In Praise of ‘general laws’ of Capitalism: Notes from a Debate with Daron Acemoglu

Convergence in solvency and capital centralization: A B‐VAR analysis for high‐income and euro area countries

“…However, this cannot be the place to assess whether and to what extent this convergence is an unstoppable phenomenon or is rather destined to suffer sudden repercussions, perhaps precisely as a result of the transformations it could induce in the structure of political power and institutions. Whether and to what extent this international convergence in the concentration of economic power can have more general repercussions on the “resilience of liberal capitalism”, “its democratic institutions” and even peace between nations remains an open question that will merit further investigation (Acemoglu & Brancaccio, 2021; Aspromourgos, 2015; Brancaccio & De Cristofaro, 2022).…”

“…Capital centralization, however, has also been a problematic theoretical and empirical issue, only rarely examined in depth. In recent years there have been some signs of openness of the mainstream literature to deal with updated interpretations of Marxian methodology (Blanchard & Brancaccio, 2019; Acemoglu & Brancaccio, 2021, commented in Brancaccio & De Cristofaro, 2022). However, the prevailing literature neglected or criticized the specific tendency towards capital centralization (Acemoglu & Robinson, 2015; De Grauwe & Camerman, 2002).…”

War, Sanctions, Deglobalization: Which Comes First?

“…Though only Marx put it at the core of the analysis of capitalism, this search for the general "laws" of social systems has generated great debates throughout history, even outside the Marxist tradition (Foster and Sweezy 2011). As accounted for in Brancaccio and De Cristofaro (2022), after a period of relative oblivion, the crises of recent years seem to have aroused renewed attention to this topic (Boyer 2010), even though the space obtained in mainstream social sciences is limited.…”

“…Indeed, the tendential "law" per se does not evoke a fatal inevitability. The concept of "general law" is today considered fruitful precisely because it is confined within the typical limits of scientific objects, with their complex conjunctures, articulations, and bifurcations (Brancaccio and De Cristofaro 2022;Althusser 1971). Bringing the force of a "law" of movement towards war at the core of the analysis, rather, serves precisely to understand that in order to divert its catastrophic course one cannot rely on the action of an individual, or on targeting specific individuals with the goal of altering their behaviour, or even on the spontaneity of a generic, albeit much needed, collective movement calling for peace.…”