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Marx as Evolutionary and Some “Revisionist” Implications

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Karl Marx’s Life, Ideas, and Influences

Part of the book series: Marx, Engels, and Marxisms ((MAENMA))

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Abstract

The view of Karl Marx as “revolutionary” endorsing a violent overturn of the capitalist system is not only standard textbook fare filtering through to popular opinion, but also often found in professional accounts. The perspective on Marx as “revolutionary” is unconvincing. Marx’s evolutionism, insofar as it relates to prominent features of advanced capitalism, implies a powerful laissez-faire bias reflecting primarily concern lest reformist measures to correct perceived injustices in the capitalist-exchange system assure its permanence, but also price-theoretic arguments for non-intervention. Secondly, Marx’s evolutionism extends to the stage following a proletarian political takeover, and includes allowance for a residual capitalist sector, for income inequality, and even for compensation of expropriated property owners. And, thirdly, the proletarian takeover itself might, for Marx, occur by way of democratic voting enabled by extensions of the franchise accorded by the capitalist state itself responding to pressures generated by capitalist development. These three themes render the evolutionist perspective overwhelming.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Isaiah Berlin, Karl Marx: His Life and Environment, 4th ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978), 189.

  2. 2.

    Samuel Freeman, “The Headquarters of Neo-Marxism,” New York Review of Books 64, no. 5 (23 March 2017): 63.

  3. 3.

    Eric Hobsbawm, How to Change the World: Reflections on Marx and Marxism (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2011), 65.

  4. 4.

    Joseph A. Schumpeter, History of Economic Analysis (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1954), 441.

  5. 5.

    Karl Marx, “Marx to Engels, 7 December 1867,” in MECW (New York: International Publishers, 1987), 42: 494.

  6. 6.

    Gareth Stedman Jones, Karl Marx: Greatness and Illusion (London: Allen Lane, 2016), 563–4, 566–7.

  7. 7.

    Mandell M. Bober, Karl Marx’s Interpretation of History (New York: Norton, 1965), 262.

  8. 8.

    Hobsbawm, How to Change the World, 67.

  9. 9.

    Ibid., 57.

  10. 10.

    Jacob S. Schapiro, “Comment,” Journal of the History of Ideas 10, no. 2 (1949): 304.

  11. 11.

    Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party, in MECW (New York: International Publishers, 1976), 6: 519.

  12. 12.

    Karl Marx, Capital, Vol. I, in MECW (New York: International Publishers, 1996), 35: 739.

  13. 13.

    Marx, Capital, Vol. I, 9.

  14. 14.

    Karl Marx, Economic Manuscript of 1861–63, in MECW (New York: International Publishers, 1991), 33: 442.

  15. 15.

    Karl Marx, Economic Manuscript of 1861–63, in MECW (New York: International Publishers, 1994), 34, 466.

  16. 16.

    Marx, Capital, Vol. III, in MECW (New York: International Publishers, 1998), 37: 434.

  17. 17.

    Karl Marx, “Marx to Engels, 2 April 1858,” in MECW (New York: International Publishers, 1983), 40: 298.

  18. 18.

    Marx, Capital, Vol. III, 438.

  19. 19.

    Ibid., 436.

  20. 20.

    Frederick Engels, Anti-Dűhring: Herr Eugen Duhring’s Revolution in Science, in MECW (New York: International Publishers, 1987), 25: 264–5.

  21. 21.

    Marx, Capital, Vol. I, 490–1.

  22. 22.

    Ibid., 491.

  23. 23.

    Ibid., 9.

  24. 24.

    Marx, Critique of the Gotha Programme, in MECW (New York: International Publishers, 1989), 24: 95.

  25. 25.

    Frederick Engels, Principles of Communism, in MECW (New York: International Publishers, 1976), 6: 350.

  26. 26.

    Marx and Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party, 493, 517–18.

  27. 27.

