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Marxian Political Economy: Theory, History and Contemporary Relevance, by Bob Milward. London: Macmillan, 2000. $69.95. Pp. 219.
This book is intended as a textbook for undergraduate students in economics, politics, sociology, and philosophy. Its aim is to demonstrate that Marx's theory is still relevant to understanding contemporary capitalism. I think the book succeeds fairly well in this important objective, although I think much more could be done along these lines. I teach a course on Marxian economics, so that is my perspective in reviewing the book.
The book is divided into two parts. The first part is an introduction to Marxian theory (eight chapters), while the second presents applications of this theory to various important problems in advanced capitalist economies today (monopolies, unemployment, the public sector, and the crisis of the welfare state).
The book argues that the main way Marx's theory is relevant to contemporary capitalism is its implication that sustained full employment is not compatible with capitalist property relations. Full employment increases the power of workers, and thereby threatens both the power and the profits of the capitalist class. Full employment helps workers secure higher wages and also a lower intensity of labor, both of which threaten profits. Sooner or later, capitalists will reassert their power over government policies (employing here a Marxian theory of the state) and force the abandonment of full employment policies. Therefore, attempts to manage capitalism by government intervention in order to provide full employment are fundamentally misguided and will always fail. The rise and fall of Keynesian policies in the post-- World War II period is one important example of this inevitable failure. Milward's main target is current proposals for a "third way" that would aim to achieve full employment and greater equality within capitalism by a revival of social democracy; e.g., Giddens. This is an important message and Milward delivers it well.
On other aspects of...