State Capitalism versus Communism

What Happened in the USSR and the PRC

Bibliographic Data

ID2369745
AuthorsSatya Gabriel (Mount Holyoke College, Massachusetts, USA), Stephen A Resnick (University of Massachusetts - Amherst, Massachusetts, USA), Stephen Resnick (University of Massachusetts Amherst), Richard D Wolff (University of Massachusetts - Amherst, Massachusetts, USA)
Year2008
Volume34
Issue4
Pages539-556
Publication date2008-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCritical Sociology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0896-9205 • E-ISSN: 1569-1632
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0896920508090851
OpenAlexW2118396939
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited14

Since 1917 analysts have debated what kind of economic system existed in the USSR and the PRC. They mostly juxtaposed 'socialism' there to 'capitalism' in Western Europe and the USA. The two sides were defined chiefly in terms of private versus state property and markets versus planning. We challenge this debate by means of Marx's focus on the organization of surplus labor. That is, we distinguish capitalism, socialism, and communism according to how these systems differently organize the surplus. They exhibit different ways of producing, appropriating, and distributing the surpluses generated in production. Not only does this approach yield a new and different analysis of the similarities between capitalism and socialism, it also conceives communism as more radically different from both of them than other approaches do. Finally, we indicate some current political implications of our approach and its conclusions

Capitalism · Communism · Economic system · Economics · Market economy · Neoclassical economics · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Private property · Socialism · Socialist economics · State capitalism · State socialism · Economic Theory and Institutions · Economic Theory and Policy · Law · Political Economy and Marxism

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