''A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy'' (german: Zur Kritik der Politischen Ökonomie) is a book by

Karl 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 ...

, first published in 1859. The book is mainly a

critique of political economy Critique of political economy or critique of economy is a form of social critique that rejects the various social categories and structures that constitute the mainstream discourse concerning the forms and modalities of resource allocation and ...

achieved by critiquing the writings of the leading theoretical exponents of capitalism at that time: these were the

political economists 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 ma ...

, nowadays often referred to as the

classical economists Classical economics, classical political economy, or Smithian economics is a school of thought in political economy that flourished, primarily in Britain, in the late 18th and early-to-mid 19th century. Its main thinkers are held to be Adam Smith ...

;

Adam Smith Adam Smith (baptized 1723 – 17 July 1790) was a Scottish economist and philosopher who was a pioneer in the thinking of political economy and key figure during the Scottish Enlightenment. Seen by some as "The Father of Economics"——� ...

(1723–90) and

David Ricardo David Ricardo (18 April 1772 – 11 September 1823) was a British political economist. He was one of the most influential of the classical economists along with Thomas Malthus, Adam Smith and James Mill. Ricardo was also a politician, and a ...

(1772–1823) are the foremost representatives of the genre.

Significance

Much of the ''Critique'' was later incorporated by Marx into his magnum opus, ''Capital'' (Volume I), published in 1867, and the ''Critique'' is generally considered to be of secondary importance among Marx's writings. This does not apply, however, to the Preface of the ''Critique''. It contains the first connected account of one of Marx's main theories: the

materialist conception of history Historical materialism is the term used to describe Karl Marx's theory of history. Marx locates historical change in the rise of class societies and the way humans labor together to make their livelihoods. For Marx and his lifetime collaborat ...

, and its associated "base and superstructure" model of society, which divides human social development into an economic-technological "base" which "conditions"— not determines — the forms of its political-ideological "superstructure". Briefly, this is the idea that economic factors – the way people produce the necessities of life – conditions the kind of politics and ideology a society can have: Marcello Musto emphasizes this point: "Even the well-known thesis in the 'Preface' to ''A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy''...should not be interpreted in a determinist sense; it should be clearly distinguished from the narrow and predictable reading of 'Marxism–Leninism', in which the superstructural phenomena of society are merely a reflection of the material existence of human beings."

Editions

In English,
A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy
' is available in an edition edited by

Maurice Dobb Maurice Herbert Dobb (24 July 1900 – 17 August 1976) was an English economist at Cambridge University and a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. He is remembered as one of the pre-eminent Marxist economists of the 20th century. Dobb was bo ...

, published by

Progress Publishers Progress Publishers was a Moscow-based Soviet publisher founded in 1931. Publishing program Progress Publishers published books in a variety of languages: Russian, English, and many other European and Asian languages. They issued many scientific ...

, Moscow (translation by S. W. Ryazanskaya). Lawrence and Wishart (London), and International Publishers (New York) cooperated in the publication of the Progress Publishers edition.

Notes

References

*Evans, Michael (2013). ''Karl Marx''. London: Routledge. First published 1975, London: Allen and Unwin. *Ruhle, Otto (1943).
Karl Marx: His Life and Works
'. New York, 1943. First published, New York, 1929.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy 1859 books Books by Karl Marx 1859 in economics Historical materialism

Significance

Editions

See also

Notes

References

External links