Monopoly and Crisis in the Era of the “Giant Corporation”: Neo-Marxist versus Radical Institutionalist Approaches

Abstract

Abstract Two competing tendencies in American radical economics developed in reaction to the emergence of the modern corporation: an institutionalist tendency associated with Thorstein Veblen, and a neo-Marxian one associated with Paul Sweezy and Paul Baran. How do their theories compare? Although the two tendencies have different starting points — one empirical and the other more abstract — they end up with remarkably similar ideas, particularly regarding competition, monopoly and the corporation. And while they diverge somewhat on the issue of crisis, these differences are neither irreconcilable nor a result of fundamentally different theoretical approaches. In fact, the two tendencies are surprisingly similar in the end precisely because Baran and Sweezy adopt some core Veblenian ideas, requiring a parallel shift away from the core elements of Marx's systematic analysis of capitalism: his method and his theory of value.