Acta Oeconomica 1. (1966)

1966 / 3-4. szám - Molnár Ferenc: Some Theoretical Problems of Contemporary Capitalist Economy

SOME THEORETICAL PROBLEMS OF CONTEMPORARY CAPITALIST ECONOMY Contemporary capitalism is state monopoly capitalism where economic planning exists also at national level. — Due to changes in the material basis of periodicity, reproduction is not necessarily cyclical any more. — Consequent upon changes in the pattern of employment, improductive wage-earners have become the most significant potential allies of the working class in the developed capitalist countries. The capitalist class is interested in increasing the living standard, the consumption of the exploited. It is only understandable that the attention and research work of Marxian economists active in the socialist countries have been focussed on the practical and theoretical problems of, first building, then improving and completing the socialist economy. But the investigation of capitalist economies ought not to be neglected either. Its importance is justified by at least two main points: a) Under circumstances of competition between the two world systems, the efficiency of the economic and political activities of the socialist countries vis à vis the whole of the capitalist world would be greatly reduced if it lacked scientific background. This, however, can only be ascertained by research, based on Marxian political economy, into the economic development of capi­talist countries. Should research be inadequate, socialist countries may find themselves in a disadvantageous position in their links maintained with capi­talist countries, which, in certain cases, might involve severe economic and political consequences. b) If scholars of Marxian political economy cannot correctly depict contemporary capitalism, i. e. if they cannot adequately describe and analyse its current phenomena and reveal its laws of movement, this may mean a decline in the respect for the whole of Marxism in the eyes of the working class and the intellectuals of the capitalist countries. Although it would be the work­ers' movement in the capitalist countries that would directly suffer from the ideological and political consequences of such a loss of face, we are still not justified to take the stand that the research into the new problems appearing in the capitalist economy should be entirely the task of the Marxists in those countries. It would be least justified in a country like Hungary, in whose eco­nomic development external economic links, among them those with the capi­talist countries play such a great role. Acta Oeconomica Academiae S'cientiarum Hungaricae 2, 1966

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