NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Primitive accumulation of capital

Primitive accumulation of capital is a concept introduced by Karl Marx in part 8 of the first volume of Das Kapital (in German: ursprüngliche Akkumulation, literally "original accumulation" or "primeval accumulation"). Its purpose is to help explain how the capitalist mode of production can come into being. Marxism takes its name from the praxis (the synthesis of philosophy and political action) of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ... Image File history File links Karl_Marx. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... Das Kapital (Capital, in the English translation) is an extensive treatise on political economy written by Karl Marx in German. ... Marxs theory of alienation (Entfremdung in German), as expressed in the writings of young Karl Marx, refers to the separation of things that naturally belong together, or to antagonism between things that are properly in harmony. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Class consciousness is a category of Marxist theory, referring to the self-awareness of a social class, its capacity to act in its own rational interests, or measuring the extent to which an individual is conscious of the historical tasks their class (or class allegiance) sets for them. ... In Marxist theory, commodity fetishism is a state of social relations, said to arise in complex capitalist market systems, in which social relationships center around the values placed on commodities. ... Communism is an ideology that seeks to establish a classless, stateless social organization based on common ownership of the means of production. ... Cultural hegemony is a concept coined by Marxist philosopher Antonio Gramsci. ... The rate of exploitation is a concept in Marxian political economy. ... Marxs theory of human nature occupies an important place in his critique of capitalism, his conception of communism, and his materialist conception of history. Marx, however, does not refer to human nature as such, but to Gattungswesen, which is generally translated as species-being or species-essence. What Marx... Political Ideologies Part of the Politics series Politics Portal This box: An ideology is an organized collection of ideas. ... The proletariat (from Latin proles, offspring) is a term used to identify a lower social class; a member of such a class is proletarian. ... Reification (German: Verdinglichung, literally: ver-, over + ding: thing + -lichung: as english, -ify) is the consideration of an abstraction or an object as if it had human or living existence and abilities; at the same time it implies the thingification of social relations. ... Relations of production (German: Produktionsverhaltnisse) is a concept frequently used by Karl Marx in his theory of historical materialism and in Das Kapital. ... Socialism refers to a broad array of doctrines or political movements that envisage a socio-economic system in which property and the distribution of wealth are subject to control by the community. ... Note: Marxian is not restricted to Marxian economics, as it includes those inspired by Marxs works who do not identify with Marxism as a political ideology. ... Labor power (in German: Arbeitskraft, or labor force) is a crucial concept used by Karl Marx in his critique of political economy. ... The law of value is a concept in Karl Marxs critique of political economy. ... Means of production (abbreviated MoP; German: Produktionsmittel), also called means of labour are the materials, tools and other instruments used by workers to make products. ... In the writings of Karl Marx and the Marxist theory of historical materialism, a mode of production (in German: Produktionsweise, meaning the way of producing) is a specific combination of: productive forces: these include human labor-power, tools, equipment, buildings and technologies, materials, and improved land social and technical relations... For the specific theoretical justifications behind the Great Leap Forward and the Five Year Plans, see Theory of Productive Forces. ... Surplus labour is a concept used by Karl Marx in his critique of political economy. ... Surplus value, according to Marxism, is unpaid labour that is extracted from the worker by the capitalist, and serves as the basis for capitalist accumulation. ... In Karl Marxs economics the transformation problem is the problem of finding a general rule to transform the values of commodities (based on labour according to his labour theory of value) into the competitive prices of the marketplace. ... Wage labour is the socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer in which the worker sells their labour under a contract (employment), and the employer buys it, often in a labour market. ... While anarchism and Marxism are two different political philosophies, there is some similarity between the methodology and ideology of groups of anarchists and Marxists, and the history of the two have often been intertwined. ... The capitalist mode of production is a concept in Karl Marxâ€™s critique of political economy. ... Class struggle is class conflict looked at from a Marxist, libertarian socialist, or anarchist perspective. ... The dictatorship of the proletariat is a term employed by Karl Marx in his 1875 Critique of the Gotha Program that refers to a transition period between capitalist and communist society in which the state can be nothing but the revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat. The term refers to a... A communist revolution is a social revolution inspired by the ideas of Marxism that aims to replace capitalism with communism, normally with socialism (public ownership over the means of production) as an intermediate stage. ... International Socialism redirects here. ... World revolution is a Marxist concept of a violent overthrow of capitalism that