Social Europe

politics, economy and employment & labour

  • Themes
    • European digital sphere
    • Recovery and resilience
  • Publications
    • Books
    • Dossiers
    • Occasional Papers
    • Research Essays
    • Brexit Paper Series
  • Podcast
  • Videos
  • Newsletter

Marx From Industrial To Present-Day Capitalism

Jürgen Kocka 14th June 2018

Jürgen Kocka

Jürgen Kocka

The present debate about Karl Marx oscillates between historicising him as a figure of the distant past and applying his insights for a critical view of the present time. Describing, explaining and criticising capitalism was the centerpiece of Karl Marx’ oeuvre.

Markets, merciless competition and the commodification of nearly everything; profit orientation and endless accumulation of capital; the class conflict between the capitalists as the owners of the means of production and the dependent workers without such ownership, employed for wages on a contractual basis, and exploited in the sense that part of the value they created was taken from them and used for investment and consumption by the employers. The powerful dynamics of this type of economy which tended to expand beyond borders and determine all other spheres of life; deep economic and social crises which would finally bring capitalism down and prepare its replacement by an alternative system, i.e. socialism – these are the main features by which Marx characterised capitalism as an economic system and as the core of a social formation, dominated by the bourgeoisie and challenged by the proletariat. What can we take from Marx when it comes to understanding the capitalism of today and to writing a comprehensive history of capitalism?

On the one hand we have to take seriously that Marx, together with Friedrich Engels, has developed his approach between the 1840s and 1860s, under the influence of the dramatic breakthrough of the first phase of industrial capitalism in Western Europe, and by building on the economic theories and the socialist critique of those decades, reframed in the language of German philosophy, especially Hegel’s. Marx’ theories, insights and predictions where highly time-specific. They reacted and were addressed to a specific historical context which has fundamentally changed between then and now. This limits their applicability to understanding present-day capitalism, and for conceptualising a comprehensive history of capitalism related to questions and viewpoints of today.

Marx’ flaws

Here are some examples to support this thesis: Marx’ labor-based theory of value never worked. Marx experimented with a theory of the falling rate of profit which led him to expect that the capitalist economy would stop growing soon; as a coeval of the first part of the 19th century he – like other economists of that time – could not imagine the tremendous multiplication of human needs and desires which would take place in the future, and create ever new incentives to invest, new profit opportunities and new employment. Marx thought that the capitalist relations of production were quickly becoming obstacles preventing the further advancement of the means of production, including technological innovations. This way he underestimated the flexibility and changeability of capitalist relations, he missed the ability of capitalism to learn.

His analysis of the emerging working class was perceptive, innovative and influential, but it was highly selective and flawed since he did not recognise the mechanisms which already in the mid-19th century started to raise not only the wealth of the bourgeoisie, but also the welfare of workers, and he severely overestimated their propensity to form a consciously united, progressive and eventually revolutionary force.

Our job is keeping you informed!


Subscribe to our free newsletter and stay up to date with the latest Social Europe content.


We will never send you spam and you can unsubscribe anytime.

Thank you!

Please check your inbox and click on the link in the confirmation email to complete your newsletter subscription.

.

Finally, Marx’ approach remained basically economistic in the sense that he underestimated the relative autonomy of politics and culture vis-à-vis the economy. Consequently he did not offer analytical tools for understanding the changing relations between markets, states and cultures, between economic power, the dynamics of ideas and political intervention – so important for civilising capitalism and for writing its history today.

The ambivalence of capitalism

On the other hand, approaches and insights of Marx have well survived and even become indispensable, particularly if reframed in a slightly more abstract way. This holds with respect to the basic notion of ambivalence which informs Marx’ understanding of capitalism. He knows and writes that the capitalist mode of production has led to important advances, economic, social and historical ones. He sees the bourgeoisie not only as an exploiting, but also as a progressive force. At the same time he emphasises the social and moral costs of progress, the sacrifices it demands, and he knows that benefits and costs are unevenly distributed. Marx knows that capitalism produces winners and losers, that it creates social inequality. He has an eye for the intrinsic relation between capitalism and anti-capitalist protest.

Marx also draws our attention do the connections between violence and capitalism, at least in its early phases. His analysis of “original accumulation” is pertinent: It needs extra-economic force and frequently violence to create market-based economies. Marx stringently exposes capitalism’s outstanding dynamics. He shows the compulsory character of capitalist competition which forces capitalists to aggressively move on, strive for ever more and to endlessly accumulate if they do not want to fall back or drop out. It is on this analytical basis that Marx and Engels predicted the global expansion of capitalism already in 1848. They also observed or expected capitalism’s powerful trend to export its principles – like competition, commodification, continuous innovation and destruction, permanent change – beyond the economic field, into other spheres of life. These different dimensions of capitalist expansiveness are of outmost importance and much concern today. They are nowhere better analysed then with Marx or within Marxist traditions of thought.

Marx’ theory of capitalism is a product of mid-19th century and of limited use when it comes to understanding present-day capitalism or conceptualising a comprehensive history of capitalism, today. But his method and some of his insights continue to be indispensable for any critical theory of capitalism and useful for writing its history. This is what ‘historicising’ Marx should mean: exposing the time-specificity of his approach, revealing its limits, and at the same time preserving and adjusting it for purposes we may pursue in the present time. The sober historical contextualisation of Marx and the high appreciation of his oeuvre are certainly compatible.

