Marx's Radical Critique of Capitalist Society: A Reconstruction and Critical
Evaluation
New York: Oxford University Press, 1990. 334 + xviii pps.
Abstract
Although Marx thought of himself as a scientist whose primary tasks were to explain the workings of the capitalist economy (his economic theory) and to explain the dynamics of class societies generally (his theory of history), it is reasonably clear that he also believed that capitalism was a bad thing, however historically necessary it might be. Furthermore, he clearly believed that the problems with capitalist society are deeply rooted in the sense that only a radical transformation of capitalism (i.e., its replacement by socialism) could eliminate or significantly reduce these problems. For these reasons, Marx can be thought of as offering a radical critique of capitalist society. The purpose of this book is to explicate and critically evaluate this critique.
Chapter 1 identifies the key elements in any such critique. They include the Critical Explanations requirement and the Alternative Institutions requirement. The former requires the radical critic to identify certain social ills or defects characteristic of capitalist society (e.g., exploitation and alienation) and to explain how and why these ills or defects are rooted in the basic socioeconomic structure of that society. The Alternative Institutions requirement demands that the radical critic produce a sketch of alternative social institutions and explain how or why those institutions do not reproduce the problems of capitalism or cause other, even worse problems.
Chapters 2 through 5 reconstruct and evaluate Marx's attempt to meet the Critical Explanations requirement. Chapter 2 is about alienation and Marx's attempt to explain the various manifestations of it in terms of the workings of the capitalist economic and political system. Chapters 3 through 5 are about exploitation in capitalist society. Chapter 3 is a critical analysis of Marx's attempt to establish the charge that the workers are systematically exploited by the capitalists. Chapters 4 and 5 constitute an exhaustive statement and critical evaluation of various recent attempts in the secondary literature to reconstruct Marx's argument for this claim.
Chapters 6 and 7 give Marx the best case possible on the Alternative Institutions requirement. Chapter 6 begins with a careful examination of what the economic system of post-capitalist society must be, given what Marx says and what can be inferred from his theory of history. Much of this chapter is taken up with the articulation and defense of the controversial claim that Marx believed that post-capitalist would have a centrally planned economy. Chapter 7 explains more of the details of post-capitalist society. More specifically, three aspects of that society are discussed: 1) how wealth and income would be distributed in the two phases of post-capitalist society (sometimes referred to as 'socialism' and 'communism'), 2) the nature of the state in the first phase, and its eventual demise in the second phase, of post-capitalist society. 3) how Marx might have argued that exploitation and alienation would be prevented or eliminated in both phases of post-capitalist society.
The main purpose of Chapters 8 and 9 is to show that Marx's radical critique of capitalist society is fatally flawed because his vision of post-capitalist society cannot be realized. Chapter 8 argues that the second or higher phase of post-capitalist society (communism) is unrealizable because the distribution principle of the economic system of that society cannot be realized. This principle says that distribution of the social product would be in accordance with need. It is argued that no system can distribute entitlements to consumer goods (i.e., income) in accordance with need, as Marx understands this notion.
Chapter 9 makes a very different kind of argument against the first or lower phase of post-capitalist society (socialism). The main idea of this argument is that a socialist economic system, as Marx conceived it, would in fact produce (significant) exploitation and alienation. More exactly, the argument is that central planning creates an environment in which exploitation and alienation are pervasive phenomena.
Chapter 10 contains a brief discussion of market socialism, a form of socialism Marx could not accept or approve of for reasons discussed earlier in the book. It is argued that market socialism would likely also face significant problems of exploitation and alienation, though the question of whether or not it is to be preferred to capitalism, in some all things considered way, is left unresolved. The upshot of this discussion is that market socialism constitutes a meliorist response to the evils of capitalist society and thus represents the abandonment of radical criticism. Finally, Chapter 10 contains a discussion of the relation between social ideals and social realities; this discussion is based on the insights derived from the reconstruction and critical evaluation of Marx presented in the rest of the book; it outlines the burdens and pitfalls of systematic attempts to evaluate social and economic systems.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: The Very Idea of a Radical Critique
The Very Idea of a Radical Critique
Three Challenges to the Possibility of a Radical Marxian Critique of Capitalist Society
Chapter 2: Alienation
Alienation from the Products of Labor
Alienation From the Activity of Laboring
Alienation from Species Being
Alienation from Others
Some Preliminary Conclusions
Chapter 3: Exploitation: Marx and Böhm-Bawerk
Marx's Argument of Capital I
Böhm-Bawerk's Objections
Can Marx Avoid the "Unresolved Contradiction?"
Vindicating Böhm-Bawerk
Appendix: G. A. Cohen's Reading of the LTV
Chapter 4: Parasite Exploitation
Different Conceptions of Exploitation
Surplus Value Exploitation
More on Unequal Labor Exchange
Productive Asymmetry
What, if Anything, Does the Capitalist Contribute?
Final Doubts About Capitalist Contribution
Parasite Exploitation and Alienated Labor
Summary
Chapter 5: Property Relations Exploitation
Capitalistic Exploitation
Exploitation and Perspectives on Distributive Justice
Chapter 6: Post-Capitalist Society: Relations of Production and the Coordination of
Production
Social Visions
Relations of Production in Post-Capitalist Society
Relations of Production and the Coordination of Production in Post-Capitalist Society:
Market Socialism and Central Planning
Marx's Commitment to Central Planning
Motivating Marx's Commitment to Central Planning: The Critical Explanations of Alienation
in Capitalist Society
Further Arguments for Central Planning in Post-Capitalist Society
Chapter 7: Post-Capitalist Society: Distribution, the State, and the Good Society
Distribution in Post-Capitalist Society: The First Phase
The Preconditions for the Second Phase of Post-Capitalist Society
Distribution in Post-Capitalist Society: The Second Phase
The State in Post-Capitalist Society
Post-Capitalist Society as the Good Society: The End of Exploitation
Post-Capitalist Society as the Good Society: The End of Alienation
Summary
Chapter 8: The Unrealizability of the Second Phase of Post-Capitalist Society
Unrealizability Arguments or A Critique of Radical Criticism
Failure of the Material Pre-Conditions of the Good Life
Some Objections
The Primary Evils
Final Doubts and Reservations
Chapter 9: The Unrealizability of the First Phase of Post-Capitalist Society
A Strategy for an Unrealizability Argument for the First Phase of Post-Capitalist
Society
The Coordination of Production in a Centrally Planned Economy
Some Objections
Are the Workers Capitalistically Exploited in Capitalist Society?
Exploitation in the First Phase of Post-Capitalist Society
Alienation in the First Phase of Post-Capitalist Society
Chapter 10: The Market Socialist Alternative and Concluding Observations
The Market Socialist Alternative
Perspectives on Social Criticism
Notes
Bibliography
Index