Radical Economics, Institutionalism, and Marxism

Abstract

The argument here is that the Marxist and institutionalist traditions are similar in many respects, notably that both are inherently radical in their approaches to the economic system. There is an ongoing need to assay the similarities and differences between these two vital intellectual traditions. The phrase ‘inherently radical’ is used advisedly. It is argued in what follows that the two intellectual traditions are inherently radical owing to the character of their respective philosophical and methodological orientations.

The religious reflex of the real world can … only then finally vanish, when the practical relations of every-day life offer to man none but perfectly intelligible and reasonable relations with regard to his fellowmen and to Nature … The life-process of society, which is based on the process of material production, does not strip off its mystical veil until it is treated as production by freely associated men, and is consciously regulated by them in accordance with a settled plan.

K. Marx, 1867.

Political economists see their task as demystifying Modern Economics, helping young people everywhere to discover a world of passionate possibilities.

E.K. Hunt and J.G. Schwartz, 1972.

Reprinted with the permission of the Western Social Science Association from the Social Science Journal (1978).