Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
) is a professor of
Political Economy
Political economy is the study of how economic systems (e.g. markets and national economies) and political systems (e.g. law, institutions, government) are linked. Widely studied phenomena within the discipline are systems such as labour ...
at the
University of Siena
The University of Siena ( it, Università degli Studi di Siena, abbreviation: UNISI) in Siena, Tuscany, is one of the oldest and first publicly funded universities in Italy. Originally called ''Studium Senese'', the institution was founded in 1240 ...
. He worked on the “rethinking
Marxism
Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialectical ...
” research programme, in the attempt to update Marxist analysis by bringing it in line with the reality of contemporary
capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, priva ...
, on the one hand, and to liberate
Marxism
Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialectical ...
from any residue of Hegelian metaphysics,
Kantian ethics
Kantian ethics refers to a deontological ethical theory developed by German philosopher Immanuel Kant that is based on the notion that: "It is impossible to think of anything at all in the world, or indeed even beyond it, that could be conside ...
and
economic determinism
Economic determinism is a socioeconomic theory that economic relationships (such as being an owner or capitalist, or being a worker or proletarian) are the foundation upon which all other societal and political arrangements in society are based. ...
, on the other.
Theory
He formulated a general theory of
capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, priva ...
by which the fundamental institution of this mode of production is not private property but the employment contract, intended as an institution that generates an authority relationship enabling capitalists to subject and exploit the workers.
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, priva ...
may take various forms, all of which have the above-mentioned fundamental institution in common, but vary depending on the ways in which different property rights regimes and accumulation governance structures are combined.
In dynamic analysis Screpanti criticized the so-called “laws of movement of capitalist development” as formulated by
Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
, because of their deterministic implications as philosophies of history and the analytic limitations of some of their assumptions. He put forward a theory of development as an evolutionary process of a cyclical kind, coupling long and short run periodicity factors, both of which are determined by the dynamics of class conflict and income distribution.
In a more concrete analysis of contemporary capitalism, Screpanti formulated the theory of “global imperialism”, which defines a governance system of world accumulation that cannot be understood with the traditional theories of imperialism. The fundamental imperialist contradiction is between the centre and the periphery of the global economy, not among the imperial states. There is no dominating imperial centre; there is instead a plurality of national, international, governmental, non-governmental, public and private agencies that contribute to accumulation governance on a world scale through a sort of competitive cooperation.
As to the theory of
communism
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a ...
, Screpanti proposed a re-reading of
Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
Gramsci
Antonio Francesco Gramsci ( , , ; 22 January 1891 – 27 April 1937) was an Italian Marxist philosopher, journalist, linguist, writer, and politician. He wrote on philosophy, political theory, sociology, history, and linguistics. He was a fou ...
’s approach, enriched with the achievements of current theory on the freedom of choice, this is intended as a magnitude determined by the opportunity sets available to individuals. Freedom of choice is not distributed equally in capitalism: it is practically nil for the workers and at its greatest for capitalists in the production process; it is negligible in the poor social strata and very large for the privileged classes in the consumption sphere.
Communism
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a ...
is seen as a conflicting process of historical transformation in which the oppressed and exploited classes struggle for the redistribution of freedom.Ernesto Screpanti, Libertarian communism: Marx Engels and the Political Economy of Freedom, Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2007.
Works
* ''Global Imperialism and the Great Crisis: The Uncertain Future of Capitalism.'' Monthly Review Press, 2014. (paperback); (cloth)
* "Freedom of Choice in the Production Sphere: The Capitalist and the Self-Managed Firm", in " Review of Political Economy", 2011, forthcoming.
* "Globalization and the Great Crisis", in "The Global Economic Crisis: New Persepectives on the Critique of Economic Theory and Policy", edited by E. Brancaccio and G. Fontana,
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
:
Routledge
Routledge () is a British multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanities, behavioural science, education, law ...
, 2011.
* "A Quasi Natural Measure of Choice Freedom for Budget- and Time-Constrained Opportunity Sets", in " Metroeconomica", 2009.
* "Taxation, Social Goods, and the Distribution of Freedom", in " Metroeconomica", 2006.
* "Value and Exploitation: A Counterfactual Approach, in " Review of Political Economy", n. 1, 2003.
* The Fundamental Institutions of Capitalism,
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
:
Routledge
Routledge () is a British multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanities, behavioural science, education, law ...
, 2001.
* "Wages, Employment and Militancy: A Simple Model and Some Empirical Tests", in “
Review of Radical Political Economics
The ''Review of Radical Political Economics'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal published by SAGE Publishing on behalf of the Union for Radical Political Economics. It was established in 1968 and covers research on heterodox economics a ...
”, 2000.
* "The Postmodern Crisis in Economics and the Revolution against Modernism", in “ Rethinking Marxism”, 2000.
* "Capitalist Forms and the Essence of Capitalism", in “
Review of International Political Economy
The ''Review of International Political Economy'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed academic journal covering international political economy. The journal was established in 1994 and is published by Routledge. The editor-in-chief is Lena Rethel (Unive ...
”, vol. 6, n. 1, 1999.
* "Banks, Increasing Risk, and the Endogenous Money supply", in “ Economic Notes”, vol. 26, n. 3, 1997.
* "Epistemic Relativism, the Postmodern Turn in Economics, and the History of Economic Thought", in “ History of Economic Ideas”, vol. 2, 1995.
* "Sraffa after Marx: a New Interpretation", in " Review of Political Economy", vol V, n.1, 1993.
* "Monetary Dynamics, Speculation, and the Term Structure of Interest Rates", in " Economic Notes", n.2, 1989.
* "Long Cycles in Strike Activity: an Empirical Investigation", in " British Journal of Industrial Relations", XXV, n.1, 1987.
* "Long Economic Cycles and Recurring Proletarian Insurgencies",in " Review of the F.Braudel Center",
New York State University
The State University of New York (SUNY, , ) is a system of public colleges and universities in the State of New York. It is one of the largest comprehensive system of universities, colleges, and community colleges in the United States. Led by c ...