A Theory of Capitalist Economic Systems

Abstract

Social theorists have long regarded those production relations which we now call capitalist as especially well suited for generating economic dynamism. This is true of Adam Smith, Karl Marx and Max Weber, as well as virtually all lesser notables. Indeed, Marx went so far as to say that, compared to capitalism, all ‘earlier modes of production were essentially conservative’.¹ So, if historical materialism is applicable to economic systems generally, as we tentatively claim it is in Chapter 1, it ought to be especially relevant for understanding capitalism. Our argument in this chapter is that the cogency of the theory does indeed improve significantly when applied solely to capitalism, but the high degree of persuasiveness still falls short of complete assurance. However, if the reference is narrowed further to advanced capitalism, confidence that historical materialism is essentially correct is again significantly raised. In this more restricted domain, the influences operating to constrain the development of the productive forces have weakened very significantly. This is true for both types of constraints: those recognised by historical materialism itself and those that qualify the validity of historical materialism as a theory of economic systems.