Toward a property-rights theory of exploitation

Abstract

John E. Roemer’s article, ‘New directions in the Marxian theory of exploitation and class’, is an important contribution, both because it poses a fundamental issue for Marxist theory-to explain exploitation in a world of voluntary contracting-and because it offers the promise of developing a constructive dialogue between Marxist and neoclassical economics, a long overdue development if we are to make further progress in political economy. In Roemer’s account, exploitation arises from unequal endowments of private property, skills, and status among producers rather than from the production of surplus value, the classical Marxist argument, or from the distributive characteristics of the market itself, a common contemporary argument. Such a causal ordering not only modifies Marxist theory, for the better, it is, more importantly, a first and major step in analyzing how the mechanisms of exploitation vary with the nature of property relations, as Roemer himself attempts to demonstrate in his discussions of feudal, capitalist, and socialist exploitation.