Harvard-trained economist and co-editor of Monthly Review, Paul Sweezy was among the most influential economists and Marxist intellectuals of the 20th century. His contributions extended over six decades from the early 1930s to the early 1990s. He played a role in the development of imperfect-competition analysis and in debates surrounding the Great Depression. His Theory of Capitalist […]
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The Working Class: Is It Dead?
Among those who are convinced of the need for radical social change in the advanced capitalist countries as the world nears the year 2000 there are two broad streams of thought. One of these adheres to the traditional left view that the working class is (almost by definition) the only social force capable of carrying […]
A Turn to Reality
Review of Economics Without Equilibrium by Nicholas Kaldor.
The Political Economy of the United States Left
Review of Radical Political Economy Since the Sixties: A Sociology of Knowledge Analysis by Paul Attewell.
Sources of Instability in the U.S. Political Economy and Empire
“Sources of Instability in the U.S. Political Economy and Empire,” [PDF] Science & Society, vol. XLIX, no. 2 (Summer 1985), pp. 167-193. In Discussing the sources of instability in the U.S. social order, it is useful to focus successively on the economic, political-cultural and imperial aspects of the problem, corresponding to the three levels of economy, […]
Monopoly Capital Theory and Stagflation: A Comment
In my view, David Kotz’s article, ‘Monopoly. Inflation and Economic Crisis” (Kotz 1982), provides a clear and, for the most part, internally consistent explanation of the inflationary features of monpolistic pricing in the context of long-term economic stagnation, and deserves to be recognized as a notable addition to Marxian analysis. But his claim of having […]
On the Waterfront: Longshoring in Canada
The words, “On the Waterfront,” for most people carry an air of mystery and suspense, vaguely evoking images of Marlon Brando and the New York harbor of the early 1950’s. But the sense of otherworldliness that clings to the longshore labour process goes far beyond its history of exploitation and violence, and arises instead out […]
The Political Economy of Joseph Schumpeter
The name of Joseph Schumpeter is still a prominent one in the social sciences. He was undoubtedly one of the leading economists of his generation. That by itself would have been enough to ensure him lasting fame, yet his importance as a social theorist extends far beyond that which is attributable simply to his performance […]
Understanding the Significance of the Great Depression
Only a few years ago it was an article of faith among most orthodox economists that the Great Depression of the 1930s was an unaccountable deviation from the natural course of capitalist evolution. They also thought that any further repetition of severe economic distress was inconceivable in the age of informed macroeconomic policy. Even now, […]
Theories of Capitalist Transformation
John E. Elliott’s [1980] article on some of the parallels between the visions of capitalist transformation to be found in Marx and Schumpeter is extremely insofar as it requires a serious reexamination of the schumpeterian system. Elliott’s argument, however, is somewhat misleading, since it overemphasizes the points at which their theories overlap, while largely neglecting […]
