Value, Form, and the State: The Tendencies of Accumulation and the Determination of Economic Policy in Capitalist Society

362 Pages·1989·5.311 MB·English

by  Geert A. Reuten, Michael J. Williams

Value-Form and the State
The tendencies of accumulation and
the determination of economic policy
in capitalist society
Geert Reuten Michael Williams
and
·~
Routledge
London and New York
First published 1989
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
C 1989 Geert Reuten and Michael Williams
Typeset by Witwell Ltd, Southport
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
Billing & Sons Ltd, Worcester
All rights reserved. No part ofthis book may be
reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or
by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying
and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Reuten, Geert, 1946-
Value-form and the state: the tendencies of
accumulation and the determination of economic
policy in capitalist society.
I. Marxist economics
I. Title Il. Williams, Michael, 1941-
335.4
IBSN 0-415-00088-2
IBSN 0-415~3893-{i pbk
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Reuten, G. A.
Value-form and the state: the tendencies of accumulation and
the determination of economic policy in capitalist society I Geert
Reuten and Michael Williarns.
p. cm.
Bibliography: p.
Includes index
ISBN 0-415-00088-2
ISBN 0-415~3893-{i pbk
I. Value 2. Social structure. 3. State, The. 4. Marxian
economics. I. Williams, Michael, 1941- .Il. Title.
HB20l.R44 1989
338.9-dcl9 88-32178
90 04 CIP
General Contents
LIST OF FIGURES xvii
PREFACE xix
Part One: Method and Introduction
Part 'IWo: The Value-Form and its Reproduction 51
Chapter I The value-form 53
Chapter 2 The extended reproduction of capital 77
Part Three: Tendencies of Accumulation of Capital 101
Chapter 3 The tendency to over-accumulation of capital:
labour-shortage profit-squeeze and
underconsumption 103
Chapter 4 The tendency of the rate of profit to fall:
devalorisation, devaluation, restructuring and
centralisation of capital 116
Appendix to chapter 4 135
Chapter 5 Articulation of the tendencies of accumulation and
inflation 139
.,
Part Four: The State and the Mixed Economy 161
Chapter 6 From competitive society to the state and civil
society 163
Chapter 7 Particular subjects, state and society: the private
sphere and many states 187
Chapter 8 The mixed economy and economic policy 203
V
Value-form and the state
Part Five: The Determination and Contingent Reproduction
of Welfare and Economic PoUcy 229
Chapter 9 Welfare, macroeconomic and microeconomic
policy 231
Chapter I 0 The articulation of the tendencies of accumulation
and policy 264
Part Six: Summary and Conclusions: The ImpUcations for
Empirical Research 287
BIBLIOGRAPHY 302
AUTHOR INDEX 327
SUBJECT INDEX 331
..
vi
Detailed Contents
PREFACE xix
Part one: Method and Introduction l
PRELIMINARY REMARKS 3
SECTION 1 THE PHILOSOPHY AND
METHODOLOGY OF MAINSTREAM
ECONOMICS
§1 The application of the methodology
of mainstream economics 6
§2 Bhaskar's critique of empiricism 6
SECTION 2 INTRODUCTION TO THE METHOD
OF DIALECTICAL SYSTEMATIC
THEORY
§3 Preliminary notions 11
§4 Subject-matter (preliminary introduction) 14
§5 The holistic object-totality 16
§6 Necessity and contingency (preliminary
introduction) 16
§7 Abstraction and abstract determination:
the context of discovery 18
SECTION 3 THE METHOD OF DIALECTICAL
SYSTEMATIC THEORY
§8 The starting point 19
§9 The mode of argument 21
§10 Actuality in-itself and the actuality of
contradiction 26
§11 Theorisation of the contingent 30
§12 The validity of the theory 33
§13 Freedom and necessity 35
vii
Value-form and the state
SECTION 4 VALUE-FORM AND THE STATE:
INTRODUCTION
§14 The bourgeois epoch as object-totality
of the presentation 36
§IS From being to the starting point of the
presentation: self-production 37
§16 Sociation, dissociation and association:
the value-form 39
§17 The value-form and production 40
§18 Accumulation and its tendencies 41
§19 The doubling of competitive society
into civil society and the state 43
§20 Individuals, state and society 44
§21 The mixed economy and economic policy 45
§22 The cyclical reproduction of accumulation
and policy 46
SUMMARY 46
Part 'IWo: The Value-Form and its Reproduction 51
Chapter I The Value-Form 53
PRELIMINARY REMARKS 53
SECTION I SELF-PRODUCTION AND SOCIATION
(TRANS-HISTORICAL NOTIONS)
ss
§I Self-production
§2 Sociation 56
SECTION 2 DISSOCIATION
§3 Dissociation: production and consumption 56
SECTION 3 ASSOCIATION: THE VALUE-FORM
§4 The exchange relation 59
§5 The value-form 60
§6 The market: actual abstraction, doubling of
useful objects, doubling of labour-power,
and doubling of labour 62-...
SECTION 4 THE MONEY EXPRESSION OF
VALUE
§7 Money as general equivalent 65
SECTION 5 VALORISATION AND CAPITAL
§8 Capitalist production: ideal pre-
commensuration 66
viii
Detailed Contents
§9 The capitalist production process as
valorisation process 68
§10 Capital and the valorisation of capital 73
§11 Capitalisation and the form of
capital-valorisation (rent) 74
SUMMARY 75
Chapter 2 The Extended Reproduction of Capital 77
PRELIMINARY REMARKS 77
SECTION I THE ACCUMULATION OF CAPITAL
§I The extended valorisation of capital 78
§2 Increased control over the labour
process by capital 78
§3 Accumulation of capital 79
§4 Accumulation of capital, technical change
and technology 80
§5 Accumulation and the expansion of the
circuit of capital (introduction) 80
SECTION 2 THE CREDIT SYSTEM:
REPRODUCTION OF MONEY AND
MONEY CAPITAL
§6 Money and the expansion of the circuit of
capital 8I
§7 Credit: money of account, means of
payment and money capital 83
§8 Banks and the issue of credit money:
private pre-validation 83
§9 The social expression ofp rivate
pre-validation 84
§10 The Central Bank and pseudo-social
validation: the fully developed
credit system 86
§II Banks, money capital and the rate of
interest 88
SECTION 3 EXTENDED REPRODUCTION OF
LABOUR POWER
§I2 Extended reproduction of labour power 89
ix