The Principles of Economic Policy of the Communist Party Explained to Economists

In this paper we analyse the economic part of a text of the French Communist Party (PCF) on the principles of the policies of the PCF. In particular we discuss how economists can use orthodox economic theory to evaluate the principles of communist economic policy. Although the text is quite old (1976), it is certainly not outdated; indeed allowing for some corrections the text stands up fairly good and its actual relevance is striking us. Using marginal analysis, we are concentrating upon the explanation of exploitation under perfect competition, monopoly and monopsony and the policies of austerity as a symptomatic feature of state monopoly capitalism