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

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2008

James Devine  and
Gary Dymski
James Devine
Affiliation:
Loyola Marymount University
Gary Dymski
Affiliation:
University of California, Riverside
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Extract

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.

Type
Essays
Information
Economics & Philosophy , Volume 7 , Issue 2 , October 1991 , pp. 235 - 275
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1991

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