Where do we go from here?

Abstract

A central purpose of this paper is to argue for a more active role for historical analysis in filling out and extending classical theory. Firstly, what is required is a more modern vision of capitalist growth which would not only include such classical variables as the rate of profit and accumulation but also take into account the changing level and composition of the standard of living and how this interrelates with the compositional evolution of the industrial structure, including the effect of new technology and changes in industrial organisation (such as the development of new industries, new products and new systems of marketing). The second important need is for a more differentiated class analysis with which to study the growth process. This would require a detailed consideration of the historical stratification and re-stratification of the working class, and would incorporate an analysis of the impact of, and the interaction between, the evolving industrial and political organisation of labour, state policy, collective bargaining, the restructuring of labour resulting from changing power relations in the market and in the labour process, changing technology and industrial organisation. These processes have particular relevance, in the present context, for inter- and intra-class distribution of income and how this relates to the level and structuring of demand. The paper consists of five main sections: the first considers representative attempts to incorporate historical processes into theory; the second considers the development in the structure of consumption in Britain since 1860; the third links changing consumption to the standard of living; the fourth examines the relationship between the standard of life and institutional developments in wage determination and in welfare provision; and the fifth is a brief attempt to relate these factors to economic development.