(Doi 10.2307 - 40404536) Cheol-Soo Park - The New Value Controversy and The Foundations of Economicsby Alan Freeman Andrew Kliman Julian Wells

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Guilford Press
Review
Reviewed Work(s): The New Value Controversy and the Foundations of Economics by Alan
Freeman, Andrew Kliman and Julian Wells
Review by: Cheol-Soo Park
Source: Science & Society, Vol. 73, No. 1 (Jan., 2009), pp. 154-156
Published by: Guilford Press
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1 54 SCIENCE & SOCIETY
The New Value Controversy and the Fou

Freeman, Andrew Kliman, and Julia
Elgar, 2004. $150.00. Pp. 352.
Marx's labor theory of value has conti

Marxian political economy. Up until th
within the so-called "traditional Marx
others, three distinct topics sprang fro
the transformation problem, the tenden
the skilled labor reduction problem. T
rium framework, where both the labo
have different forms. The main contr
Seton, Okishio, Samuelson, Shaikh, and Steedman.
From the late 1980s onward, a small group of Marxian scholars have
asserted a different Marxian value framework, alleged to be true to Marx's
intention. This framework is often called the "Temporal Single System In-
terpretation" (TSSI) . It holds that Marx's value system is a single system and
must be understood in historical time. The New Value Controversy and the Foun-
dations of Economics, which could be considered a sequel to Marx and Non-
Equilibrium Economics (Alan Freeman and Guglielmo Carchedi, eds., 1996),
is primarily a collection of additional research results within the TSSI.
The book mainly deals with three topics. The first several essays discuss
the structure of Marx's value system, in which the transformation problem is
an important issue. Also included are several essays dealing with debates sur-
rounding Marx's concept of abstract labor. Finally, a few authors investigate
the empirical analysis of the capitalist economy from a Marxian point of view.
The book opens with David Laibman's critique of the TSSI from a tra-
ditional Marxian viewpoint. By using a simple reproduction scheme with a
given technology, Laibman argues that the TSSI produces infinite sets of
production prices and different rates of profit. Contra TSSI, the inconsis-
tencies identified via the traditional Marxian value system are not signifi-
cant errors. Andrew Kliman, an ardent supporter of TSSI, disputes Laibman's
argument by using textual evidence and comparing the traditional interpre-
tation and TSSI. Fred Moseley again criticizes Laibman, arguing that Marx's
method defies the simultaneous determination of value and price systems
of the traditional interpretation. By using the principle of Occam's Razor,
Alan Freeman supports the TSSI, arguing that the TSSI is more appropri-
ate in dealing with the dynamic aspect of the capitalist economy. Alejandro
Ramos Martinez tries to refute, on the basis of the concept "Monetary Ex-
pression of Labor Time," Okishio's theorem, which asserts that in the capi-
talist economy technical change cannot lead to the rate of profit falling if
the real wage remains constant.
BOOK REVIEWS 155
The concepts of abstract and

lem (from complex/skilled lab
an issue in the debate concerni
tional reading of Marx's Capit
sidered dual properties of labor,
system. This poses the reducti
struct a closed system in which
and each system is a function of
Ted McGlone and Andrew Klim
crete labor and the concept of
and that, when this is done, the
retical results in Capital Mario L
is not the process of abstracting
the social process of positing t
ficity into universal labor. In th
in the money-form. Massimo
value forming substance in cap
socially necessary labor time a
the representation of abstract l
various approaches to the mod
The last section of the book
pirical investigation of the cap
Edward B. Chilcote shows by u
calculate Marxian economic ca
prices of production, etc. Paul
Third-World underdevelopment
Rebecca Kaimans, based on th
labor developed by Shaikh and
of surplus value in the USA an
articles, which are less reflectiv
This is not the place to disc
However, I am suspicious of t
has basically two characteristics
ditional Marxian value system
the transformation riddle.
But,
defective (but certainly very c
nents of the New Solution and others have set the tone. The other charac-
teristic of the TSSI is to place the Marxian value system in a dynamical
framework. It is true that the traditional Marxian value system has some limi-
tations in the sense that it cannot be directly applied to analysis of the dy-
namics of capital accumulation. However, it is well known that economic
dynamics is very difficult to deal with, and I don't think the TSSI properly
1 56 SCIENCE àf SOCIETY
surmounts the analytical difficulties. Af

convinced of the efficacy of the TSSI.
The book is fairly well-organized. H
if it had contained Laibman's reply to th
also be a great help if the book inclu
structure of the TSSI and surveying t
search agenda of the TSS approach. S
Marxian political economy would hav
the book's argument.
This book is clearly not for readers w
to get some basic knowledge of Marxian
read Marx's Capital and would like to
developments, this book would be a go
students of political economy may find
which to argue.
Cheol-Soo Park
Department of Social Science
and Cultural Studies
Pratt Institute
200 Willoughby Ave.

Brooklyn, NY 11205
parkecon @lycos. com
Agents of the Revolution: New Biographical Approaches to the History of International

Communism in the Age of Lenin and Stalin, edited by Kevin Morgan, Gidon
Cohen and Andrew Flinn. Oxford, England: Peter Lang, 2005. $62.95,
£37.00. Pp 319.
This collection is merely the latest in a series of book-length studies to have

emerged in consequence of a research project at the University of Manches-
ter, which had as its theme Communist biography. While the Manchester
group concentrated on British Communists, their work drew the attention
of scholars studying Communism in Europe, America and Australasia, and
a large and evidently fertile conference was organized in 2001 to bring such
historians together. Out of that conference comes this book.
The introduction to Agents of the Revolution proclaims the increasing
"range and maturity" of studies of international Communism, suggesting that
in recent years writers have emancipated themselves from the "sterile po-
larities" which previously characterized such histories. The approach of the
contributors is characterized as a "double refusal," by which is meant the

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S&S Quarterly, Inc.

The New Value Controversy and the Fou

Marx's labor theory of value has conti

The concepts of abstract and

surmounts the analytical difficulties. Af

200 Willoughby Ave.

Agents of the Revolution: New Biographical Approaches to the History of International

This collection is merely the latest in a series of book-length studies to have

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