    Karl Marx, The Poverty of Philosophy: Answer to the “Philosophy of Poverty” by M. Proudhon, in MECW (New York: International Publishers, 1976), 6: 210.

  28. 28.

    Karl Marx, “The Chartists,” in MECW (New York: International Publishers, 1979), 11: 335–6; Marx’s emphasis.

  29. 29.

    Stedman Jones, Karl Marx, 307, 337, 342, 550.

  30. 30.

    Karl Marx, The Civil War in France, published anonymously as the Address of the General Council of the International Working-Men’s Association, in MECW (New York: International Publishers, 1986), 22: 327.

  31. 31.

    Ibid., 328.

  32. 32.

    Ibid., 335.

  33. 33.

    Karl Marx, “Record of Interview with The World Correspondent,” in MECW (New York: International Publishers, 1986), 22: 602.

  34. 34.

    Stedman Jones, Karl Marx, 551.

  35. 35.

    Karl Marx, “On the Hague Congress,” in MECW (New York: International Publishers, 1988), 23: 255.

  36. 36.

    Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, “Circular Letter, 17–18 September 1879,” in MECW (New York: International Publishers, 1991), 45: 401.

  37. 37.

    Ibid., 403.

  38. 38.

    Ibid., 407.

  39. 39.

    Ibid., 404.

  40. 40.

    Ibid., 405.

  41. 41.

    Ibid., 406.

  42. 42.

    Berlin, Karl Marx, 257.

  43. 43.

    Samuel Hollander, Friedrich Engels and Marxian Political Economy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), 323–4.

  44. 44.

    Marx and Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party, 504–5; emphasis added.

  45. 45.

    Engels, Principles of Communism, 349–50; see Hollander, Friedrich Engels, 324.

  46. 46.

    This raises the issue of the productivity of the traditional compared with joint-stock arrangement, especially with regard to innovation. Here, we should take note of Marx’s recognition of complex decision-making by the owner-entrepreneur regarding innovation in the face of uncertainty. On this issue, see Samuel Hollander, The Economics of Karl Marx: Analysis and Application (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008), 438–43.

  47. 47.

    Hollander, Friedrich Engels, 149–50, 166.

  48. 48.

    Marx, The Civil War in France, 335.

  49. 49.

    Marx, Critique of the Gotha Programme, 85–6.

  50. 50.

    Ibid., 86–7.

  51. 51.

    Friedrich Hayek, The Constitution of Liberty (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011), 149–50.

  52. 52.

    Joseph Persky, The Political Economy of Progress: John Stuart Mill and Modern Radicalism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016), 182–3.

  53. 53.

    Frederick Engels, “The Peasant Question in France and Germany,” in MECW (New York: International Publishers, 1990), 27: 500.

  54. 54.

    Marx and Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party, 513.

  55. 55.

    Karl Marx, The Class Struggles in France, in MECW (New York: International Publishers, 1978), 10: 126.

  56. 56.

    Ludwig von Mises, Planning for Freedom (South Holland, IL: Libertarian Press, 1980), 29.

  57. 57.

    Frederick Engels, Ludwig Feuerbach and the End of Classical German Philosophy, in MECW (New York: International Publishers, 1990), 26: 360.

  58. 58.

    Frederick Engels, “The Ten Hours Question,” in MECW (New York: International Publishers, 1978), 10, 271–6; 288–300.

  59. 59.

    Murray Rothbard, Economic Thought before Adam Smith: An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought (Aldershot: Edward Elgar, 1995), xii, 530.

  60. 60.

    Marx, The Poverty of Philosophy, 203.

  61. 61.

    Ibid., 205.

  62. 62.

    Ibid., 204.

  63. 63.

    Hollander, The Economics of Karl Marx, 390–6, 403.

  64. 64.

    Marx, Critique of the Gotha Programme, 84.

  65. 65.

    Karl Marx, “Notes on Wagner’s Lehrbuch der Politischen Oekonomie,” in MECW (New York: International Publishers, 1989), 24: 535.

  66. 66.

