Echoes of Utopia

This study sets out to explore the question of the continuing relevance of Marx's thought. It opens with a conceptual analysis of Marx's "organic composition of capital" idea. It is critical of this idea, as well as of the related ideas of the labour theory of value and surplus value. The analysis ends by concluding that what truth there is in the organic composition of capital idea derives its forces from Marx's more fundamental ideas about overproduction, underconsumption and crises. It proceeds with a more socio-economic historical analysis of Marx's overproduction/underconsumption ideas in the light of the New Right, globalization and the "crisis of Keynesianism". It concludes that Marx's ideas on this score still have contemporary relevance, but three substantial areas of doubt remain for the Marxist project: a) the controversy of market versus planning; b) the utopian/scientific socialism debate ("mere dreaming" versus "real historical forces"); C) ecological limits and constraints in relation to the "removal of scarcity". The study goes on to partially address these doubts through the work of Joseph Schumpeter with his ambivalent attitude to Marx. It concentrates very much on the centralization aspect and the economic dimension. The following chapter then continues to address these doubts through the owrk of Simone Weil and her equally ambivalent attitude to Marx, concentrating on the decentralization aspect and the political/moral dimension. A final chapter pulls all these preceding threads together, identifying "decentralization within centralization" as one of Marx's leading ideas in both the political and economic spheres. It tries to assess the strengths and weaknesses of Schumpeter's and Weil's analyses. It continues with an imaginary conversation with the "spectre" of Marx, concerning the nature of the good society. Finally it explores the question of "real historical forces" in the contemporary world.