Economic Theory of the Leisure Class

by Nikolai Bukharin

Bukharin completed this work in 1914; it represented an attempt to grapple with the Austrian School of political economy, as represented chiefly by Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk. Bukharin interprets the school as reflecting the social position of the rentier stratum of the capitalist class, which tends to view the economy from the point of view of consumption rather than production. But this is merely the introduction to a close consideration of the theory of marginal utility as contrasted with the labor theory of value which formed the starting point of both Marxism and classical economics. His discussion, therefore, while it does not deal with the many changes and refinements of neoclassical economics, does contrast, in polemical form, Marxism with the fundamental premises of modern academic economics. His discussion of "subjective" and "objective" value definitions, in particular, will help clarify for many the essential differences that distinguish Marxist political economy from other schools.

Genres: Economics, Politics, Nonfiction, Theory

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1970

About the author

Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin, Bolshevik revolutionary and Soviet politician, advocated gradual agricultural collectivization; after the last "show trial" of Moscow of the 1930s for treason, people executed him.

Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin, a Russian prolific author, wrote on theory.

As a young man, he spent six years in exile, worked closely with Vladimir Ilich Lenin and Leon Trotsky. After February 1917, he returned, his credentials earned him a high rank in the party, and after the October, he served as editor of Pravda, the newspaper.

Within the bitterly divide, his move to the right as a defender of the new economy, positioned him favorably as chief ally of Joseph Stalin, and from the party leadership, they together ousted Trotsky, Grigori Evseyevich Zinoviev, and Lev Borisovich Kamenev. From 1926, Bukharin enjoyed great power as general secretary of committee of Comintern to 1929. Nevertheless, decision of Stalin to proceed drove the two men apart, and the Politburo expelled Bukharin.

When the purges began in 1936, Joseph Stalin for pretext liquidated his former allies and rivals for power, and some letters, conversations, and tapped phone calls of Bukharin indicated disloyalty. People arrested him in February 1937, and charged conspiracy to overthrow the state. Proceedings alienated many western Communist sympathizers.

Reviews

[Klejton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bukharin DESTROYS Bohm-Bawerk with FACTS and LOGIC