Book Review : A Review of Ernest Mandel's Late Capitalism

Abstract

Late Capitalism, Ernest Mandel's latest and most rigorous work, makes a substantial contribution towards analyzing the dynamics of monopoly capitalism Mandel draws attention to the importance of the distinction between "many capitals" and "social capital " While Mandel begins by rejecting left Keynesianism, he unfortunately reverts in the latter part of Late Capitalism to his earlier underconsumptionism and general equilibrianism His discussion of the "realization problem" ignores capital's nature as self-expanding value Besides its left Keynesiamsm, the other major shortcoming ofLate Capitalism is its view of technol ogical change. The theory of capital accumulation is based on clusters of technological innovations which fall from the sky to spark "long waves" of expan sion. The underlying conception of technology as neutral in the class struggle is characterized as revisionist