    Hollander, The Economics of Karl Marx, 386–7.

  67. 67.

    Marx, Poverty of Philosophy, 158–9. The celebrated proposal for a “heavy progressive or graduated income tax” (Manifesto of the Communist Party, 505), be it noted, relates to the weakening of remnants of capitalism after the communist takeover and is not part of a reformist redistributive programme pertaining to the existing system.

  68. 68.

    Karl Marx, “Inaugural Address of the Working Men’s International Association,” in MECW (New York: International Publishers, 1985), 20: 11–12.

  69. 69.

    Ibid., 12; emphasis added.

  70. 70.

    Ibid., 10–11.

  71. 71.

    Marx, Capital, Vol. I, 300, 412.

  72. 72.

    Ibid., 9–10.

  73. 73.

    Ibid., 300.

  74. 74.

    Marx, Capital, Vol. III, 262.

  75. 75.

    Karl Marx, “Value, Price and Profit,” in MECW (New York: International Publishers, 1985), 20: 148–9.

  76. 76.

    Karl Marx, “Instructions for the Delegates of the Provisional General Council,” (New York: International Publishers, 1985), 20: 191.

  77. 77.

    Marx, “Record of Interview with The World Correspondent,” 602.

  78. 78.

    Marx, Capital, Vol. I, 760.

  79. 79.

    Marx, “Record of Interview with The World Correspondent,” 602.

  80. 80.

    Karl Marx, “Marx to S. Meyer and A. Vogt, 9 April 1870,” in MECW, vol. 43, 474–5.

  81. 81.

    Marx, “Preamble to the Programme of the French Workers” Party,” in MECW (New York: International Publishers, 1989), 24: 340–1.

  82. 82.

    Karl Marx, Wage Labour and Capital, in MECW (New York: International Publishers, 1977), 9: 220–1.

  83. 83.

    Karl Marx, “Marx to Engels, 17 November 1862,” in MECW (New York: International Publishers, 1985), 41: 430.

  84. 84.

    Karl Marx, “Marx to Engels, 9 April 1863,” in MECW (New York: International Publishers, 1985), 41: 468.

  85. 85.

    Karl Marx, “Marx to Kugelmann, 29 November 1869,” in MECW in MECW (New York: International Publishers, 1988), 43: 390.

  86. 86.

    Marx, “Value, Price and Profit,” 149.

  87. 87.

    Karl Marx, “Speech on Trades Unions at London Conference of the International Working Men’s Association,” in MECW (New York: International Publishers, 1986), 22: 614.

  88. 88.

    Karl Marx, “Parliamentary Debate on the Anti-Socialist Law,” in MECW (New York: International Publishers, 1989), 24: 248.

  89. 89.

    Graeme Duncan, Two Views of Social Conflict and Social Harmony (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1973), 304.

  90. 90.

    Frederick Engels, “Engels to Marx, 7 October 1858,” in MECW (New York: International Publishers, 1983), 40: 344.

  91. 91.

    Frederick Engels, “Engels to Marx, 8 April 1863,” in MECW (New York: International Publishers, 1985), 41: 465.

  92. 92.

    Frederick Engels, “Trades Unions,” in MECW (New York: International Publishers, 1989), 24: 386–7.

  93. 93.

    Karl Marx, “First Address of the General Council of the International Working Men’s Association on the Franco-Prussian War,” in MECW (New York: International Publishers, 1986), 22: 6.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Samuel Hollander

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  1. Samuel Hollander
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  1. Asian Development Research Institute, Patna, Bihar, India

    Shaibal Gupta

  2. Department of Sociology, York University, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Marcello Musto

  3. London School of Economics, London, UK

    Babak Amini

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Hollander, S. (2019). Marx as Evolutionary and Some “Revisionist” Implications. In: Gupta, S., Musto, M., Amini, B. (eds) Karl Marx’s Life, Ideas, and Influences. Marx, Engels, and Marxisms. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24815-4_12

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