James Devine

Roemer's “General” Theory of Exploitation Is a Special Case: The Limits of Walrasian Marxism

In a series of recent writings, John Roemer (1982a, 1982b, 1985, 1988) has made a provocative claim: exploitation and class are merely second-order concepts within Marxian theory, because both phenomena derive directly from differential ownership of productive assets (DOPA); indeed, exploitation remains a consistent index of economic injustice only if a “property relations†conception of exploitation replaces the common “labor-value†view. In sum, property relations, not the labor exchange, the labor proces, labor values, or even capitalist accumlation should be the central concern of Marxian theory.

Walrasian Marxism Once Again

John Roemers comment (1992) succinctly summarizes the logical structure of his own theory of capitalist exploitation, but misunderstands the main points of our critique. He reduces his argument to two propositions. The first is an “empirical proposition†about the “root causes of exploitation†: X + Y →Z, where X is the existence of differential ownership of means of production (DOPA), Y is coercion in the labor process, and Z is the capitalist class structure and exploitation. The second is the strictly theoretical proposition X + not-Y -†Z, the truth of which he demonstrates, given most of the assumptions of a Walrasian economic model. He concludes that these two propositions, taken together, demonstrate the primacy of DOPA in explaining capitalist class relations. This much is true – subject to the various limitations we have indicated in our article – but only within the restricted confines of a Walrasian framework. This purely theoretical conclusion has no force as an empirical conclusion: this is the point at which Roemers interpretation goes awry. For obviously, DOPA is a crucial element of empirical reality. But because Roemers Walrasian framework precludes other equally crucial elements of empirical reality (which are also conceptually central to Marxian discourse), an irreducible distance remains therein between the theoretical and the empirical.

The Rise and Fall of Stagflation: Preliminary Results

This paper explains the rise and fall of stagflation between 1960 and 1998 in terms of the fall and rise of the cyclically-corrected profit rate as part of a preliminary investigation. Not only is the theory presented and compared to mainstream visions of the Natural Rate of Unemployment, but empirical evidence for my thesis is marshaled.

Book Reviews : The Emergence of Classes in Algeria: A Study of Colonialism and Socio-Political Change by Marnia Lazreg Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1976, 252 pp., no index

most theoretical problems. Her book is not meant to be an introduction to Algerian history, but rather, a clarification and refinement of Marxian concepts using information on Algeria, applying one version of the &dquo;structuralist-Marxist&dquo; approach. The effort is welcome in view of the widespread confusion in the definition of these concepts but most readers will require introductory material. For this, I recommend the