Against the Market: Political Economy, Market Socialism and the Marxist CritiqueIn this innovative book, David McNally develops a powerful critique of market socialism, by tracing it back to its roots in early political economy. He ranges from Adam Smith's attempt to reconcile moral philosophy with market economics to Malthus's reformulation of Smith's political economy which made it possible to justify poverty as a moral necessity. Smith's economic theory was also the source of an attempt to construct a critique of capitalism derived from his conception of free and equal exchange governed by natural price. This Smithian forerunner of today's market socialism sought to reform the market without abolishing the social relations on which it was based. McNally explores this tradition sympathetically, but exposes its fatal flaws. The book concludes with an incisive consideration of efforts by writers such as Alec Nove to construct a "feasible" model of market socialism. McNally shows these efforts are still plagued by the failure of early Smithian socialism to come to grips with the social foundations of the market, the commodification of labor-power which is the key to market regulation of the economy. The results, he argues, are neither socialist nor workable. |
Contents
the Ambiguous Legacy | 43 |
Sympathy Communication and Exchange | 50 |
24 | 56 |
Copyright | |
10 other sections not shown
Other editions - View all
Against the Market: Political Economy, Market Socialism and the Marxist Critique David McNally No preview available - 1993 |
Against the Market: Political Economy, Market Socialism and the Marxist Critique David McNally No preview available - 1993 |
Common terms and phrases
accumulation Adam Smith agrarian agriculture alienated analysis argued argument attack Cambridge University Press capital capitalist central century cited claim co-operative commercial society commodity production communal competition criticism crucial debate discussion E.P. Thompson enclosure Engels England English Essay exchange-value exploitation factory farming Grundrisse Harmondsworth Hayek Hodgskin human Ibid independent individual industrial involved Karl Marx labour market labour-power labour-time land law of value liberal London Malthus Malthus's Malthusian manufacturers market exchange market regulation market socialism market socialists Marx's Marxism means of production moral Moreover movement natural needs Noel Thompson Owen Owen's ownership Oxford peasant planning Poor Law poor relief popular political economy population poverty principle private property proletarianization Proudhon radical reform relations result Revolution Ricardo right of subsistence Robert Owen rural social labour socialist economy surplus value theoretical theory Thomas Robert Malthus Thomas Spence trade wage-labour wages Wealth of Nations workers working-class