Critical Political Economy 1
Semester 1
Lecturers: Paul Dunne and Alvin Birdi
Revised November 1999
Reading list and lecture plan:
This term will provide an introduction to Critical Political Economy. It will start off with a general introduction to the different schools of thought and then move on to a detailed study of Marxist economic theory. There will be one lecture a week followed by a workshop after the first week. Students will make presentation at the workshops and those not presenting are expected to have read the essential reading given below.
This is a provisional outline of the course and will be revised in future weeks.
Reading:
As regard Marx's economics, there is no substitute for reading Marx's own writings, in particular Capital Volume 1. The three volumes of Capital are published by Laurence and Wishart and by Penguin. Penguin Volume 1 has a useful introduction by Ernest Mandel.
Also there is: CJ Arthur (1992) "Marx's Capital: A Student Edition", Lawrence and Wishart.
You should definitely get hold of a copy of Capital Volume 1 and while a number of the references will not be available at Hendon, they can be ordered from the Enfield library. In addition, photocopies will be made available.
A brief overview of Marxist Economics can be found on my website on:
http://bobbins.mdx.ac.uk/~john6/MARXIST.htm
There are a number of general texts which provide an overview of Marx's Capital:
- Ben Fine (1989) "Marx's Capital", Macmillan, 3rd Edition
- Anthony Brewer (1984) "A Guide to Marx's Capital", Cambridge University Press. This is intended to be used a a reading guide to Capital
- Duncan Foley (1986) "Understanding Capital: Marx's Economic Theory", Harvard University Press.
Other general texts on Marx's economics are:
- PN Junankar (1982) "Marx's Economics", Philip Allan Publishers Ltd.
- George Catephores (1989) "An Introduction to Marxist Economics" Macmillan.
- Michael Howard and John King (1986) "The Political Economy of Marx", Longman.
- Meghnad Desai (1979) "Marxian Economics", Basil Blackwell.
- Ernest Mandel (1977) "Marxist Economic Theory", Merlin Press.
- Ben Fine and Laurence Harris (1979) "Rereading Capital", Macmillan.
An invaluable survey of the development of Marxist economic thought is provided by:
- Howard MC and JE King (1991) "A History of Marxian Economics: Volume I, 19 -1929", Macmillan.
- Howard MC and JE King (1992) "A History of Marxian Economics: Volume II, 1929-1990", Macmillan.
A short review article on developments in Marxist economics is:
Dunne JP (1982) "Aspects of Contemporary Marxist Economics", Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Vol 29, No 2. Reprinted in J Cunningham-Wood (ed) (1987) "Karl Marx's Economics: Critical Assessments", Croom Helm.
A Marxist analysis of Britain is provided by:
Aaronovitch and Smith (1981)"The Political Economy of British Capitalism", McGraw Hill.
Other schools of thought are covered in:
Burkitt B (1984)"Radical Political Economy". Harvester Wheatsheaf.
Sawyer M (1989) "The Challenge of Radical Political Economy", Harvester Wheatsheaf.
A useful comparison of Marxian and Neoclassical economics:
Wolff , Richard and Stephen Resnick (1987) "Economics: Marxian versus Neoclassical", The John Hopkins University Presss.
An invaluable reference work is:
- John Eatwell, Murray Milgate and Peter Newman (eds) The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics, Macmillan. The pieces on Marxian economics are collected together in one volume "Marxian Economics"
also
- Tom Bottomore et al (ed) "A Dictionary of Marxist Thought", Basil Blackwell.
and
- Philip Arestis and Malcolm Sawyer (eds) (1994) "The Elgar Companion to Radical Political Economy", Edward Elgar.
Other general texts:
- Sayer A (1995) "Radical Political Economy: A Critique" Blackwell
- Bottomore, Tom (ed) (1988) "Interpretations of Marx", Basil Blackwell.
- McLellan, David (1998) "Marxism After Marx", 3rd Edition, Macmillan.
- Carver, Terrell (ed)(1991) "The Cambridge Companion to Marx", CUP.
- Mark Cowling (ed) (1998) "The Communist Manifesto", Edinburgh University Press.
Critical Political Economy 1: Lectures
Lecture 1: Introduction
Context; Overview; Schools of thought; Relation to orthodoxy; Marx's method
- Catephores (1989) Ch 1
- Sawyer(1989) Ch 1
- Fine (1989) Ch 1,2
- Howard and King (1986) Part 1
- Junankar (1982) Ch 1
- Desai (1979) Ch 1,2
- Sayer (1995) Ch 2.
