Epoch and Conjuncture in Marxist Political Economy

Abstract

Justin Rosenberg's critique of Globalization Theory is to be commended, as is his effort historically to contextualize the proliferation of this discourse in the 1990s. In doing so Rosenberg draws a distinction between general theory and conjunctural analysis. But this elides the difference, developed a variety of Marxist thinkers, from Lenin and Trotsky to Althusser and Jameson, between two kinds of analysis more concrete than the general theory of the capitalist mode of production. These focus, respectively, on epochs or phases of capitalist development and more historically specific conjunctures. Recognizing the differences between these levels of analysis makes it easier to formulate the proposition that phases of capitalist development may be distinguished by, among other things, the specific relationship between the state and capital that they involve. This thought may, in turn, help us to grasp what is genuinely new about the ‘era of globalization’.