Rome
Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...
) is a professor of
Political Economy
Political or comparative economy is a branch of political science and economics studying economic systems (e.g. Marketplace, markets and national economies) and their governance by political systems (e.g. law, institutions, and government). Wi ...
who worked in various universities, like Trento, Florence, Trieste, Parma, New York, Rio de Janeiro, Siena. He did research in the “rethinking
Marxism
Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflict, ...
” scientific 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 use for the purpose of obtaining profit. This socioeconomic system has developed historically through several stages and is defined by ...
, on the one hand, and to liberate
Marxism
Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflict, ...
from any residue of Hegelian metaphysics,
Kantian ethics
Kantian ethics refers to a Deontology, deontological ethical theory developed by German philosopher Immanuel Kant that is based on the notion that "I ought never to act except in such a way that I could also will that my maxim should become a un ...
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. T ...
, 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 use for the purpose of obtaining profit. This socioeconomic system has developed historically through several stages and is defined by ...
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 use for the purpose of obtaining profit. This socioeconomic system has developed historically through several stages and is defined by ...
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 Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...
, 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
Imperialism is the maintaining and extending of Power (international relations), power over foreign nations, particularly through expansionism, employing both hard power (military and economic power) and soft power (diplomatic power and cultura ...
”, 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. 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.
In the theory of value, he proposed an interpretation of the notion of abstract labor as a social phenomenon, that is, as the labor time of workers who are subordinate and subsumed under capital. Exploitation is made possible by the exercise of command over work in the production process. Values are expressed in terms of labor commanded or the monetary value of labor.
As to the theory of
communism
Communism () is a political sociology, sociopolitical, political philosophy, philosophical, and economic ideology, economic ideology within the history of socialism, socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a ...
, Screpanti proposed a re-reading of
Marx
Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...
Gramsci
Antonio Francesco Gramsci ( , ; ; 22 January 1891 – 27 April 1937) was an Italian Marxist philosopher, linguist, journalist, writer, and politician. He wrote on philosophy, political theory, sociology, history, and linguistics. He was a fo ...
’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 () is a political sociology, sociopolitical, political philosophy, philosophical, and economic ideology, economic ideology within the history of socialism, socialist movement, whose goal is the creation 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.
Screpanti also wrote in the history of economic thought. His book on the history of political economy has been highly valued worldwide.
His most recent work Screpanti develops a theory of revolution as a liberation process set in motion by individuals and social aggregates driven by the need for autonomy and the desire to broaden their sets of choice opportunities.Ernesto Screpanti, "Liberazione: il movimento reale che abolisce lo stato di cose esistente", Firenze: Tedaliber, 2023.
Works
* ''Liberazione: il movimento reale che abolisce lo stato di cose esistente'', Firenze: Tedaliber, 2023.
* ''Labour and Value: Rethinking Marx's Theory of Exploitation'', Cambridge: Open Book Publishers, 2019.
* ''Global Imperialism and the Great Crisis: The Uncertain Future of Capitalism.'' New York: 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 Perspectives on the Critique of Economic Theory and Policy", edited by E. Brancaccio and G. Fontana,
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
:
Routledge
Routledge ( ) is a British multinational corporation, multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, academic journals, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanit ...
, 2011.
* "A Quasi Natural Measure of Choice Freedom for Budget- and Time-Constrained Opportunity Sets", in " Metroeconomica", 2009.
* ''Libertarian communism: Marx Engels and the Political Economy of Freedom'', London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.
* "Taxation, Social Goods, and the Distribution of Freedom", in " Metroeconomica", 2006.
* (with S.Zamagni(, ''An Outline of the History of Economic Thought'', 2nd edition,
Oxford
Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town.
The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...
:
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...
, 2005.
* "Value and Exploitation: A Counterfactual Approach, in " Review of Political Economy", n. 1, 2003.
* ''The Fundamental Institutions of Capitalism'',
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
:
Routledge
Routledge ( ) is a British multinational corporation, multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, academic journals, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanit ...
, 2001.
* "Wages, Employment and Militancy: A Simple Model and Some Empirical Tests", in “ Review of Radical Political Economics”, 2000.
* "The Postmodern Crisis in Economics and the Revolution against Modernism", in “
Rethinking Marxism
''Rethinking Marxism'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering Marxist analyses of economics, culture, and society. It was established in 1988 and has been published by Routledge since 2003 on behalf of the Association for Economi ...
”, 2000.
* "Capitalist Forms and the Essence of Capitalism", in “
Review of International Political Economy
A review is an evaluation of a publication, product, service, or company or a critical take on current affairs in literature, politics or culture. In addition to a critical evaluation, the review's author may assign the work a rating to indi ...
”, 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, VII, n.3, 1984.