Standpoint Of Political Economy Research Articles

Ideology, Fetishism, Apophaticism: Marxist Criticism and Christianity

AbstractThis paper explores Christianity's ambiguous relationship to capitalism by engaging Marx's notion of the fetishism of commodities as a way of rethinking Marxism's critique of religion from the standpoint of political economy. Following Etienne Balibar's distinction between the theory of ideology and Capital's theory of fetishism, I examine how the later Marx conceived of religion as socially conditioned by the society of commodity production, which takes on religious dimensions. Commodities are the basis for a concept of fetishism which commands total subjection, alienating human beings under capitalism. This critical focus also reveals Christianity in its totalizing role as a symbolic structure shaped by the inescapable logic of exchange-value, money, and universal equivalents. Nonetheless, Christianity retains the impetus to anti-fetishism, provided it unites with the Marxist science of critical perception. This anti-fetishistic union focuses on the transparent and revolutionized social relations of real presence as the nonalienated reverse of fetishism's false presence. A critical apophaticism, tempered by the materialist amendments of Marika Rose and Slavoj Žižek, offers the bridge to such a union and highlights the anti-fetishistic avenues of failure and utopia.

Historical Blind Alleys: Arian Kingdoms, Signorie, Stalinism

To theorize the phenomenon of Stalinism within the framework of Marxism requires it to be addressed not only from the standpoint of political economy, but also from that of historical materialism. Leon Trotsky's arguments for ‘political revolution’ grew out of prior explicit analogies between Stalinism and the regime of Napoleon Bonaparte current in the Oppositions in the USSR. Trotsky's followers after the 1940s drew from these de facto analogies stronger analogies with the ‘reactionary-progressive’ Bonapartism of Napoleon I and, more widely held, a belief that capitalist restoration in the USSR, among others, would involve a full-dress ‘social counter-revolution’. These beliefs were politically crippling in the 1980–1990s. This paper proposes that these analogies were false because they drew on historical events at a later stage in the rise of the capitalist class and decline of feudalism than the stage of the rise of the proletariat and decline of capitalism reached at the time of the Russian Revolution. Rather, the appropriate theoretically grounded analogies are with the Arian kingdoms that immediately succeeded the fall of the western Roman Empire, and with the city-states of medieval Italy. In both cases what is involved is the first serious attempt at the sovereignty of a new class, but one which is both externally dominated and internally massively penetrated by the old social and political order, and in consequence tends to decline towards the old order. Hence (as has proved to be the outcome of Stalinism), full ‘social counter-revolution’ is not necessary to complete the process of reintegration in the old order.

Nuove visioni dell’impresa dopo la grande crisi: prime riflessioni

The current economic and financial climate has shown the need to re-think thoroughly business dynamics. This involves a translation from short to mid and long-term objectives, to be carried out with an approach based on a new ethics of management. The perspective of this paper, based on a systemic interpretation of world economy, is informed by the principles of business economy, not by the standpoint of political economy . In this context, topics such as social capital, intellectual capital and societing are looked at as valuable elements that could foster a harmonious relationship between enterprises and the external economical and social context. Our analysis aims to highlight practices and guidelines that may help to redefine four key aspects of the strategies of enterprises: the interaction with the external context, governance, management and internal audit.

