Capital as Coordination: A Synthesis Encompassing Marx and CasP

Pieter De Beer

EconStor Preprints from ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics

Abstract: The global system we inhabit is often described in terms of markets, capital, and labor, but beneath these abstractions lies the deeper question of how coordination produces power and how power organizes coordination. Among the most influential traditions attempting to answer this question are Marxism and Capital as Power (CasP), two frameworks that, while sharing certain roots, diverge sharply in their interpretation of what capital is and how it operates. This divergence has led to ongoing tension. Marxists often argue that CasP misrepresents or abandons the core of Marx’s critique, while CasP theorists argue that Marxism remains tethered to outdated economic metaphysics. Both claim to reveal capitalism’s inner workings. But must we choose between them? *** This essay argues that we do not. Through the lens of Coordination: the Fabric of Power (CfP), a broader theoretical framework that views coordination itself as the primary material of power, we can move beyond this impasse. Rather than asking whether capital is labor-time or capitalization, CfP reframes the question: How is coordination patterned, withheld, or manipulated in ways that produce asymmetries of power? In doing so, it offers a synthesis that integrates the structural insights of Marxism with the empirical clarity of CasP, not by erasing their differences, but by metabolizing their strongest claims.

Keywords: coordination; capital as power; capitalization; differential accumulation; domination; fabric of power; labour; Marxism; mode of power; production; sabotage; surplus value (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: P16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his, nep-hme, nep-hpe and nep-pke
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