would take place in all countries, although not necessarily simultaneously. ... See also Marxian economics Marxist philosophy or Marxist theory designs work in philosophy which is strongly influenced by Karl Marxs materialist approach to theory or which is written by Marxists. ... Historical materialism is the methodological approach to the study of society, economics, and history which was first articulated by Karl Marx (1818-1883), although Marx himself never used the term (he referred it as philosophical materialism, a term he used to distinguish it from what he called popular materialism). Historical... According to many followers of the theories of Karl Marx (or Marxists), dialectical materialism is the philosophical basis of Marxism. ... Analytical Marxism refers to a style of thinking about Marxism that was prominent amongst English-speaking philosophers and social scientists during the 1980s. ... For other meanings of autonomism, see autonomism (disambiguation) page Raised fist, stenciled protest symbol of Autonome at the Ernst-Kirchweger-Haus in Vienna, Austria Autonomism refers to a set of left-wing political and social movements and theories close to the socialist movement. ... Marxist feminism is a sub-type of feminist theory which focuses on the dismantling of capitalism as a way to liberate women. ... The term Marxist humanism has as its foundation Marxs conception of the alienation of the labourer as he advances it in his Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844--an alienation that is born of a capitalist system in which the worker no longer functions as (what Marx terms) a... Structural Marxism was an approach to Marxist philosophy based on structuralism, primarily associated with the work of the French philosopher Louis Althusser and his students. ... Western Marxism is a term used to describe a wide variety of Marxist theoreticians based in Western and Central Europe (and more recently North America), in contrast with philosophy in the Soviet Union. ... Libertarian Marxism is a school of Marxism that takes a less authoritarian view of Marxist theory than conventional currents such as Stalinism, Trotskyism, and other forms of Marxism-Leninism, as well as a generally less reformist view than do Social Democrats. ... â€˜Young Marxâ€™ is one half of the concept in Marxology that Karl Marxâ€™s intellectual development can be broken into two board categories, the other being â€˜Mature Marxâ€™. There is disagreement though as to when Marx thought began to mature, Lenin claimed Marxs first mature work as â€œThe Poverty... Karl Heinrich Marx (May 5, 1818, Trier, Germany â€“ March 14, 1883, London) was a German philosopher, political economist, and revolutionary. ... Friedrich Engels (November 28, 1820, Wuppertal â€“ August 5, 1895, London), a 19th-century German political philosopher, developed communist theory alongside his better-known collaborator, Karl Marx, co-authoring The Communist Manifesto (1848). ... Karl Kautsky (October 18, 1854 - October 17, 1938) was a leading theoretician of social democracy. ... G. V. Plekhanov Georgi Valentinovich Plekhanov (Ð“ÐµÐ¾Ñ€Ð³Ð¸Ð¹ Ð’Ð°Ð»ÐµÐ½Ñ‚Ð¸Ð½Ð¾Ð²Ð¸Ñ‡ ÐŸÐ»ÐµÑ…Ð°Ð½Ð¾Ð²) (December 11, 1856 â€“ May 30, 1918; Old Style: November 29, 1856 â€“ May 17, 1918) was a Russian revolutionary and a Marxist theoretician. ... â€œLeninâ€ redirects here. ... (Russian: Ð›Ñ‘Ð² Ð”Ð°Ð²Ð¸Ð´Ð¾Ð²Ð¸Ñ‡ Ð¢Ñ€Ð¾Ñ†ÐºÐ¸Ð¹, Lyov Davidovich Trotsky, also transliterated Leo, Lev, Trotskii, Trotski, Trotskij, Trockij and Trotzky) (November 7 [O.S. October 26] 1879 â€“ August 21, 1940), born Leon Davidovich Bronstein (Ð›Ñ‘Ð² Ð”Ð°Ð²Ð¸Ð´Ð¾Ð²Ð¸Ñ‡ Ð‘Ñ€Ð¾Ð½ÑˆÑ‚ÐµÐ¹Ð½), was a Ukrainian-born Jewish Bolshevik revolutionary and Marxist theorist. ... Rosa Luxemburg Rosa Luxemburg (March 5, 1870 or 1871 â€“ January 15, 1919, in Polish RÃ³Å¼a Luksemburg) was a Jewish Polish-born Marxist political theorist, socialist philosopher, and revolutionary. ... â€œMaoâ€ redirects here. ... Georg LukÃ¡cs (April 13, 1885 â€“ June 4, 1971) was a Hungarian Marxist philosopher and literary critic in the tradition of Western Marxism. ... Antonio Gramsci (IPA: ) (January 22, 1891 â€“ April 27, 1937) was an Italian writer, politician and political theorist. ... Karl Korsch (August 15, 1886 - October 21, 1961) was a German Marxist theorist. ... Ernesto Guevara de la Serna (June 14,[1] 1928 â€“ October 9, 1967), commonly known as Che Guevara, El Che or just Che was an Argentine-born Marxist revolutionary, medical doctor , political figure, and leader of Cuban and internationalist guerrillas. ... Max Horkheimer (front left), Theodor Adorno (front right), and JÃ¼rgen Habermas in the background, right, in 1965 at Heidelberg The Frankfurt School is a school of neo-Marxist social theory (which is more akin to anarchism than communism), social research, and philosophy. ... Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (June 21, 1905 â€“ April 15, 1980), normally known simply as Jean-Paul Sartre (pronounced: ), was a French existentialist philosopher and pioneer, dramatist and screenwriter, novelist and critic. ... Louis Pierre Althusser (Pronunciation: altuË¡seÊ) (October 16, 1918 â€“ October 23, 1990) was a Marxist philosopher. ... This article is on criticisms of Marxism, a branch of socialism. ... Karl Heinrich Marx (May 5, 1818, Trier, Germany â€“ March 14, 1883, London) was a German philosopher, political economist, and revolutionary. ... Das Kapital (Capital, in the English translation) is an extensive treatise on political economy written by Karl Marx in German. ... In the writings of Karl Marx and the Marxist theory of historical materialism, a mode of production (in German: Produktionsweise, meaning the way of producing) is a specific combination of: productive forces: these include human labor-power, tools, equipment, buildings and technologies, materials, and improved land social and technical relations...