Facts, Law, and Policy: An Allocation-of-Powers Approach to Patent System Reform

The growing prominence of the patent system has revealed an institutional structure in need of repair. Legal scholars and commentators have identified and discussed some of the difficulties of the individual institutions within the patent system. But they have not incorporated into their analyses a recognition of all of the relevant institutions and their highly interdependent roles. Because of this interdependence, patent reform requires multi-institutional analysis. This Article argues that the ostensibly discrete problems of our patent institutions stem from an initial mistake in institutional design. This mistake was made in 1982, when Congress implemented patent reform by attempting to concentrate expertise at the appellate level. Congress focused on the appellate courts even though the patent questions that require narrowly focused expertise are largely questions of fact, not law or policy. Multi-institutional reform must therefore focus on remedying the system's substantial deficiencies in the areas of both fact-finding and policymaking. Under a traditional administrative law model, primary responsibility for questions of fact would rest with the PTO. The role of the courts - whether the trial court or the appellate court - would be secondary. With respect to fact-finding, adopting certain aspects of the traditional administrative model is clearly necessary. Thus Congress should advance the PTO beyond its nineteenth century moorings and endow the agency with the expertise and neutrality necessary for it properly to wield significant fact-finding responsibility. At the same time, however, giving plenary responsibility on factual questions to the PTO would not be cost-effective. Accordingly, the trial courts should also be endowed with fact-finding expertise. Solving the allocation puzzle for questions of policy is more challenging. Each of the available institutional options - the legislature, the PTO, and the courts - has substantial associated liabilities. From the standpoint of political economy and institutional flexibility, the most disadvantaged institutional actor is probably Congress. The institutional choice thus comes down to one between the PTO and the appellate courts. On first examination, given the Federal Circuit's apparent aversion to policy analysis, its possible tendency towards pro-patent bias, and the well-known difficulties courts face in undertaking policymaking, the PTO might appear the better option. In order for the PTO to be a reasonably good policymaker, however, Congress would have to change the PTO into an altogether different agency: merely implementing reform that improved the agency's fact-finding capabilities would not be sufficient. In contrast, the level of change required in the court system would be less substantial. What we would need is greater generalist input in the appellate process. To some extent, the Supreme Court's increased interest in reviewing patent cases has already taken us down that path.

Clearly Defining the Basic Link

In one of his speeches, Comrade M. S. Gorbachev, General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, expressed the hope that social scientists would make their contribution to the discussion of the draft of the Law on the Socialist Enterprise. It follows from this that the discussion must embrace not only the actual text of the draft but also the ideas contained in it. How does the concept of the draft law look from the standpoint of political economy? The draft law under discussion attempts to define the basic link of the national economy. This key cell of the unified national economic complex is defined as the state enterprise (association). It would seem that this verbal constructionenterprise (association)is as self-explanatory today as it was two decades ago when it was first introduced, just as nothing suspicious is evidently contained in the word combination association (enterprise) ten years later. However, from the standpoint of political economy, these apparently innocent inversions and the obligat...

Revolution on the Pampas. A Social History of Argentine Wheat, 1860-1910

unexpectedly heavy attention. That the Colorado Delta and its exploitation by irrigation agriculture dominate the discussion of the modern economy is perhapsjustified by the importance of the region in the Mexican economy. Consideration of only the Mexican side of the delta might be justified from the standpoint of political economy, but it makes impossible a clear exposition of the extraordinary topography and attendant water-management problems. The many maps and tables, some borrowed directly but most of them assembled by the author, give the work the aspect of an official publication or handbook. A sound geographic understanding, however, has guided the selection of material for inclusion, even if the lack of intimate familiarity with the region has allowed errors to creep in. As a genre the explorational Ldnderkunde has survived among German geographers. It must be distinguished from the regional study whose author knows the area intimately through long residence or recurring visits. Rather, an exotic area is visited for geographic investigation, the intensity of which must vary inversely with the size and complexity of the area; the literature is combed for relevant material before and after the trip; as expeditiously as possible a monograph is prepared and published. In America such activity might be pursued tor a doctoral dissertation, but professional geographers are likely to devote themselves to studies focused on a particular theme, regionally or systematically defined, and to attempt regional syntheses only of areas large enough to promise textbook sale. As a result, although support for geographic fieldwork and its pursuit in the far corners of the earth has expanded enormously in the United States in the past two decades, it is unusual to find a modern comprehensive geography in English of even the most popular foci of study. Often the tourist's guidebook or the introductory chapter in an ethnography provides the only coverage more detailed than that of an encyclopedia or gazetteer. Although dressed up with interesting maps and excellent photographs, Gierloff-Emden's study of Baja California must be assessed as a pedestrian compilation. It adds little or nothing to what is known and published on the peninsula, nor does it offer new geographic insights. It nevertheless has its utility: a competent professional has selected sound information, has checked it to some degree against the impressions he as a keen observer could form in a quick tour, and has made it available in one place. I am bound to cite this book the next time I am asked, as I have been in the past, What is the best general work on the geography of Baja California? It is the first book for a serious student of the area to read.-HOMER ASCHMANN