Abstract

ARIZMENDI, Luis. The global debate on the Critique of political economy in the 21st century. El trimestre econ [online]. 2019, vol.86, n.343, pp.545-578.  Epub June 23, 2020. ISSN 2448-718X.  https://doi.org/10.20430/ete.v86i343.919.

The 21st century capitalism is going through the worst crisis in its history. The international debate of economic sciences is measured by its position towards the foundations and the historical tendency of this global crisis. The principle of laissez faire, laissez passer of neoclassical economics is, without a doubt, incapable of explaining it and designing alternatives to face this global crisis. The crisis of the 21st century capitalism has triggered a radical crisis of neoclassical economics. In contrast, the Critique of political economy is back in the global frontier debate in economic and social sciences. Very important developments of it are taking place in Europe, North America, Latin America and even in several countries in Asia and Africa. It is not by chance that the liberalism of the new century is making not only comparative analysis of the contemporary global crisis with the Long Depression of the 19th century and the Great Depression of the 20th century, but also presents initiatives to discuss the downward trend of the rate of profit and the capitalism’s breakdown tendency. There’s no doubt that The Capital of Karl Marx is promisingly back in the 21st century world economic debate.

Keywords : critique of political economy; epochal crisis; breakdown tendency; overexploitation; peasant poverty; environmental crisis; Long Depression; Great Depression; tendency of rate of profit to fall.