The Economics of Military Spending

4 Marxist crisis theories

Introduction

Although crisis is a core aspect of Marxist thought, there is no common theory of it. Rather, the theory of crisis is regarded as one of the weakest parts of Marxist theorising. Marxist crisis theories deal with the long-term economic crisis caused by the internal contradictions of the capitalist production system, not with business cycles or other short-term fluctuations resulting from various economic shocks. In this sense, Marx associates crises with various phenomena, such as the tendency for the profit rate to fall and the potential for overproduction or underconsumption (Clarke, 1994).

Marxist scholars have categorised crisis theories differently, based on their methodological approaches that emphasise ...