Beyond Adam Smith and Karl Marx: visions and versions of future society

Abstract

Marx and Smith share the accusation of musing about future society, but of being much too vague about the form. At the same time, there is no glaring dearth of those who hailed the collapse of the Soviet economy as proof positive of the failure of Marxism, of Marx’s system. This boils down to the question of whether or not Marx in any way foresaw/espoused/advocated central planning as such; and, in particular, as it materialised in the USSR. There is a key passage – indeed, a mere phrase – in Das Kapital which is (or could be) seized upon to answer that question in the affirmative with conviction.

Citation

Nitsch, T.O. (1999), "Beyond Adam Smith and Karl Marx: visions and versions of future society", International Journal of Social Economics, Vol. 26 No. 10/11, pp. 1315-1326. https://doi.org/10.1108/03068299910292541