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VOLUME 68, NUMBER 2, SUMMER 2004
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| Editorial Perspectives:
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Value Theory and the Academic
Respectability Barrier
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| ARTICLES |
| Homo Economicus, Political Economy, and Socialism |
| Euclid Tsakalotos |
ABSTRACT: Neither the critique of capitalism nor the search for socialist economic alternatives can avoid an explicit engagement with values. This entails rejecting homo economicus, which acts as a basic building block for both neoclassical economic theory and the defence of the market economic order. Socialists have much to learn from three recent literatures on the ethical limitations of the market, endogenous preferences and the social determinants of superior economic performance which are all based on an explicit rejection of the homo economicus assumption. None of these literatures is unproblematic from a socialist perspective, but there is much that is useful and much more that can become useful with an appropriate critical engagement. Institutions and processes that promote socialist values such as cooperation and solidarity are a crucial part of both the transition to and the maturing of a more participatory and coordinated economic system.
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| Postmodernism, Historical Materialism and
Chicana/o Cultural Studies |
| Marcial González |
ABSTRACT: During the past two decades, critics have taken an interest in explaining the ideological ambivalence expressed in Chicana/o literature. Most critics correctly point out that Chicana/o ambivalence cannot be separated from the conflicted material realities historically experienced by Mexican Americans, but this view has not prevented some critics from tiptoeing into the idealist terrain of postmodernism. Postmodernist theory has provided Chicana/o criticism with conceptual tools for explaining the heterogeneity of culture, but its antagonism toward history and class analysis has limited the potential for Chicana/o studies to develop an effective social criticism. Two postmodernist terms used to describe ambivalence are "cultural schizophrenia" and "heterotopia." Historical materialism — a method that makes truth-claims about social existence after a rigorous critique of the concepts and ideas that emerge from that existence — stands as a viable alternative to postmodernist theory for the interpretation of Chicana/o literature.
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| Kalecki and the Grossmann Model of
Economic Breakdown |
| Andrew B. Trigg |
ABSTRACT: Henryk Grossmann radically changed the course of Marxist economics with his 1929 adaptation of Marx's law of the falling rate of profit. By a simple extension of Otto Bauer's simulation of Marx's reproduction schema, Grossmann demonstrates that accumulation leads to a shrinking pool of surplus value and eventual economic breakdown. It can, however, be argued that once the role of money is taken seriously in Marx's reproduction schema it is no longer possible for accumulation to swallow up all the available surplus value. By identifying the role of the Kalecki principle in Marx's schema, that capitalists earn what they spend, a modified simulation of the Bauer/Grossmann model is developed in which there is no precise mechanical breakdown. This approach leads to a focus, in interpreting Marx's law of the falling rate of profit, on problems of realization associated with an increasing mass of surplus value.
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COMMUNICATIONS |
| Marxist Medievalism: A Tradition |
| Sheila Delany |
| Margaret Schlauch (1898–1986) |
| Jacek Fisiak |
REVIEW ARTICLES |
| White Boy: A Personal Crossing of the
Cultural Divide |
| Mark Solomon |
| The Rediscovered Brilliance of Hubert
Harrison |
| Christopher Phelps |
BOOK REVIEWS |
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Max Elbaum, Revolution in the Air: Radicals Turn
to Lenin, Mao and Che |
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Alan Wald |
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Andrew Hemingway, Artists on the Left: American
Artists and the Communist Movement,
1926–1956 |
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Paul Buhle |
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Geoff Eley, Forging Democracy: The History of the
Left in Europe, 1850–2000
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August H. Nimtz, Jr. |
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Paul Buhle and Dave Wagner, Radical Hollywood: The
Untold Story Behind America's Favorite Movies
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Dennis Broe |
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Chester Hartman, Between Eminence and Notoriety:
Four Decades of Radical Urban Planning
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Morris Zeitlin |
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Francesca Polletta, Freedom Is an Endless Meeting:
Democracy in American Social Movements
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Paul C. Mishler |
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Max Azicri, Cuba Today and Tomorrow: Reinventing
Socialism
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| Charles Pregger-Roman |
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Stephen D. Shenfield, Russian Fascism: Traditions,
Tendencies, Movements |
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Irina Mukhina |
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Wendy Brown and Janet Halley, eds., Left Legalism/
Left Critique |
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Ravi Malhotra |
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Randy Martin, Financialization of Daily Life |
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Fred Pfeil |
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