- John Pheby (1988) "Methodology and Economics", Macmillan, Ch 8.
- Meghnad Desai (1985) "Men and Things", Economica, Vol 53, pp1-10.
Lecture 2: The Labour Theory of Value and Exploitation
- Fine (1989) Ch 2,3
- Catephores (1989) Ch 3,4
- Howard and King (1986) Ch 6,7
- Junankar (1982) Ch 2
- Desai (1979) Ch 2,4
- Sawyer (1989) Ch 7
- Bob Rowthorn (1980) "Neoclassicism, Neo-Ricardianism and Marxism", Chapter 1 in Rowthorn B (1980)"Capitalism, Conflict and Inflation", Lawrence and Wishart.
- Simon Mohun (1985)"Value Theory", Chapter 2 in Baranski ZG and JR Short (eds) (1985) "Developing Contemporary Marxism", Macmillan.
- David Laibmann (1984-5) "Value: A Dialog in One Act", Science and Society, Vol XLVIII, Winter, pp449-465.
- Simon Mohun (1994) "A re(in)statement of the labour theory of value", Cambridge Journal of Economics, 18, pp391-412.
Seminar: Compare and contrast the theories of value underpinning the Neoclassical, Neo-Ricardian and Marxist schools of thought.
Lectures 3: The Transformation Problem
- Fine (1989) Ch 3,11
- Catephores (1989) Ch 4
- Sawyer (1989) Ch 8
- Desai (1979) Part II, Ch 8-13
- Howard and King (1986) Ch 8
- Junankar (1982) Ch 3
- Howard and King (1992) Ch 12,15
- Fine and Harris (1979) Ch 2
- Romer J (1981) "Analytical Foundations of Marxian Economic Theory, CUP, Ch 1.
- William J Baumol (1974) "The Transformation of Values: What Marx "Really" Meant (An Interpretation)" Journal of Economic Literature, March.
- Meghnad Desai (1988) "The Transformation Problem", Journal of Economic Surveys, Vol 2, No 4.
- Meek RL (1977) "Smith, Marx and After", Chapman and Hall.
- Dobb M (1973) "Theories of Value and Distribution Since Adam Smith" Cambridge University Press.
Seminar : "The transformation problem is the Achilles' heel of Marxist economics". Discuss.
Lecture 4: Competition, Accumulation, and The Falling Rate of Profit
- Fine (1989) Ch 10
- Junankar (1982) Ch 6
- Catephores Ch 6-8
- Desai (1979) Part III, Ch 14-20
- Howard and King (1986) Part IV
- Fine and Harris (1979) Ch 4
Seminar: "Marx's theory of the falling rate of profit is contradicted by the failure of the organic composition of capital to increase in the advanced capitalist economies". Discuss.
Lecture 5: Industrial Reserve Army, Technology, and the Labour Market
- Howard and King (1986) Ch 12
- Junankar (1979) Ch 5
- Sawyer (1989) Ch 2,3
- Aaronovitch and Smith (1981)
- Sawyer (1989) Ch 2,3
- Green (1994) CJE article
- Francis Green (1991) "The 'Reserve Army Hypothesis': A Survey of Empirical Applications. Chapter 7 in Dunne (1990) "Quantitative Marxism", Polity Press.
- Braverman H (1979) "Labor and Monopoly Capital", Monthly Review Press.
- Friedman A (1977) "Industry and Labour", Macmillan
- Thompson P (1983) "The Nature of Work: An Introduction to Debates on the Labour Process", Macmillan.
- Purdy D (1988) "Social Power and the Labour Market", Macmillan.
Seminar: "Unemployment is endemic to capitalist development". Discuss
Lecture 6: Theories of Crisis and Capitalist Development
- Catephores (1989) Ch 6-8
- Howard and King (1986) Part IV
- Howard and King (1992) Part II, Ch 16
- Junankar (1982) Ch 9
- Aaronovitch and Smith (1981) Ch
- Ben Fine and Laurence Harris (1979) Ch 5
- Simon Clarke (1994) "Marx's Theory of Crisis", Macmillan.
- Ron Smith (1985) Crisis Theory. Chapter 1 in Baranski and Short (1985) Developing Contemporary Marxism. Macmillan. Particularly useful
- MC Howard and JE King (1992) "The Second Slump: Marxian Theories of Crisis After 1973", Review of Political Economy.
