[Marxism] A layperson's guide to crisis theory

[Louis Proyect]

The next topic in our introduction to Marxism online class is 
something of a calculated risk since it involves readings and 
discussions of some fairly difficult questions around what has been 
described as "crisis theory". Not only is some of the material pretty 
challenging, I have to confess that it is an area that I don't 
consider myself an expert in (as opposed to ecology–the next topic 
after this one.)

I think it is worth going into since it is a hot topic on the Marxist 
left, especially in the academy. It is also being referred to every 
time there is a major convulsion in the international economy, such 
as the one we are in now. Basically, you find an attempt to explain 
something like the dot-com bust or the subprime mortgage fiasco of 
today as a function of the capitalist system itself and specifically 
its inherent tendencies to implode.

As I pointed out in my reference to Ernest Mandel's chapter on crisis 
from his 1990 book on Karl Marx earlier in the week, you cannot find 
much support for inherent tendencies toward crisis in the 3 volumes 
of Capital itself. Marx was content to analyze the functioning of 
capitalism in normal conditions, which was sufficient to condemn the 
system when you keep in mind that child labor, 12 hour working days 
and miserable wages characterized the system in its initial stages. 
You didn't need an economic collapse to persuade workers to become 
socialists. Factory work was radicalizing enough.

Over the next week or so, I intend to serve as a kind of guide to 
some of the more important literature in this vein which I hope does 
not end up as the blind leading the blind. As someone who has been 
mystified in the past by the furious debates among people I all 
regard as friends and comrades over these questions (Patrick Bond, 
Leo Panitch, Doug Henwood to name a few), I figured that it was high 
time for me to come up to speed and bring the rest of you along with me.

full: 
http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2008/02/23/a-laypersons-guide-to-cri 
sis-theory/