Rosa Luxemburg

The purpose of this translated volume Tadeusz Kowalik's book is to examine Rosa Luxemburg's contribution to economic theory. The essential subject-matter is the dependence of capital accumulation on effective demand, the dependence of economic growth on specific capitalist barriers to growth. The second part of this book is devoted to the relationship between capital accumulation and economic and political imperialism. Kowalik attempts to vindicate the analysis of Rosa Luxemburg in her Accumulation of Capital as a Marxist classic. He puts forward as an alternative under-investment theory of capitalist stagnation that was accepted among Marxists, and links this interpretation of Luxemburg with Marx's critique of Say's Law and with the development of Luxemburg's theory in the work of Michal Kalecki and John Maynard Keynes. Luxemburg's analysis is contrasted with the underconsumptionist theory of capitalist crisis that prevailed among her critics. Although Kowalik recognises Luxemburg's analysis as incomplete, he argues that she correctly identified the realisation of surplus as the key constraint on expanded production in capitalism. This then points to a reinterpretation of Kalecki and Keynes, placing their analysis in a clear line of descent from Marx. Kalecki's analysis of militarism complements neatly Luxemburg's analysis, while Kowalik identifies neo-colonialism as a type of Luxemburg's imperialism, providing markets that allow for the realisation of profits in the advanced capitalist countries. Toporowski and Szymborska's accessible translation of Tadeusz Kowalik's masterpiece will appeal to professional economists, scholars, researchers and students of the history of economic thought and economic theory.