Capital is money that makes more money, value in search of surplus-value. In other words, it is money that gets reinvested. It originates in the activity of buying goods in order to resell them at a profit, and first emerges in commercial trade connecting different economic communities, whose production is not yet capitalist. The existence of usury capital, bank capital, rentier capital and merchant capital historically precedes capitalist industry. Capital has a number of related meanings in economics, finance and accounting. ... Various denominations of currency, one form of money Money is any good or tokens that functions as a medium of exchange that is socially and legally accepted in payment for goods and services and in settlement of debts. ... The production of surplus value, from Karl Marxs Capital in Lithographs, by Hugo Gellert, 1934 Surplus value is a concept created by Karl Marx in his critique of political economy, where its ultimate source is claimed to be unpaid surplus labour performed by the worker for the capitalist, serving... Look up usury in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... â€œBankerâ€ redirects here. ... A rentier is a person who derives a subsistence level or greater level of income from economic rent instead of working. ... Merchants function as professionals who deal with trade, dealing in commodities that they do not produce themselves, in order to produce profit. ...

Reason for the concept

Marx showed in Das Kapital how "money is changed into capital" and "how capital generates surplus-value" forming more capital. But in doing so, he had already assumed that there exists a mass of Capital available for investment, and there already exists exploitable labour power. He had shown how capitalist production could itself reproduce the conditions of its own existence on an ever broader scale. But, as he says, "the whole movement seems to turn into a vicious circle" . Das Kapital (Capital, in the English translation) is an extensive treatise on political economy written by Karl Marx in German. ... Capital has a number of related meanings in economics, finance and accounting. ... Invest redirects here. ... Labor power (in German: Arbeitskraft, or labor force) is a crucial concept used by Karl Marx in his critique of political economy. ...

To explain how the capitalist mode of production comes into being in the first place, Marx had to study history to locate an original accumulation that facilitated capitalist relations. Adam Smith had called this "previous accumulation" – an accumulation which did not result from capitalist production, but formed an external starting point to it. In the writings of Karl Marx and the Marxist theory of historical materialism, a mode of production (in German: Produktionsweise, meaning the way of producing) is a specific combination of: productive forces: these include human labor-power, tools, equipment, buildings and technologies, materials, and improved land social and technical relations... Adam Smith FRSE (baptised June 5, 1723 O.S. / June 16 N.S. â€“ July 17, 1790) was a Scottish moral philosopher and a pioneering political economist. ...

The myths of Political Economy

In disinterring the origins of capital, Marx felt the need to dispel what he felt were religious myths and fairytales about the origins of capitalism. Marx wrote:

"This primitive accumulation plays in Political Economy about the same part as original sin in theology. Adam bit the apple, and thereupon sin fell on the human race. Its origin is supposed to be explained when it is told as an anecdote of the past. In times long gone-by there were two sorts of people; one, the diligent, intelligent, and, above all, frugal elite; the other, lazy rascals, spending their substance, and more, in riotous living. (...) Thus it came to pass that the former sort accumulated wealth, and the latter sort had at last nothing to sell except their own skins. And from this original sin dates the poverty of the great majority that, despite all its labour, has up to now nothing to sell but itself, and the wealth of the few that increases constantly although they have long ceased to work."

What has to be explained is how the capitalist relations of production are historically established. In other words, how it comes about that means of production get to be privately owned and traded in, and how the capitalists can find workers on the labour market ready and willing to work for them, because they have no other means of livelihood. Relations of production (German: Produktionsverhaltnisse) is a concept frequently used by Karl Marx in his theory of historical materialism and in Das Kapital. ... Means of production (abbreviated MoP; German: Produktionsmittel), also called means of labour are the materials, tools and other instruments used by workers to make products. ... Labour economics seeks to understand the functioning of the market for labour. ...

The basic meaning of primitive accumulation

Marx believed that getting to the current point in capitalist development was partly just a gradual process of market formation and the growth of trade over the centuries. Look up Market in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

"Although we come across the first beginnings of capitalist production as early as the 14th or 15th century, sporadically, in certain towns of the Mediterranean, the capitalistic era dates from the 16th century" (ibid.)

But market expansion is not simply a process of the peaceful, gradual increase of commercial trade. It is also a story of violence and conquest, piracy and plunder, theft and robbery, which destroys natural economy: Natural economy refers to a type of economy in which money is not used in the transfer of resources among people. ...

"The so-called primitive accumulation, therefore, is nothing else than the historical process of divorcing the producer from the means of production. It appears as primitive, because it forms the pre-historic stage of capital and of the mode of production corresponding with it." (emphasis added)

Marx's case history

In a case history of England, Marx looks at how the serfs became free peasant proprietors and small farmers, who were, over time, forcibly expropriated and driven off the land, forming a propertyless proletariat.

He also shows how more and more legislation is enacted by the state to control and regiment this new class of wage workers. Meantime, the remaining farmers became capitalist farmers operating more and more on a commercial basis; and gradually, legal monopolies preventing trade and investment by entrepreneurs are broken up.

This is just one case study however - the way things happened on the continent were different from how they happened in England (for example, the peasants put up more resistance).

The link between primitive accumulation and colonialism

At the same time as local obstacles to investment in manufactories are being overcome, and a unified national market is developing with a nationalist ideology, Marx sees a strong impulse to business development coming from world trade: For other uses of the initials WTO, see WTO (disambiguation). ...

