Domar (1970) has singled out the land/labor ratio as the main cause of both slavery and serfdom. But he then recognizes that scarcity of labor is necessary but not sufficient for serfdom to exist, and that an exogenous political factor is required to determine the status of labor.I show that in...

In terms of economic methodology, Friedman's most well-known contribution is his 1953 essay, “The Methodology of Positive Economics.” This important contribution has overshadowed his earlier contribution to economic methodology, entitled “Lerner on the Economics of Control” (1947)....

This paper argues that capitalist social relations do not presuppose wage-labour. It defends a functional definition of the capitalist relations of production, in terms of what Marx calls the ‘subsumption of labour by capital'. I argue that there are at least four modes of subsumption, one...

This paper seeks to explore and to critically evaluate, from an economic standpoint, Joseph Schumpeter's theory of the decline of capitalism, as put forward in his Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy. It begins by exploring and criticizing Schumpeter's entrepreneurial theory, and then explains...

Keynes’s thoughts on capitalism are analysed by focusing on what he wrote on the topic, using the Collected Writings, taken as a whole, together with some unpublished material to tackle three issues: what Keynes meant by capitalism; the fragility of capitalism; and the morality of capitalism....

The Frankfurt School of Social Research was an offshoot of the orthodox Marxist intellectual movement. Historically, the main force that gave life to Critical Theory is undeniably Karl Marx’s impetus for emancipation, however, in its course of development Critical Theory has abandoned its...