Odesa school of political economy and the problem of the development of industrial capitalism in Ukraine

Abstract

The scientific traditions of the Odesa school of political economy, which was created by Professor A.K. Pokrytan, can play a significant role in the further development of the logical-historical approach to the analysis of economic development. The purpose of the article is to consider the scientific traditions of the Odesa school in the context of a kind of historical paradox. This paradox consists in the fact that the most fundamental problem of Ukraine's economy in the 21st century, related to the development of industrial capitalism here, has remained unresolved and, in principle, has not changed since the end of the 19th century. For analyzing this historical paradox, the methodology of the Odesa school of political economy is used, which is based on the consistent distinction between the legal form and the economic content of property, formal and real socialization, genetic and structural foundations of the economic system, its initial and main economic relationship, market economy and industrial capitalism, production relations and institutional forms of management, etc. On the basis of this methodology it is proved, that the main problem of the Ukrainian economy is that the transition to the market does not mean the transition to industrial capitalism, but, on the contrary, is accompanied by the deindustrialization of the national economy. This analysis substantiates the objective necessity of both the new industrialization of the Ukrainian economy and the economic relations of state capitalism as an adequate economic form of this transformational process. This historical necessity is considered in the broad international context of the crisis of globalization and the tendency to localization of production in the world economy. In this way, the article reveals the relevance of the Odesa school methodology in the analysis of both the transitional economy of Ukraine and the modern process of development of the world economy.