Beyond Liberal Egalitarianism: Marx and Normative Social Theory in the Twenty-First Century

by Tony Smith

Overview

Progressive theorists and activists insist that contemporary capitalism is deeply flawed from a normative point of view. However, most accept the liberal egalitarian thesis that the serious shortcomings of market societies (financial excess, inequality, and so on) could be overcome with proper political regulation. Building on Marx's legacy, Tony Smith argues in Beyond Liberal Egalitarianism that advocates of this thesis (Rawls, Habermas, Stiglitz, et al.) lack an adequate concept of capital and the state. These theorists also fail to comprehend new developments in world history ensuring that the 'destructive' aspects of capitalism increasingly outweigh whatever 'creative' elements it might continue to possess. Smith concludes that a normative social theory adequate to the twenty-first century must explicitly and unequivocally embrace socialism.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781608469970
Publisher:	Haymarket Books
Publication date:	10/30/2018
Series:	Historical Materialism , #142
Pages:	386
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Tony Smith, Ph.D. State University of New York at Stony Brook (1980), is Professor of Philosophy at Iowa State University. Professor Smith’s books include The Logic of Marx’s Capital (SUNY, 1990), Technology and Capital (SUNY, 2000) and Globalisation (Brill, 2005).

Table of Contents

Preface
List of Figures

1 Liberal Egalitarianism
 Introduction
 Well-being
 Autonomous Agency
 Access to Resources
 The Development of Essential Capabilities
 Democratic Will-Formation

2 Towards a Liberal Egalitarian Normative Theory of Institutions
 The Household
 Market Production and Distribution
 The State
 Civil Society: The Public Sphere and Voluntary Associations
 The Regime of Global Governance

3 Misunderstandings, False Starts, Further Questions
 Some Marxian Objections to Liberal Egalitarianism
 Liberal Egalitarian Criticisms of Marx
 Conclusion

4 The Beginning Level of Marxian Theory
 The Beginning Level of Theoretical Abstraction (1): The Commodity, Value, Abstract Labour
 The Beginning Level of Theoretical Abstraction (2): Money
 Normative Considerations
 Conclusion

5 Marx’s Concept of Capital
 Marx’s Concept of Capital (1): Capital as a ‘Dominant Subject’
 Ontological and Normative Implications of the General Formula of Capital
 Normative Implications
 Marx’s Concept of Capital (2): Capital as a ‘Pseudo-Subject’

6 Human Flourishing and the Structural Tendencies of Capitalism
 The Capital/Wage Labour Relationship
 Overaccumulation Crises
 Financial Crises
 Environmental Crises
 Severe Global Inequality and Poverty
 Conclusion

7 A Liberal Egalitarian Response to the Marxian Challenge
 The Critique of Economism
 A Reform Agenda

8 Towards A Marxian Theory of ‘The Political’
 Five Theses on the Capitalist State
 A Critical Examination of Liberal Egalitarian Proposals
 Conclusion

9 Competing Perspectives on Neoliberalism
 A Liberal Egalitarian Narrative
 Beyond Liberal Egalitarianism: A Marxian Critique of Neoliberalism
 Conclusion

10 Two Modified Versions of Liberal Egalitarianism
 ‘Neo-Schumpeterian’ Liberal Egalitarianism
 The Normative Promise of ‘Commons-Based Peer Production’

11 Modified Liberal Egalitarianism and the Present Moment in World History
 Prospects for a New ‘Golden Age’
 The Prospects of Commons-Based Peer Production
 Conclusion

12 Property-Owning Democracy: A Liberal Egalitarianism Beyond Capitalism?
 Property-Owning Democracy (1)
 Property-Owning Democracy (2)
 Property-Owning Democracy (3)

13 Beyond Liberal Egalitarianism
 The Argument Thus Far
 Beyond Liberal Egalitarianism

Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

"The appearance of this book, especially in the current era of the dominance of normative social and political theory in departments of analytic philosophy, is most welcome." - Arash Abazari, Sharif University of Technology, in: Journal of Moral Philosophy 18/2 (2021)

From the Publisher