- Paul Dunne (1991) "An Introduction to Quantitative Marxism", Ch 1 in Dunne P (ed) (1991) "Quantitative Marxism", Polity Press.
- James O'Connor (1987) "The Meaning of Crisis: A Theoretical Introduction", Blackwell.
- Stephen Cullenberg (1994) "The Falling Rate of Profit: Recasting the Marxian Debate", Pluto Press.
Seminar: "The source of crisis in the UK can be found in the conflict over the share of wages and profits". Discuss.
Seminar: "Marx predicted the demise of capitalism. That this has not occurred means his work has little value in understanding economic development". Discuss.
Lecture 7: Theories of the State
- Sawyer (1989) Ch 10
- Aaronovitch and Smith Ch
- Fine and Harris (1979) Ch 6,8,9
- Simon Clarke (ed) (1991) "The State Debate", Macmillan. Esp. Chapter 1.
- John Holloway and Sol Picciotto (1977) "Capital, Crisis and the State", Capital and Class 2. Reprinted in Clarke (1991).
- Atkinson and Stiglitz (1980) "Lectures on Public Economics", McGraw-Hill. Lecture 10.
- Gough I (1979) "The Political economy of the Welfare State", Macmillan.
- Bob Jessop (1982) "The Capitalist State", Blackwell.
- Simon Clarke (1988) "Keynesianism, Monetarism, and the Crisis of the State", Edward Elgar.
- David Held et al (ed) (1983) "States and Societies", Blackwell. Esp Part 4
Seminar:"The state is simply the instrument of capitalist oppression. Discuss.
Lecture 8:The Neo-Ricardians
- Sawyer (1989) Ch 8
- Howard and King (1992) Part IV
- Woods JE (1990) "The Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities: An Introduction to Sraffa" Macmillan
- Steedman I (1977) "Marx after Sraffa", Verso.
- Meek RL () "Mr Sraffa's Rehabilitation of Classical Economics", Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Vol 8, pp119-36.
- Pierro Sraffa Memorial Issue of the Cambridge Journal of Economics, Vol 12, No. 1, march 1988.
Seminar: Sraffa perfected value theory based on dated labour and rehabilitated classical economics. Discuss.
Plus references given in lecture
Lecture 9: Post-Keynesian Economics
- Arestis (1998) CJE survey
- Lavoie M (1992) "Foundations of Post Keynesian Economic Analysis", Edward Elgar.
- Arestis P (1992) The Post Keynesian Approach to Economics, Edward Elgar
- Sawyer M (1991) Post-Keynesian Macroeconomics, Chapter 11 in Greenaway (ed) "Companion to Contemporary Economic Thought", Routledge.
- Sawyer M (1989) "The Challenge of Radical Political Economy", Harvester Wheatsheaf.
- Sawyer M (1984) "Macreconomics in Question", Wheatsheaf. Ch 1-3
- Sawyer M (1984) "Macreconomics in Question", Wheatsheaf. Ch 1-3
- Lavoie M (1992) "Foundations of Post Keynesian Economic Analysis", Edward Elgar.
- Arestis P and Skouras T (1985) "Post-Keynesian Economic Theory: A challenge to Neo-Classical Economics",Whetsheaf.
- Eichner AS (ed)(1979) "A Guide to Post Keynesian Economics", Macmillan.
Lecture 10: Institutional Economics
******** incomplete
- Hodgson, Geoff (19 )"Economics and Institutions", Polity.
- Samuels Cambridge Journal of Economics E
Lecture 11: Post-Modernism and Economics
- Shiela Dow (1997) "Mainstream Economic Methodology", Cambridge Journal of Economics, Vol 21, No 1, January.
- Blackhouse, Roger (ed) (1994) "New Directions in Economic Methodology"
- Michel Foucault (1989) "The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences", Tavistock/Routledge.
- Paul Rabinow (ed) (1991) "The Foucault Reader", Penguin.
- Perry Anderson (1988) "In the Tracks of Historical Materialism", Verso.
- Henderson, Willie, tony Dudley Evans and Roger Backhouse (eds) (1993) "Economics and Language", Routledge.
- McCloskey, D (1983) "The Rhetoric of Economics", Journal of Economic Literature, Vol 21 pp 482-517 plus Caldwell and Coats comments and McCloskey's reply in (1984)
- Resnick and Wolff: Rethinking Marxism