"The discovery of gold and silver in America, the extirpation, enslavement and entombment in mines of the aboriginal population, the beginning of the conquest and looting of the East Indies, the turning of Africa into a warren for the commercial hunting of black-skins, signalled the rosy dawn of the era of capitalist production. These idyllic proceedings are the chief moments of primitive accumulation. On their heels treads the commercial war of the European nations, with the globe for a theatre. It begins with the revolt of the Netherlands from Spain, assumes giant dimensions in England's Anti-Jacobin War, and is still going on in the opium wars against China, &c. The different moments of primitive accumulation distribute themselves now, more or less in chronological order, particularly over Spain, Portugal, Holland, France, and England. In England at the end of the 17th century, they arrive at a systematical combination, embracing the colonies, the national debt, the modern mode of taxation, and the protectionist system. These methods depend in part on brute force, e.g., the colonial system. But, they all employ the power of the State, the concentrated and organised force of society, to hasten, hot-house fashion, the process of transformation of the feudal mode of production into the capitalist mode, and to shorten the transition. Force is the midwife of every old society pregnant with a new one. It is itself an economic power. (chapter 31, emphasis added). General Name, Symbol, Number gold, Au, 79 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 11, 6, d Appearance metallic yellow Standard atomic weight 196. ... General Name, Symbol, Number silver, Ag, 47 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 11, 5, d Appearance lustrous white metal Standard atomic weight 107. ... Slavery is any of a number of related conditions involving control of a person against his or her will, enforced by violence or other clear forms of coercion. ... Aboriginal Americans (or alternatively, American Aborigines) are the aboriginal (original residents) peoples of the Americas. ... Looting (which derives via the Hindi lut from Sanskrit lung, to rob), sacking, plundering, or pillaging is the indiscriminate taking of goods by force as part of a military or political victory, or during a catastrophe or riot, such as during war,[1] natural disaster,[2] or rioting. ... A world map showing the continent of Africa Africa is the worlds second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. ... In the context of the French Revolution, a Jacobin originally meant a member of the Jacobin Club (1789-1794), but even at that time, the term Jacobins had been popularly applied to all promulgators of extreme revolutionary opinions: for example, Jacobin democracy is synonymous with totalitarian democracy. ... There were two Opium Wars between Britain and China. ... Holland is a region in the central-western part of the Netherlands with a population of 6. ... Motto (French) God and my right Anthem No official anthem - the United Kingdom anthem God Save the Queen is commonly used England() â€“ on the European continent() â€“ in the United Kingdom() Capital (and largest city) London (de facto) Official languages English (de facto) Unified - by Athelstan 927 AD Area - Total 130... Much of the recent sociological debate on power revolves around the issue of constraining and/or enabling nature of power. ... A state is a political association with effective dominion over a geographic area. ... Young people interacting within an ethnically diverse society. ... Feudalism comes from the Late Latin word feudum, itself borrowed from a Germanic root *fehu, a commonly used term in the Middle Ages which means fief, or land held under certain obligations by feodati. ... In the writings of Karl Marx and the Marxist theory of historical materialism, a mode of production (in German: Produktionsweise, meaning the way of producing) is a specific combination of: productive forces: these include human labor-power, tools, equipment, buildings and technologies, materials, and improved land social and technical relations... In economics, a capitalist is someone who owns capital, presumably within the economic system of capitalism. ... Look up mode in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... In physics, force is an influence that may cause an object to accelerate. ... Midwifery is a blanket term used to describe a number of different types of health practitioners, other than doctors, who provide prenatal care to expecting mothers, attend the birth of the infant and provide postnatal care to the mother and infant. ...

Primitive accumulation and privatisation

The whole purpose of primitive accumulation is to privatise the means of production, so that the owners can make money from the surplus labour of those who, lacking other means, must work for them. Surplus labour is a concept used by Karl Marx in his critique of political economy. ...

Marx says that primitive accumulation means the expropriation of the direct producers, and more specifically "the dissolution of private property based on the labor of its owner... Self-earned private property, that is based, so to say, on the fusing together of the isolated, independent laboring-individual with the conditions of his labor, is supplanted by capitalistic private property, which rests on exploitation of the nominally free labor of others, i.e., on wage-labor." (chapter 32, emphasis added). Expropriation is the act of removing from control the owner of an item of property. ... This page deals with property as ownership rights. ...

The social relations of capitalism

Capitalism is a system of social relations, in which capitalists are fully human actors, and workers are exploited. Primitive accumulation precedes capitalism in providing the accumulation of wealth and resources to induce less fortunate people to enter into a highly-unequal relationship with a capitalist. In the last chapter of Das Kapital, Vol. 1, Marx illustrates the social conditions necessary for capitalism with a comment about Edward Gibbon Wakefield's theory of colonisation: Das Kapital (Capital, in the English translation) is an extensive treatise on political economy written by Karl Marx in German. ... Edward Gibbon Wakefield Edward Gibbon Wakefield (20 March 1796 â€“ May 16, 1862) was the driving force behind much of the early colonization of South Australia, and later New Zealand. ...

"...Wakefield discovered that in the Colonies, property in money, means of subsistence, machines, and other means of production, does not as yet stamp a man as a capitalist if there be wanting the correlative — the wage-worker, the other man who is compelled to sell himself of his own free-will. He discovered that capital is not a thing, but a social relation between persons, established by the instrumentality of things. Mr. Peel, he moans, took with him from England to Swan River, West Australia, means of subsistence and of production to the amount of £50,000. Mr. Peel had the foresight to bring with him, besides, 3,000 persons of the working-class, men, women, and children. Once arrived at his destination, 'Mr. Peel was left without a servant to make his bed or fetch him water from the river.' Unhappy Mr. Peel, who provided for everything except the export of English modes of production to Swan River!"

