The Logic of Capital

This book presents the main economic argument developed by Marx in the three volumes of Capital in a coherent and comprehensive manner. The first part presents the main economic argument contained in the Capital in a coherent and comprehensive manner. It also delves into three long-standing debates in Marxist political economy: the transformation problem, the Okishio theorem, and theories of exploitation and oppression. Starting with discussions of methodology, including dialectics and historical materialism, the book explains key concepts of Marxist political economy: commodity, value, money, capital, reserve army of labour, accumulation of capital, circuit of capital, reproduction schemas, prices of production, profit, interest and rent. Scholars of economics, sociology, geography, political science, anthropology, and other kindred disciplines, will find here an accessible yet rigorous treatment of Marxist political economy.

TOS reflections: is there a third way? (to promote the Theory of Sampling)

A standing discussion topic within the sampling community is: “What is the best way to promote the TOS—not only as a theory, but also as a tool to help customers?” The latter objective casts the question into a rather more direct format: “How to sell TOS-compliant equipment, sampling system solutions, consulting and audit services to customers with only little or no familiarity with the need for proper sampling?” These reflections address the two most dominant answers: i) the economic argument “You’ll lose a lot of money if you don’t…”; or ii) the technical argument: “You need to understand these critical aspects of the TOS, or else…”. However, this is usually but a futile debate; obviously one should be able to wield a flexible tactics which best matches a specific marketing or application need with one, or both, of these approaches. But a recent event has tickled the imagination—is there possibly also a third way?

Back to Agriculture?

Malthus’s main economic argument against free corn trade in his Essay on Population concerned the issue of structural change triggered by international trade. Malthus claimed that, in the long run, agricultural countries will develop their domestic industrial sectors and cut both their corn exports and their imports of foreign industrial goods. We critically assess Malthus’s views and compare them with Torrens 1815 and Ricardo 1822. We argue that the weak point of Malthus’s reasoning lies in his inability to perceive that an international trade-induced structural change process is at work both in agricultural and manufacturing countries. Moreover, we show that, notwithstanding the broad similarity of their conclusions, Torrens and Ricardo followed two analytically different paths.

‘Decline’ to Modernization

This chapter examines the underpinnings of the‘declinist’ turn in public economic argument from the late 1950s; while there had been previous notions of economic decline at work in Britain, none had the force, significance, and longevity of that which began to be produced in this decade. It shows how this turn depended in part upon the publication of new internationally comparative economic statistics, which allowed a new political argument about ‘failure’ in economic management to gain credibility. The chapter then goes on to look at the emergence of ‘modernization’ narratives in both the Labour and Conservative parties, each a response to the broad agreement on the evidence of decline, and a belief that economy had to take a new direction.

Introduction

During the last several decades, the welfare state has come under increasing pressure around the world, with social provision often being cut or privatized. Often the justification for these changes has been made as an economic argument, especially a neoliberal argument that the welfare state diminishes growth or produces disincentives to work. These arguments are of relatively recent origin, however; many types of economists have supported the creation of the welfare state, even liberal economists. The purpose of this book is to examine the economic arguments that have been used in the United Kingdom, Japan, and Germany in support of, and in opposition to, the welfare state. Special attention is paid to the transnational dimensions of recent welfare discourse and to the ways that liberal and neoliberal arguments about the welfare state have changed over time.