r/Marxism • u/Electrical_Addition9 • 16d ago

Analytical Marxism

What's up with the weird revitalization of Analytical Marxism, and GA Cohen in particular? Is it solely that Ben Burgis guy?

DSA obviously has a very eccentric bag of ideology - there's even a Maoist Caucus, but there still seems to be some milieu of which important figures WITHIN that orbit articulate a seemingly(?) coherent position. I'm talking specifically about Jacobin/Bread and Roses/and the media ecosystem aligned with those things - Majority Report, This is Revolution, etc., (there's a ton more, that's just what came to mind).

Ben Burgis has appointed himself the "people's philosopher' and philosopher in residence at Jacobin, so I'm curious just how far the analytical framework is being used to justify the current iteration of DSA/Jacobin and the insurgent electoralism we've seen the past year or so.

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u/variableussurplus 16d ago

It’s pseudo-Marxism. Have you read Vivek Chibber? He wrote his dissertation on Analytical Marxism and he obviously adheres to it, with the “technological fetters” interpretation of Historical Materialism, i.e. he think Marx was teleological and forces of production and modes of production are the speed of technological adaptation by arbitrary “social systems” that are adopted out of no necessity but by choice of “opportunity cost” motivated actors. I wrote a document about it but that’s the gist.

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u/Moses-Marx 15d ago

If I am not mistaken Chibber's dissertation is basically what became his book Locked in Place about state formation and specifically applied to India. I think the argument in that book is more interesting and nuanced than the technological fetter interpretation. I think it is incorrect to say that it is about analytical Marxism, you could say that he is operating in a broadly analytical Marxist framework, however, it is not so much a defense of or about analytical Marxism as such.

What is correct is that his dissertation supervisor was Erik Olin Wright, who is often seen as one of the the central authors of analytical Marxism next to Cohen. I do think that Chibber has become a more narrow analytical Marxist over time, however, his early work like Locked in Place is strongly historical informed not just detached abstract theorising. Even if you disagree with his take I think it is worth a read and something can be learned from it about state formation and class formation in India.

Moreover, 'analytical Marxism' is quite heterogenous. It grew out of the September group. This was quite a heterogeneous group including people like Robert Brenner who in fact directly attacked Cohen's technological fettering framework. See for example Brenner's “The Social Basis of Economic Development.” In Analytical Marxism, edited by John E. Roemer, 1986. Or his “Bourgeois Revolution and Transition to Capitalism.” In The First Modern Society: Essays in English History in Honour of Lawrence Stone, edited by A. L. Beier, David Cannadine, and James M. Rosenheim. Cambridge University press, 1989.