Ongoing global expropriation

"Orthodox" Marxists see primitive accumulation as something that happened in the late Middle Ages and finished long ago, when capitalist industry started. They see primitive accumulation as a process happening in the transition from the feudal "stage" to the capitalist "stage". Image File history File links Hammer_and_sickle. ... Communism is an ideology that seeks to establish a classless, stateless social organization based on common ownership of the means of production. ... See also Marxian economics Marxist philosophy or Marxist theory designs work in philosophy which is strongly influenced by Karl Marxs materialist approach to theory or which is written by Marxists. ... Class struggle is class conflict looked at from a Marxist, libertarian socialist, or anarchist perspective. ... International Socialism redirects here. ... In modern usage, the term communist party is generally used to identify any political party which has adopted communist ideology. ... Marxism takes its name from the praxis (the synthesis of philosophy and political action) of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ... Vladimir Lenin in 1920 Leninism refers to various related political and economic theories elaborated by Bolshevik revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin, and by other theorists who claim to be carrying on Lenins work. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. ... Manse Manse! Kim Jong Il! The Juche Idea (also Juche Sasang or Chuche; pronounced // in Korean, approximately joo-cheh) is the official state ideology of North Korea and the political system based on it. ... Left Communism is a term describing a whole range of communist viewpoints which oppose the political ideas of the Bolsheviks from a position which is asserted to be more authentically Marxist and proletarian than the views held by the Communist International after its first two Congresses. ... Council communism is a Radical Left movement originating in Germany and the Netherlands in the 1920s. ... Religious communism is a form of communism centered on religious principles. ... Anarchist communism is a form of anarchism that advocates the abolition of the State and capitalism in favor of a horizontal network of voluntary associations through which everyone will be free to satisfy his or her needs. ... See Communist League (disambiguation) for other groups of the same name. ... The International Workingmens Association (IWA), sometimes called the First International, was an international socialist organization which aimed at uniting a variety of different left-wing political groups and trade union organizations that were based on the working class and class struggle. ... The Comintern (Russian: ÐšÐ¾Ð¼Ð¼ÑƒÐ½Ð¸ÑÑ‚Ð¸Ñ‡ÐµÑÐºÐ¸Ð¹ Ð˜Ð½Ñ‚ÐµÑ€Ð½Ð°Ñ†Ð¸Ð¾Ð½Ð°Ð», Kommunisticheskiy Internatsional â€“ Communist International, also known as the Third International) was an international Communist organization founded in March 1919, in the midst of the war communism period (1918-1921), by Vladimir Lenin and the Russian Communist Party (Bolshevik), which intended to fight by all available means, including... For other uses, see Fourth International (disambiguation). ... Karl Heinrich Marx (May 5, 1818, Trier, Germany â€“ March 14, 1883, London) was a German philosopher, political economist, and revolutionary. ... Friedrich Engels (November 28, 1820, Wuppertal â€“ August 5, 1895, London), a 19th-century German political philosopher, developed communist theory alongside his better-known collaborator, Karl Marx, co-authoring The Communist Manifesto (1848). ... Rosa Luxemburg Rosa Luxemburg (March 5, 1870 or 1871 â€“ January 15, 1919, in Polish RÃ³Å¼a Luksemburg) was a Jewish Polish-born Marxist political theorist, socialist philosopher, and revolutionary. ... â€œLeninâ€ redirects here. ... Josef Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili (Georgian: , Ioseb Besarionis Dze Jughashvili; Russian: , Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili) (December 18 [O.S. December 6] 1878[2] â€“ March 5, 1953), better known by his adopted name, Joseph Stalin (alternatively transliterated Josef Stalin), was General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Unions Central Committee from... (Russian: Ð›Ñ‘Ð² Ð”Ð°Ð²Ð¸Ð´Ð¾Ð²Ð¸Ñ‡ Ð¢Ñ€Ð¾Ñ†ÐºÐ¸Ð¹, Lyov Davidovich Trotsky, also transliterated Leo, Lev, Trotskii, Trotski, Trotskij, Trockij and Trotzky) (November 7 [O.S. October 26] 1879 â€“ August 21, 1940), born Leon Davidovich Bronstein (Ð›Ñ‘Ð² Ð”Ð°Ð²Ð¸Ð´Ð¾Ð²Ð¸Ñ‡ Ð‘Ñ€Ð¾Ð½ÑˆÑ‚ÐµÐ¹Ð½), was a Ukrainian-born Jewish Bolshevik revolutionary and Marxist theorist. ... â€œMaoâ€ redirects here. ... â€œAnarchistâ€ redirects here. ... This article lists ideologies opposed to capitalism and describes them briefly. ... This does not cite any references or sources. ... A map of countries who declared themselves to be socialist states under the Marxist-Leninist or Maoist definition (in other words, Communist states) at some point in their history. ... This article is on criticisms of communism, a branch of socialism. ... Democratic centralism is the name given to the principles of internal organization used by Leninist political parties, and the term is sometimes used as a synonym for any Leninist policy inside a political party. ... The dictatorship of the proletariat is a term employed by Karl Marx in his 1875 Critique of the Gotha Program that refers to a transition period between capitalist and communist society in which the state can be nothing but the revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat. The term refers to a... In Western thought, the history of communism, an idea of a society based on common ownership of property, can be traced back to ancient times. ... â€œLeftismâ€ redirects here. ... Luxemburgism (also written Luxembourgism) is a specific revolutionary theory within communism, based on the writings of Rosa Luxemburg. ... The new class is a term to describe the privileged ruling class of bureaucrats and Communist party functionaries which typically arises in a Stalinist communist state. ... The New Left is a term used in different countries to describe left-wing movements that occurred in the 1960s and 1970s. ... Post-Communism is a name sometimes given to the period of political and economic transition in former communist states located in parts of Europe and Asia, usually transforming into a free market capitalist and globalized economy. ... Eurocommunism was a new trend in the 1970s and 1980s within various Western European communist parties to develop a theory and practice of social transformation that was more relevant in a Western European democracy and less aligned to the partyline of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. ... Titoism is a term describing political ideology named after Yugoslav leader, Josip Broz Tito, primarily used to describe the schism between the Soviet Union and Socialist Yugoslavia after the Second World War (see Cominform) when the Communist Party of Yugoslavia refused to take further dictates from Moscow. ... Primitive communism, according to Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, is the original society of humanity. ... Socialism refers to a broad array of doctrines or political movements that envisage a socio-economic system in which property and the distribution of wealth are subject to control by the community. ... Joseph Stalin Stalinism is the political and economic system named after Joseph Stalin, who implemented it in the Soviet Union. ... Socialist economics is a broad, and sometimes controversial, term. ... Orthodox Marxism is the term used to describe the version of Marxism which emerged after the death of Karl Marx and acted as the official philosophy of the Second International up to the First World War and of the Third International thereafter. ... The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three ages: the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times, beginning with the Renaissance. ...

