Persistent Inequalities: Wage Disparity Under Capitalist Competition

Erscheinungsjahr 2017
ISBN: 978-90-04-26958-3
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 152, 370 Seiten, Format (B × H): 159 mm x 244 mm, Gewicht: 688 g

Reihe: Historical Materialism Book Series

Economists generally assume that wage differentials among similar workers will only endure when competition in the capital and/or labor market is restricted. In contrast, Howard Botwinick uses a classical Marxist analysis of real capitalist competition to show that substantial patterns of wage disparity can persist despite high levels of competition. Indeed, the author provocatively argues that competition and technical change often militate against wage equalization. In addition to providing the basis for a more unified analysis of race and gender inequality within labor markets, Botwinick’s work has important implications for contemporary union strategies. Going against mainstream proponents of labor-management cooperation, the author calls for militant union organization that can once again take wages and working conditions out of capitalist competition.

This revised edition was originally published under the same title in 1993 by Princeton University Press.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Botwinick, Howard

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Wirtschaftssoziologie, Arbeitssoziologie, Organisationssoziologie
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Ideologien Marxismus, Kommunismus
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Volkswirtschaftslehre Wirtschaftspolitik, politische Ökonomie
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziale Gruppen/Soziale Themen Soziale Mobilität
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Regierungspolitik Wirtschafts- und Finanzpolitik

Inhaltsverzeichnis

New Preface (2017 Edition)
Preface and Acknowledgements (1993 Edition)
List of Figures
List of Tables

1 Introduction
Breaking the Impasse
Toward a Theoretical Alternative
Implications for the Analysis of Discrimination
On Heterogeneous Labour
Comparing Our Results to Orthodox and Radical Economics
Solving Some Anomalies
Outline of the Argument

2 Continuing Attempts to Square the Circle (Or, Competitive Theory Confronts Differential Wage Rates)
Early Neoclassical Wage Theory
The Theory of Perfect Competition: Abstraction as Idealisation
The Inevitable Schism between Theory and Practice
The Theory of Imperfect Competition – Godsend or Albatross?
Postwar Institutionalists: An Initial Attempt at Alternative Theory
The Ascent of Human Capital Theory
The Real World Strikes Back
The New Institutionalists: The Dual Economy and Dual Labour Markets
Labour Market Segmentation and Monopoly Capital
The Initial Response to Segmentation Theory
The Second Wave of Segmentation Arguments
The Continuing Search for a Radical Alternative
Efficiency Wage Theory: The Latest Attempt to Square the Circle

3 Capitalist Accumulation and the Aggregate Labour Market
Marx versus Neoclassical Economics
The Special Commodity Labour Power
Primitive Accumulation and the ‘Doubly Free’ Labourer
The Unique Logic of Labour Supply
Capitalist Accumulation and the Reserve Army of Labour
Marx’s Reserve Army within the Modern Period
On the Necessity of Worker Resistance
Capitalist Accumulation and the Limits to Rising Wage Rates
Empirical Evidence for Limits to Rising Wage Rates

4 Wage Differentials and the Aggregate Labour Market
Capitalism’s Active and Reserve Armies: Differentiation and ‘Segmentation’ in Their Most Basic Forms
The Role of Workers in the Segmentation Process
A Dynamic Analysis of Labour Mobility and Wage Differentiation Under Conditions of Permanent Underemployment
Uneven Technical Change, Competition, and the Reserve Army: A Brief Glimpse of Marx’s Theory of Wage Differentials
On the Incompleteness of Marx’s Work

5 Capitalist Competition and Differential Profit Rates
Competition within Industries
Competition between Industries
Marx’s Concept of Regulating Capitals
Empirical Evidence of Monopoly
Chapter Summary
Appendix to Chapter 5

6 Capitalist Competition and Differential Wage Rates (I): The Analysis of Regulating Capitals
Overview of the Dynamic Adjustment to Changing Wage Rates
Deriving Determinate Limits to Rising Wage Rates
Limit One: The Immediate Profitability of Regulating Capitals
Limit Two: The Unit Costs of Subdominant Capitals
Further Implications for Inter- and Intraindustry Wage Patterns
Limit Three: The Differential Costs of Obstructing Wage Increases
Analysing the Effects of Uneven Worker Organisation
A Final Note on Workers’ Power and the Costs of Obstruction
The General Laws of Capitalist Accumulation

7 Capitalist Competition and Differential Wage Rates (II): Non-regulating Capitals and Differential Profit Rates
The Case of Less Efficient Capitals
Short-Term Effects of Rising Wage Rates
The Case of More Efficient Capitals
Implications of the Dynamic Equalisation of Profit Rates

Conclusion
Capitalist Competition and Differential Wage Rates: Abundant Possibilities for Sustained Inequality
Capitalist Accumulation and the Aggregate Labour Market: Further Sources of Wage Variation
Comparing Our Results to Neoclassical Economics
Comparing Our Results to Radical Economics
Implications for Empirical Research
Implications for the Contemporary Labour Movement

Afterword: The Past 20 Years Have Not Been Pretty
Where Do We Go from Here? Lessons from the 1930s
But Hasn’t Accelerated Globalisation Made the Old CIO Strategies Obsolete?
Given the Dismal State of the Left, How Can We Get There from Here? A Final Lesson from the 1930s

References
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Howard Botwinick, Ph.D. (1985) New School for Social Research, is Associate Professor of Economics at SUNY Cortland. He has been active in several unions and was a founding member of the U.S. Labor Party in the 1990s.