Suchergebnisse

Capital Vol. I is the terminal point of the life-long evolution of Marx's methodology. For this respect, besides the factual and theoretical material provided, the methodology of Capital is also important. This method is not systemic dialectical method and hence concepts in Capital does not follow a pre-determined logical path. On the contrary, the analysis in Capital starts with the analysis of the most observable and the smallest entity; commodity. In this analytical flow, through traversing the peculiarities of generalised exchange, the specificity of money is defined. Thenceforth, the transformation of money into capital is elaborated. At this juncture, capital in the form of money has to meet with another special commodity, the labour power and capital passes into the hidden abode of production. The main objective of money capital in initiating the turnover of industrial capital is self-valorisation. In this process, the exceptional quality of the use value of the labor power steps in. Among all the commodities entering into production process as inputs, only labor power has the capacity to transfer more value than it has into the value of commodity. Detecting this exceptionality, Mars surpasses the boundaries of bourgeois political economy. Thus, the true origins of both surplus value and its alienated form, profit, are unfolded at the same instant. From this point on, Marx analysed the imperatives of extended capital accumulation. This analytical flow and the methodology which is embedded in this flow no doubt directs us to consent to the argument that Capital itself marks a methodological revolution. Some characteristics of the methodology in Capital no doubt reinforces this conclusion. First, Marx accomplished a simultaneous critique of both bourgeois political economy and capitalism without drawing a demarcation line between two. Second, the concepts used by Marx are not abstract which imitates the objective dynamics, rather they are "concrete" concepts. Third, instead of deriving the concepts logically, Marx imposes each concept when the need occurs and he substantiates these concepts from the actual capitalism.

This study aims at the empirical investigation of the different conceptualizations of competition with the data available for Turkish manufacturing from 1980 to 2001. The analysis specifically takes into account the classical/Marxian view of competition, which rigorously recognizes the dynamic and turbulent nature of capitalist competition and is based on the concept of "regulating capital." Time series analysis is conducted in order to test for the persistence of profit rate differentials among 3-digit classification of the manufacturing industries. The analysis, by differentiating between the intra- and inter-industry competition, addresses the classical/Marxian emphasis on the inter-industry trends of equalization. For this purpose, industry-based data instead of firm-based data are used. Lastly, the incremental rate of profit as the return to regulating capital is taken as the basis for establishing what is actually equalized in the course of competitive process. The analysis is conducted both for the average and incremental rates of return for a comparative view. The results show that while the average rate of profit shows significant persistence in most of the industries, the incremental rate does not. These results are in accordance with the classical/Marxian long-run center of gravity dynamics. JEL Classifications: B12, B51, D41, D49, L10, L60