However, this can be seen as a misrepresentation of both Marx's ideas and historical reality, since feudal-type economies existed in various parts of the world well into the 20th century.

Marx's story of primitive accumulation is best seen as a special case of the general principle of capitalist market expansion. In part, trade grows incrementally, but usually the establishment of capitalist relations of production involves force and violence; transforming property relations means that assets previously owned by some people are no longer owned by them, but by other people, and making people part with their assets in this way involves coercion. Relations of production (German: Produktionsverhaltnisse) is a concept frequently used by Karl Marx in his theory of historical materialism and in Das Kapital. ...

In his preface to Das Kapital Vol. 1, Marx writes "The country that is more developed industrially only shows, to the less developed, the image of its own future". The less developed countries also face a process of primitive accumulation, it is an ongoing process of expropriation, proletarianisation and urbanisation. Das Kapital (Capital, in the English translation) is an extensive treatise on political economy written by Karl Marx in German. ... Expropriation is the act of removing from control the owner of an item of property. ... // General Proletarianization is a concept in Marxism and Marxist sociology. ... Urbanization is the degree of or increase in urban character or nature. ...

Because it is a fundamental tool of capitalist initiation and restoration, and because the rate of profit always begins to fall, sooner or later, primitive accumulation hits us all. Marx comments that "if, however, the German reader shrugs his shoulders at the condition of the English industrial and agricultural labourers, or in optimist fashion comforts himself with the thought that in Germany things are not nearly so bad, I must plainly tell him, "De te fabula narratur ! (the tale is told of you!)".

Marx was referring here to the expansion of the capitalist mode of production (not the expansion of world trade), through expropriation processes. He continues, "Intrinsically, it is not a question of the higher or lower degree of development of the social antagonism that results from the natural laws of capitalist production. It is a question of these laws themselves, of these tendencies working with iron necessity towards inevitable results." In the writings of Karl Marx and the Marxist theory of historical materialism, a mode of production (in German: Produktionsweise, meaning the way of producing) is a specific combination of: productive forces: these include human labor-power, tools, equipment, buildings and technologies, materials, and improved land social and technical relations...

The way that the process by which foreign economic communities are subordinated to the laws of motion of capital is "primitive accumulation": the plunder or privatisation of the commons and the proletarianisation of the working population. Privatization (sometimes privatisation, denationalization, or — especially in India — disinvestment) is the process of transferring property, from public ownership to private ownership. ... // General Proletarianization is a concept in Marxism and Marxist sociology. ...

Ernest Mandel's theory of primitive accumulation

Ernest Mandel offers a Marxian theory which differs from orthodox Marxist stage theory. In his theory, primitive accumulation is part of the uneven and combined development of capitalism on a world scale. Ernest Mandel Ernest Ezra Mandel, also known by various pseudonyms such as Ernest Germain, Pierre Gousset, Henri Vallin, Walter etc. ... Separate articles treat Eastern Orthodox Christianity and Orthodox Judaism. ... Marxism is the political practice and social theory based on the works of Karl Marx, a 19th century philosopher, economist, journalist, and revolutionary, along with Friedrich Engels. ...

Because business start-ups, forcible expansion of capitalist markets, and expropriation of peasants are going on all the time, primitive accumulation is also a process which happens all the time. The orthodox Marxists overlooked this social trend, possibly because they were fixated on Marx's story about English peasants being thrown off the land, rather than studying the facts of world history. Separate articles treat Eastern Orthodox Christianity and Orthodox Judaism. ... Marxism is the political practice and social theory based on the works of Karl Marx, a 19th century philosopher, economist, journalist, and revolutionary, along with Friedrich Engels. ...

Mandel surveys the history of capitalist development from the early middle ages, and distinguishes between primitive accumulation of money capital and primitive accumulation of industrial capital. The one does not necessarily lead to the other. He calculates that the transfer of value to Europe from the slave trade and colonial robbery between 1500 and 1750 amounted to a sum of capital larger than the total capital invested in European industries in the year 1800.

