This unique book, written in a question and answer style, brings to life the work of the world’s foremost Marxian economist Thomas T. Sekine on the scientificity of Marx’s project in Capital, its applicability to navigating world-historic change across capitalist stages of development and what Marxian economics teaches us about building viable future historical societies. Sekine, a student and follower of Marxist Kozo Uno, argues that capitalism neither constitutes the end of history nor does its overthrow await socialist revolution. Rather, based upon its own historical delimitations capitalism, following World War I and the Great Depression of the 1930s, has entered a period of disintegration. Grounded on a scathing critique of bourgeois economics in all its forms, Sekine exposes the futility of bourgeois policy interventions attempting to revive capitalism. This book will be of interest to economists in both the mainstream and heterodox schools, and those broadly interested in the history of economic thought.

"Delving into Karl Marx's central works as well as his natural scientific notebooks, published only recently and still being translated, [the author] argues that Karl Marx actually saw the environment crisis embedded in captialism. [The book] shows us that Marx has given us more than we once thought, that we can now come closer to finishing Marx's critique, and to building a sustainable ecosocialist world."--Page [4] of cover.

From the 1960s to the 1990s the ground-breaking Japanese economists Kozo Uno and Thomas Sekine developed a masterful reconfiguration of Marxist economics. The most well-known aspect of which is the levels of analysis approach to the study of capitalism. Written in Japanese, the Uno-Sekine approach to Marx's work is little understood in West. John Bell seeks to correct this, explaining how problematic elements of Marxian Political Economy such as the law of value and the law of relative surplus population can be solved by using a more rigourous dialectical analysis. Bell's clear and accessible synthesis provides economists with the tools to interrogate capitalism in a more powerful way than ever before.

Analyzes Japanese contributions to Marxist theory Marxist economic thought has had a long and distinguished history in Japan, dating back to the First World War. When interest in Marxist theory was virtually nonexistent in the United States, rival schools of thought in Japan emerged, and brilliant debates took place on Marx’s Capital and on capitalism as it was developing in Japan. Forty years ago, Makoto Itoh’s Value and Crisis began to chronicle these Japanese contributions to Marxist theory, discussing in particular views on Marx’s theories of value and crisis, and problems of Marx’s theory of market value. Now, in a second edition of his book, Itoh deepens his study Marx’s theories of value and crisis, as an essential reference point from which to analyze the multiple crises that have arisen during the past four decades of neoliberalism. One contribution of the original Value and Crisis was to bridge Japan and the world in the field of Marxian political economy. Itoh’s second edition demonstrates an even wider-ranging familiarity with major schools of Marxist thought, summarizing and assessing viewpoints of such theorists as Hilferding, Bauer, Kautsky, Bukharin, Luxemburg, Grossman, Sweezy, the Japanese Marxist Kozo Uno, together with the relevant parts of Capital and a section on the 1930’s Great Depression. Given today’s current emergencies of world capitalism and socialism, says Itoh, we need to work together to resolve new global problems, articulating new issues of Marx’s theories of value and crisis. The promise of Marx’s theories has not waned. If anything—given the failure of Soviet-style socialism and the catastrophe of neoliberalism—it grows daily.

Beginning with a clear-cut review of the major economic schools, this book systematically studies the strengths and weaknesses in Marx's Capital proposes original solutions to the issues of value, labor and crises. The author thus provides an insight into the basic character of capitalism and its superficial forms and social substance.

"Various strains of heterodox economics have sought, and largely failed, to dismount orthodoxy from its dominant position. This book critiques the criticizers, explaining why heterodox economics challenges have faltered, and then presents a coherent alternative paradigm of its own. This simultaneously exposes the vacuousness of neoclassical economics, the limitations of heterodox critique and the subverting of Karl Marx's revolutionary economic thought by his own disciples. The book draws in particular on two key intellectual traditions in making its arguments: critical realism and Marxism. From the refounding of critical realist philosophy of science in the hands of Roy Bhaskar, emphasis is placed upon the position that the ontological nature of the object of study determines the form of its possible science. However, in their theoretical constructions, neither orthodox economics nor heterodox economics problematize the unique ontology of capitalism to the detriment of knowledge about the social world. The book maintains that a century of misthinking over Marx's corpus has resulted in a missed opportunity to construct a paradigmatic alternative to orthodox economics. Drawing upon the tradition of the Japanese Uno approach to Marxism, and supported by Bhaskar's development of critical realism as underlaborer for science, the book defends Marx's writing in his monumental Capital as founding an economic science adequate to its ontological object of study. It then elaborates upon how Marxian economic theory exposes the hidden scourges of capitalism and what is required to unleash the potential of this theory for comprehensive analysis of capitalist vicissitudes, the study of economic life in precapitalist societies, and the design of a desperately needed postcapitalist social order. Broadening its appeal as it sets out to reclaim Marx's revolutionary legacy, this original volume critically traverses writings in mainstream and heterodox economics, cutting edge philosophy of science, Marxian political economy and introduces readers to a reconstruction of Marx's Capital engineered in Japan. This provocative book is essential reading for everyone interested in heterodox economics, critical realism, Marxian economics and critiques of capitalism. Richard Westra is University Professor at the Institute of Political Science, University of Opole and Research Coordinator at the Science and Technology Park, Opole, Poland. He has previously taught at universities in Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Canada, The Bahamas and is international Adjunct Professor of the Center for Macau Studies, University of Macau"--

Combining Marxa (TM)s focus upon the totality (and its appearance as capitals in competition) with specific applications in political economy, "Following Marx" demonstrates how the failure to understand Marxa (TM)s method has led astray many who consider themselves Marxists.