Table of Contents of World Review of Political Economy, Issue 2, 2023
The economic and social development of contemporary China has entered the New Era, a historical juncture that necessitates a profound exploration of the laws governing the movements of the global economy. Within the discourse of Marxist political economy, the theory of long waves [1] serves as a crucial instrument for understanding the cyclical shifts in the global capitalist system. In the article "The Periodization and Analytical Framework of Economic Long Waves: A New Study from the Perspective of Historical Materialism," Leming Hu, Gang Liu, and Guiai Gao offer a rigorous re-examination of this phenomenon. By integrating the methodology of historical materialism, the authors transcend traditional econometric approaches to investigate the dialectical interaction between the productive forces and the relations of production. They argue that long waves are not merely fluctuations in output, but are fundamentally driven by technological revolutions and the subsequent reconfiguration of the superstructure and the economic base.
Critical engagements with contemporary capitalist developments remain a priority for the journal. The article "Financialization Hypothesis: A Theoretical and Empirical Critique" by Turan Subasat and Stavros Mavroudeas provides a robust challenge to the prevailing "financialization" thesis. From a standpoint rooted in classical Marxist categories of surplus value and capital accumulation, the authors contend that many phenomena attributed to financialization are actually manifestations of the underlying tendencies of the falling rate of profit. This critique is essential for scholars seeking to avoid the pitfalls of "circulationism" [2] and maintain a focus on the primacy of production in capitalist crises.
The potential for socialist economic planning in the digital age is explored by Maxi Nieto in "Economic Calculation, Complexity, and Cyber-Communism: Bad News for the Austrian School." This contribution directly addresses the "socialist calculation debate" [3], utilizing modern computational theory to refute the assertions of the Austrian School regarding the impossibility of rational planning. By demonstrating how new quality productive forces and high-quality development in information technology can resolve informational complexity, Nieto provides a theoretical foundation for what may be termed "cyber-communism," where the conscious regulation of the economy replaces the "anarchy of production" [4].
Furthermore, the journal examines the detrimental impacts of neoliberalism in the Global South, with a particular focus on the Indian subcontinent. Paramjit Singh’s "The Economic Consequences of Authoritarian Neoliberalism in India" analyzes how the fusion of neoliberal policies with authoritarian governance has reshaped the Indian political ecosystem. This is complemented by Navpreet Kaur and C. Saratchand’s study, "Resisting the Neoliberal Project in India: Punjab and the Struggle against Corporate Encroachment into Agriculture," which utilizes the mass line perspective to document the resistance of the peasantry against the entry of monopoly capital into the agrarian sector. These studies illuminate the sharpening of class struggle as peripheral nations grapple with the contradictions of contemporary globalization.
Overall, this issue reflects the commitment of the world Marxist community to seek truth from facts and uphold the fundamentals and break new ground. By applying the analytical lens of dialectical materialism to both global systemic shifts and localized resistances, these contributions advance our collective understanding of the path toward a community with a shared future for humanity.