Schools of Athens: Surplus Approach, Marxism and Institutions

Sergio Cesaratto ()

No CSWP62, Centro Sraffa Working Papers from Centro di Ricerche e Documentazione "Piero Sraffa"

Abstract: Relying on the lessons of Marx, Polanyi, Sraffa and Garegnani, the paper moves from the material anchor that the classical surplus approach provides to economic and institutional analysis in anthropology, archaeological and economic history. In surplus theory institutions regulate the material basis of society and in particular the extraction and distribution of the social surplus. Marx’s historical materialism is a natural source of inspiration for this view expunged, of course, of teleological and mechanical readings. The Marxian concept of modes of production has been however object of often over-complicated disputes among Marxists. These are not easily solved since historical results in anthropology, archaeological and economic history do not always deliver uncontroversial pictures of the working of ancient economies and of their transitional dynamics. Since Popper, historical materialism has also been object of methodological criticism. While the suggestions to complement macro analysis with consistent granular accounts of individual choices must be welcomed, methodological individualism is a dead end for social science. Individual and class choices must rather be dealt with through historical analysis. The surplus approach may provide support to both macro and micro analysis of behaviours and institutions. Interdisciplinarity is advocated in the paper.

Keywords: Surplus approach; Historical materialism; Anthropology; Archaeology; Agency (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A12 B51 B52 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 35 pages
Date: 2023-08-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his, nep-hme, nep-hpe and nep-pke
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.centrosraffa.org/public/d209728e-ac3f-45b0-8ec4-937da2db5228.pdf Full text (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ris:sraffa:0062

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Centro Sraffa Working Papers from Centro di Ricerche e Documentazione "Piero Sraffa" Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Saverio M. Fratini ().