First published by International Politics and Society


We need your support


Social Europe is an independent publisher and we believe in freely available content. For this model to be sustainable, however, we depend on the solidarity of our readers. Become a Social Europe member for less than 5 Euro per month and help us produce more articles, podcasts and videos. Thank you very much for your support!

Become a Social Europe Member

Jürgen Kocka

Jürgen Kocka is a German social historian. He is Professor Emeritus at the Free University of Berlin. A former president of the Social Science Research Center Berlin (2001–2007), Kocka has focused his research on the history of employees in large German and American businesses, and on the history of European bourgeoisie.

Home ・ Economy ・ Marx From Industrial To Present-Day Capitalism

Most Popular Posts

schools,Sweden,Swedish,voucher,choice Sweden’s schools: Milton Friedman’s wet dreamLisa Pelling
world order,Russia,China,Europe,United States,US The coming world orderMarc Saxer
south working,remote work ‘South working’: the future of remote workAntonio Aloisi and Luisa Corazza
Russia,Putin,assets,oligarchs Seizing the assets of Russian oligarchsBranko Milanovic
Russians,support,war,Ukraine Why do Russians support the war against Ukraine?Svetlana Erpyleva

Most Recent Posts

Sakharov,nuclear,Khrushchev Unhappy birthday, Andrei SakharovNina L Khrushcheva
Gazprom,Putin,Nordstream,Putin,Schröder How the public loses out when politicians cash inKatharina Pistor
defence,europe,spending Ukraine and Europe’s defence spendingValerio Alfonso Bruno and Adriano Cozzolino
North Atlantic Treaty Organization,NATO,Ukraine The Ukraine war and NATO’s renewed credibilityPaul Rogers
transnational list,European constituency,European elections,European public sphere A European constituency for a European public sphereDomènec Ruiz Devesa

Other Social Europe Publications

The transatlantic relationship
Women and the coronavirus crisis
RE No. 12: Why No Economic Democracy in Sweden?
US election 2020
Corporate taxation in a globalised era

Hans Böckler Stiftung Advertisement

Towards a new Minimum Wage Policy in Germany and Europe: WSI minimum wage report 2022

The past year has seen a much higher political profile for the issue of minimum wages, not only in Germany, which has seen fresh initiatives to tackle low pay, but also in those many other countries in Europe that have embarked on substantial and sustained increases in statutory minimum wages. One key benchmark in determining what should count as an adequate minimum wage is the threshold of 60 per cent of the median wage, a ratio that has also played a role in the European Commission's proposals for an EU-level policy on minimum wages. This year's WSI Minimum Wage Report highlights the feasibility of achieving minimum wages that meet this criterion, given the political will. And with an increase to 12 euro per hour planned for autumn 2022, Germany might now find itself promoted from laggard to minimum-wage trailblazer.


FREE DOWNLOAD

ETUI advertisement

Bilan social / Social policy in the EU: state of play 2021 and perspectives

The new edition of the Bilan social 2021, co-produced by the European Social Observatory (OSE) and the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI), reveals that while EU social policy-making took a blow in 2020, 2021 was guided by the re-emerging social aspirations of the European Commission and the launch of several important initiatives. Against the background of Covid-19, climate change and the debate on the future of Europe, the French presidency of the Council of the EU and the von der Leyen commission must now be closely scrutinised by EU citizens and social stakeholders.


AVAILABLE HERE

Eurofound advertisement

Living and working in Europe 2021

The Covid-19 pandemic continued to be a defining force in 2021, and Eurofound continued its work of examining and recording the many and diverse impacts across the EU. Living and working in Europe 2021 provides a snapshot of the changes to employment, work and living conditions in Europe. It also summarises the agency’s findings on issues such as gender equality in employment, wealth inequality and labour shortages. These will have a significant bearing on recovery from the pandemic, resilience in the face of the war in Ukraine and a successful transition to a green and digital future.


AVAILABLE HERE

Foundation for European Progressive Studies Advertisement

EU Care Atlas: a new interactive data map showing how care deficits affect the gender earnings gap in the EU

Browse through the EU Care Atlas, a new interactive data map to help uncover what the statistics are often hiding: how care deficits directly feed into the gender earnings gap.

While attention is often focused on the gender pay gap (13%), the EU Care Atlas brings to light the more worrisome and complex picture of women’s economic inequalities. The pay gap is just one of three main elements that explain the overall earnings gap, which is estimated at 36.7%. The EU Care Atlas illustrates the urgent need to look beyond the pay gap and understand the interplay between the overall earnings gap and care imbalances.


BROWSE THROUGH THE MAP

About Social Europe

Our Mission

Article Submission

Membership

Advertisements

Legal Disclosure

Privacy Policy

Copyright

Social Europe ISSN 2628-7641

Social Europe Archives

Search Social Europe

Themes Archive

Politics Archive

Economy Archive

Society Archive

Ecology Archive

Follow us on social media

Follow us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter

Follow us on LinkedIn

Follow us on YouTube