The predicament of the "developing countries", Mandel says, expresses a double tragedy. Not only did they pay the price for the international concentration of capital; they also had to overcome industrial backwardness in a world economy already dominated by the industrial goods of the advanced countries.

So, while the world market boosted industrialisation between the 1500s and 1800s in Europe, North America and Japan, by about 1900 the same world market became an obstacle or brake to the industrialisation of the third world, which mostly could not compete with Europe, North America and Japan. Some "intermediate" countries (e.g. settler colonies) did industrialise, but typically in a one-sided way; many of the industrial goods were produced for export.

The integration of developing countries into the world market occurred mainly on the initiative of the Western powers, in a way consistent with their interests. This created a hierarchy of nations in the international division of labour. A hierarchy (in Greek: , derived from â€” hieros, sacred, and â€” arkho, rule) is a system of ranking and organizing things or people, where each element of the system (except for the top element) is subordinate to a single other element. ... One of the most influential doctrines in history is that all humans are divided into groups called nations. ... Division of labour is the specialisation of cooperative labour in specific, circumscribed tasks and roles, intended to increase efficiency of output. ...

Because local demand was lacking in the third world, and because investors were unwilling to create colonial competition for the home country, investments focused mainly on agriculture and extraction of minerals for export. A mineral is a naturally occurring substance formed through geological processes that has a characteristic chemical composition, a highly ordered atomic structure and specific physical properties. ...

At best, the outcome of all this was half-industrialisation, and an economy which does not adequately serve the needs of the local population. There was plenty capital and unemployed labour, but little possibility for local industrial development benefiting the local population.

Mandel concluded that because the third world bourgeoisie mostly doesn't really care about developing the country, workers and peasants must take state power and carry out the necessary economic changes.

Schumpeter's critique of Marx's theory

The economist Joseph Schumpeter disagreed with the Marxist explanation of the origin of capital, because Schumpeter did not believe in exploitation. In liberal theory, the market returns to each person the exact value she added into it; capitalists are just people who are very adept at saving and whose contributions are especially magnificent, and they do not take anything away from other people or the environment. Liberals believe that capitalism has no internal flaws or contradictions; only outside threats. To liberals, the idea of the necessity of violent primitive accumulation to capital is particularly incendiary. Schumpeter wrote rather testily: Joseph Schumpeter Joseph Alois Schumpeter (February 8, 1883 â€“ January 8, 1950) was an economist from Austria and an influential political scientist. ... The term exploitation may carry two distinct meanings: The act of utilizing something for any purpose. ... Look up liberal on Wiktionary, the free dictionary Liberal may refer to: Politics: Liberalism American liberalism, a political trend in the USA Political progressivism, a political ideology that is for change, often associated with liberal movements Liberty, the condition of being free from control or restrictions Liberal Party, members of...

"[The problem of Original Accumulation] presented itself first to those authors, chiefly to Marx and the Marxists, who held an exploitation theory of interest and had, therefore, to face the question of how exploiters secured control of an initial stock of 'capital' (however defined) with which to exploit - a question which that theory per se is incapable of answering, and which may obviously be answered in a manner highly uncongenial to the idea of exploitation" (Joseph Schumpeter, Business Cycles, Vol. 1, New York; McGraw-Hill, 1939, p. 229).

Schumpeter argued that imperialism was not a necessary jumpstart for capitalism, nor is it needed to bolster capitalism, because imperialism pre-existed capitalism. Schumpeter believed that, whatever the empirical evidence, capitalist world trade could in principle just expand peacefully. If imperialism occurred, Schumpeter asserted, it has nothing to do with the intrinsic nature of capitalism itself, or with capitalist market expansion. The distinction between Schumpeter and Marx here is subtle. Marx claimed that capitalism requires violence and imperialism--first, to kick-start capitalism with a pile of booty and to dispossess a population to induce them to enter into capitalist relations as workers, and then to surmount the otherwise-fatal contradictions generated within capitalist relations over time. Schumpeter's view was that imperialism is an atavistic impulse pursued by a state independent of the interests of the economic ruling class. This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... Capitalism generally refers to an economic system in which the means of production are mostly privately[1] owned and operated for profit, and in which investments, distribution, income, production and pricing of goods and services are determined through the operation of a free market. ...

"Imperialism is the object-less disposition of a state to expansion by force without assigned limits... Modern Imperialism is one of the heirlooms of the absolute monarchical state. The "inner logic" of capitalism would have never evolved it. Its sources come from the policy of the princes and the customs of a pre-capitalist milieu. But even export monopoly is not imperialism and it would never have developed to imperialism in the hands of the pacific bourgeoisie. This happened only because the war machine, its social atmosphere, and the martial will were inherited and because a martially-oriented class (i.e., the nobility) maintained itself in a ruling position with which of all the varied interests of the bourgeoisie the martial ones could ally themselves. This alliance keeps alive fighting instincts and ideas of domination. It led to social relations which perhaps ultimately are to be explained by relations of production but not by the productive relations of capitalism alone." (Joseph A. Schumpeter: The Sociology of Imperialism, 1918). A monopoly (from the Greek language monos, one + polein, to sell) is defined as a persistent market situation where there is only one provider of a product or service, in other words a firm that has no competitors in its industry. ... Relations of production (German: Produktionsverhaltnisse) is a concept frequently used by Karl Marx in his theory of historical materialism and in Das Kapital. ...

