Marxian Economic Theory
It should be double-spaced, 10 or 12 pt font and not exceed 15 pages
Feel free to discuss the questions among yourselves, form study groups to identify key concepts. But all essays must be original.
You may use sources other than those assigned, but they should be supplemental and appropriate cited.
Answer all 3 questions
1. 3-4 pages, double spaced: Chapter one of Marxist Economic Theory is devoted to explaining the genesis of social surplus product and tracing how social relations of production were transformed. It is an application of Marx’s historical materialism.
a. What is historical materialism?
b. Explain how Mandel uses the tools of this method in his explanation of the rise of class society from ancient communal (pre-feudal) modes of production. In your answer you might consider discussing:
1. On what basis does the first form of social surplus product appear in the history of human development?
2. What was the causal agent?
3. What were the original functions of the social surplus product
4. How does this explain the genesis of agriculture, metallurgy, and cattle-raising and the social division of labor into classes that resulted?
5. Mandel gives dozens of examples of how ancient communal/common ownership of property slowly moved toward private ownership of property and deep class relations. Provide some examples
6. How is this an example of the base/superstructure reasoning embedded in historical materialism?
2. 3-4 pages, double-spaced This question addresses the emergence of the law of value in petty commodity production.
a. On P. 53, Mandel writes “Silent barter and ceremonial gifts are transition forms between simple exchange and generalized exchange, which can be included under the common heading of developed exchange.”
1. Using the method of historical materialism, explain how generalized exchange develops both within a village community and among village communities.
2. How does this then explain the rise of labor-time as the common measure of organization?
b. Later Mandel writes about petty commodity production, the transition stage between feudalism and capitalism. Summarizing Marx’s first chapters (in Tucker), Mandel that “The law of value which regulates the exchange of commodities in accordance with the amount of abstract, simple, socially-necessary human labour they contain, at last begins to fulfill a supplementary function.” (p. 67 Mandel)
1. Define law of value, use value, exchange value, and abstract, socially-necessary labor
2. What is this supplementary function? When will it cease to be supplementary and become primary?
3. 5-8 pages
“We see then: the means of production and of exchange, on whose foundation the bourgeoisie built itself up, were generated in feudal society. At a certain stage in the development of these means of production and of exchange, the conditions under which feudal society produced and exchanged, the feudal organisation of agriculture and manufacturing industry, in one word, the feudal relations of property became no longer compatible with the already developed productive forces; they became so many fetters. They had to be burst asunder; they were burst asunder. Into their place stepped free competition, accomp anied by a social and political constitution adapted in it, and the economic and political sway of the bourgeois class.” (Marx, Communist Manifesto)
“Like the primitive accumulation of merchant capital, the primitive accumulation of commercial capital took place first and foremost by way of brigandage and piracy.” (Mandel, p. 107.)
“We see, therefore, how the modern bourgeoisie is itself the product of a long course of development, of a series of revolutions in the modes of production and of exchange.” (Marx, Communist Manifesto)
Think about these 3 quotes. Take any one of them. Explain the transition from feudalism to capitalism, focusing on how and why the so-called primitive accumulation of merchant capital took place and how this eventually led to the primitive accumulation of commercial capital and the era of capitalism. McNally, Lazonick, Cohen, Marx, and Mandel should be consulted and cited in your answer.