concept in political economy of agriculture theory, which I term “expropriationism.” This concept identifies several aspects of an agricultural reorganization premised on legal means to enhance capital accumulation and on separating corporate ownership from liability.

scholarly journals Distributing productive play: a materialist analysis of Steam

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Joseph
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Interaction Design ◽  
Capital Accumulation ◽  
Game Studies ◽  
The Political ◽  
Sales Promotions ◽  
Historical Continuity ◽  
New Space ◽  
A Site

Valve Corporation’s digital game distribution platform, Steam, is the largest distributor of games on personal computers, analyzed here as a site where control over the production, design and use of digital games is established. Steam creates and exercises processes and techniques such as monopolization and enclosure over creative products, online labour, and exchange among game designers. Stuart Hall’s encoding/decoding framework places communication at the centre of the political economy, here of digital commodities distributed and produced by online platforms like Steam. James Gibson’s affordance theory allows the market Steam’s owners create for its users to be cast in terms of visuality and interaction design. These theories are largely neglected in the existing literature in game studies, platform studies, and political economy, but they allow intervention in an ongoing debate concerning the ontological status of work and play as distinct, separate human activities by offering a specific focus on the political economy of visual or algorithmic communication. Three case studies then analyze Steam as a site where the slippage between game-play and work is constant and deepening. The first isolates three sales promotions on Steam as forms of work disguised as online shopping. The second is a discourse analysis of a crisis within the community of mod creators for the game Skyrim, triggered by changes implemented on Steam. The third case study critiques Valve Corporation’s positioning of Steam as a new space to extract value from play by demonstrating historical continuity with consumer monopolies. A concluding discussion argues Steam is a platform that evolves to meet distinct crises and problems in the production and circulation of its digital commodities as contradictions arise. Ultimately, Steam shows how the cycle of capital accumulation encourages monopolization and centralization.

The Political Economy of Alcohol

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerard Sasges
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
The Political ◽  
New Era ◽  
New Ways Of Working ◽  
Enterprise Groups ◽  
Step Down ◽  
Traditional Industry ◽  
State Protection

When A.R. Fontaine arrived in Tonkin in 1886, he was quick to see the potential of applying new technologies to a traditional industry, and to grasp the importance of state protection for the success of his fledgling enterprise. From modest origins, he built a business empire that included everything from distilleries to coal mines to bicycle factories. Fontaine’s was one of the colonial conglomerates that played a central role in the economy’s “Indochinese moment,” introducing new technologies and familiarizing Indochinese with new ways of working, consuming and being. However, the downturn that began in Indochina in 1928 exposed the weakness of many of these enterprise groups. When A.R. Fontaine was forced to step down as President of the SFDIC in 1932, it signified the start of a new era of economic development directed not from Hanoi or Saigon, but rather from Paris.

Empire without Sovereignty

2021 ◽  
pp. 25-71
Author(s):  
David Todd
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Political Economy ◽  
Free Trade ◽  
The Political ◽  
Territorial Expansion ◽  
Global Consciousness ◽  
Intellectual Origins ◽  
The Common ◽  
Common Perception ◽  
Informal Imperialism

This chapter investigates the political economy of French informal imperialism, revealing a little-known facet of the intellectual origins of globalization, and confirming that the pursuit of empire and the emergence of global consciousness were inextricably linked. It highlights lesser known thinkers, which helps recover what the prevailing attitudes of the informed liberal-leaning public towards empire actually were. After 1815, once the word “liberal” entered the political lexicon, Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand, the Abbé Dominique de Pradt, and Michel Chevalier described themselves as liberals — with some justification, since they admired Britain's balanced constitution and were stalwart advocates of free trade. Recovering their views on empire therefore helps to suggest that French liberals did not become imperialistic in the mid-nineteenth century, but instead consistently harboured imperial ambitions, even if, for pragmatic reasons, they tended to shun territorial expansion after 1815. Focusing on these neglected but influential figures also helps correct the common perception of France as having withdrawn from the international stage after the fall of Napoleon.

scholarly journals Socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics in a new era

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 307-325
Author(s):  
Yinxing Hong
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
Economic System ◽  
The Political ◽  
Content Type ◽  
New Era ◽  
Economic Operation ◽  
Theoretical System ◽  
Chinese Characteristics ◽  
Level Analysis

PurposeThe socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics reflects the characteristics of ushering into a new era, and the research object thereof shifts to productive forces. Emancipating and developing productive forces and achieving common prosperity become the main theme. Wealth supersedes value as the fundamental category of economic analysis.Design/methodology/approachThe theoretical system of socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics cannot proceed from transcendental theories but is problem-oriented. Leading problems involve development stages and research-level problems.FindingsThe economic operation analysis is subject to the goal of optimal allocation of resources with micro-level analysis focused on efficiency and macro-level analysis focused on economic growth and macroeconomic stability also known as economic security. The economic development analysis explores the laws of development and related development concepts in compliance with laws of productive forces. The new development concepts i.e. the innovative coordinated green open and shared development drive the innovation of development theory in political economy.Originality/valueAccordingly, the political economy cannot study the system only, but also needs to study the problems of economic operation and economic development. Therefore, the theoretical system of the political economy tends to encompass three major parts, namely economic system, economic operation and economic development (including foreign economy). The basic economic system analysis needs to understand the relationship between public ownership and non-public ownership, between distribution according to work and factor payments, and between socialism and market economy from the perspective of coexistence theory, thus transforming institutional advantage into governance advantage.

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