Where to now with development studies?

It would probably take a modern Hegel or a new Marx to re-evaluate history in the light of such critiques as Schumpeter's--or maybe just somebody kind of interested in the topic--to distinguish between fact and apologism. But some find Marx still very useful, while others--some in a postmodernist camp, regard "grand narratives" about historical relationships as dismissable and useless for their own, often academic, purposes--especially when those "grand narratives" are no longer connected to a vibrant social movement in core countries. Image File history File links Circle-question. ... Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (August 27, 1770 - November 14, 1831) was a German philosopher born in Stuttgart, Württemberg, in present-day southwest Germany. ... Marx is a common German surname. ... Postmodernity (also called post-modernity or the postmodern condition) is a term used by philosophers, social scientists, art critics and social critics to refer to aspects of contemporary art, culture, economics and social conditions that are the result of the unique features of late 20th century and early 21st century... In critical theory, and particularly postmodernism, a metanarrative is a grand overarching account, or all-encompassing story, which is thought to give order to the historical record. ... American Civil Rights Movement is one of the most famous social movements of the 20th century. ... In World Systems Theory, the core countries are the industrialised capitalist countries on which periphery and semi-periphery countries depend. ...

In light of current debates about Anglo-American imperialism, globalization, empire, neoliberalism, the spectacular growth of the military-industrial complex and the prison-industrial complex, as well as persistent slavery, development studies might make good use of the Marxist proposition that capital needs to stoop to primitive accumulation in order to overcome tendencies toward decline. This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... A KFC franchise in Kuwait. ... Scholars debate about what exactly constitutes an empire (from the Latin imperium, denoting military command within the ancient Roman government). ... For the school of international relations, see Neoliberalism (international relations). ... President Dwight Eisenhower famously referred to the military-industrial complex in his farewell address. ... The prison-industrial complex refers to interest groups that represent organizations that do business in correctional facilities, like prison guard unions, construction companies, and surveillance technology vendors, who become more concerned with making more money than actually rehabilitating criminals or reducing crime rates. ... Slave redirects here. ...

For some, a question remains concerning the criteria used to assess human progress. Feudalistic countries such as Russia and China could industrialise only by breaking with the capitalist world market dominated by the imperialist powers; but, it is argued by critics, this industrialisation involved a process of "primitive socialist accumulation" just as coercive as its capitalist variant, transforming peasants into proletarians^[1]. On the other hand, Marx did not really pursue the question of how feudal societies could skip capitalist accumulation and become communist, without bloodshed, in a world dominated by organized, expansionist capital. Focusing on Stalinist Russia in the midst of the Cold War, or neoliberal China, may not be the most insightful way to evaluate Marxist views on how to encourage human development, or even Marxist historical analyses of capital generation.

Marx's own attitude toward assessing progress, however, includes not only the view that liberalism has elements of introductory emancipation, which need to be augmented through socialist struggle. Marx also thought, just as "history is always re-written by the victors" to emphasize their own achievements and downgrade the losers, there are no criteria free from biases introduced by people's own interests and stakes, i.e. no assessment can fully transcend the interests of social classes.

Without denying the undoubted and impressive achievements of the bourgeoisie, Marx himself threw his lot in with the working class, believing that with its emancipation, and with further struggle, humanity would eventually be emancipated. The working class would get rid of the "muck of ages" through building a nonviolent communism, dissolving all class distinctions and oppression of people by other people. The categorical imperative was to revolt against all conditions that made people less than they could be and all forms of social oppression, armed with the tools of reason, science, art and politics. For this purpose, he helped to found the First International. This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Communism is an ideology that seeks to establish a classless, stateless social organization based on common ownership of the means of production. ... The categorical imperative is the central philosophical concept of the moral philosophy of Immanuel Kant, and of modern deontological ethics. ... The International Workingmens Association, sometimes called the First International, was an international organization which aimed at uniting a variety of different left-wing political groups and trade union organizations which were based on the working class. ...

As for Hegel, who is doubtlessly relevant to all Wiki entries, he remarked in his Philosophy of Right: "When philosophy paints its grey in grey, then a shape of life has become old, and with grey in grey it cannot be rejuvenated, but only recognized for what it is. The owl of Minerva begins its flight only with the falling of dusk.’

Notes

References

Karl Heinrich Marx (May 5, 1818, Trier, Germany â€“ March 14, 1883, London) was a German philosopher, political economist, and revolutionary. ... Das Kapital (Capital, in the English translation) is an extensive treatise on political economy written by Karl Marx in German. ... Ernest Mandel Ernest Ezra Mandel, also known by various pseudonyms such as Ernest Germain, Pierre Gousset, Henri Vallin, Walter etc. ... Andre Gunder Frank (Berlin, February 24, 1929 â€“ Luxembourg, April 23, 2005) was a German economic historian and sociologist who was one of the founders of the Dependency theory and the World Systems Theory in the 1960s. ... Raymond-Claude-Ferdinand Aron (March 14, 1905 â€” October 17, 1983) was a French philosopher, sociologist and political scientist. ... Frank Furedi is professor of sociology at the University of Kent, UK. Previously, as Frank Richards, he was founder and chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party of Great Britain, a left-wing political party which was expelled from the International Socialists in the 1970s, styling itself as the Revolutionary Opposition. ... Jeffrey Sachs Jeffrey D. Sachs (born 1954) is an American economist known for his work as an economic advisor to governments in Latin America, Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, Asia, and Africa. ...

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