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An Introduction to the History of Crisis Theories(Ⅱ)
Anwar Shaikh
2013, 47 (11):
53-63.
DOI:
The object of this paper is to present and analyze the basic positions which have historically emerged on the question of capitalist crises In so doing, the author have tried to present not only what a particular type of theory says, but also why it makes that argument, how the arguments develops historically, and what political positions have been associated with it at various times The author believes that the analysis of reproduction and the analysis of crisis are inseparable, and there are three basic lines of analysis about capitalist reproduction The first notion is that capitalism is capable of automatic selfreproduction The laissezfaire tradition and the (right) Keynesian tradition hold this notion In the business theory of the former, crisis remains outside the normal process of capitalist production, while the latter attributes crisis to a series of errors in “policy” The second position argues that restricted by insufficient effective demand, capitalist system is incapable of selfexpansion: it requires some external source of effective demand The conservative and radical underconsumption theories, as well as Marxian underconsumption and disproportionality theories hold this notion Lastly, there is the position that, though capitalism is capable of selfexpansion, the accumulation process deepens the internal contradictions on which it is based, until they erupt in a crisis: the limits to capitalism are internal to it This line is almost exclusively Marxist, and includes both “falling rate of profit” and “profit squeeze” explanations of crisis At the end of this paper, the author focuses on three lessons which are implicit in the history of crisis theories The first lesson has to do with the relation between theory and politics Each theory has political implications for the practice based upon it, but there are no simplistic connections between them The second important lesson has to do with theory and the “facts” It would be a terrible loss to abandon a correct theory because it does not correspond to “facts” which are based on entirely different categories The third lesson highlights the necessity of studying the history of crisis theories After all, it has often been said that those who ignore history are condemned to repeat it
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