Ernest Mandel developed an original and comprehensive analysis of capitalism. Among his most important contributions is his controversial theory of long waves of accumulation. This article builds on this framework and attempts to update it for the current period. The theory of long waves must be articulated together with processes of accumulation by dispossession, the theory of absolute advantages, the theory of uneven development and the role of empowered labour in global productivity. All of these are determined by socio-political and endogenous development dynamics. We will attempt to characterise the transformations and current status of the ongoing long wave, and the possible reasons for its protracted duration. The article also attempts to characterise the actually-existing model of neoliberalism in which the state plays a leading role.
Purchase
Buy instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):
Institutional Login
Log in with Open Athens, Shibboleth, or your institutional credentials
Personal login
Log in with your brill.com account
Aglietta, Michel 1979, A Theory of Capitalist Regulation: The US Experience, London: Verso.
Albarracín, Daniel 2010, ‘Capitalismo tardío, ¿quo vadis? Cuestiones en litigio para la teoría de las ondas largas’, Viento Sur, 110: 109–117.
Albarracín, Daniel 2012, ‘Entre el mercado autorregulado y las ondas largas: una lectura socioeconómica de la crisis’, AREAS. Revista Internacional de Ciencias Sociales, 31: 140–149.
Albarracín, Daniel 2021, ‘The Crisis Triggered by the Pandemic and the Economic Policy of the European Union’, International Viewpoint, 16 September, available at: <https://internationalviewpoint.org/spip.php?article6802>.
Albarracín, Daniel 2022, ‘Controversias socioeconómicas sobre la tecnología: ¿Una nueva onda larga expansiva gracias a la revolución digital?’, Revista Internacional De Pensamiento Político, 17, 1: 435–456.
Albarracín, Daniel 2023, ‘Ondas largas: una revisión de la interpretación de Ernest Mandel tras 50 años de El capitalismo tardío’, Política y Sociedad, 60, 3, <https://dx.doi.org/10.5209/poso.76119>.
Albarracín, Jesús 1987, Las ondas largas del capitalismo español, Madrid: Economistas Libros.
Albarracín, Jesús 1994, La economía de mercado, Madrid: Trotta.
Albarracín, Jesús 2010, La crisis de la economía de mercado, Madrid: MAIA Ediciones.
Albarracín, Jesús and Pedro Montes 1996, ‘El capitalismo tardío: la interpretación de Ernest Mandel del capitalismo contemporáneo’, paper presented at the Centre for Ernest Mandel Studies, International Institute for Research and Training in Amsterdam, available at: <https://www.anticapitalistas.org/spip.php?article22116&id_syndic_article=2439>.
Arrighi, Giovanni 2010, The Long Twentieth Century: Money, Power and the Origins of Our Times, London: Verso.
Ash, Michael and Michael Louçã 2019, Sombras. El desorden financiero en la era de la globalización, Barcelona: Sylone-Viento Sur.
Astarita, Rolando 2009a, Monopolio, imperialismo e intercambio desigual, Madrid: MAIA Ediciones.
Astarita, Rolando 2009b, El capitalismo roto. Anatomía de la crisis económica, Madrid: La linterna sorda.
Astarita, Rolando 2010, Economía política de la dependencia y el subdesarrollo, Buenos Aires: Universidad Nacional de Quilmes Editorial.
Astarita, Rolando 2015, ‘Trabajo potenciado y la “tesis transferencia’”, available at: <https://rolandoastarita.blog/2015/06/02/trabajo-potenciado-y-la-tesis-transferencia/>.
Astarita, Rolando 2024, ‘La importancia de la noción de trabajo potenciado’, Viento Sur, 191: 69–78.
Braña, Francisco Javier 2020, ‘Cuarta revolución industrial, automatización y digitalización: una visión desde la periferia de la Unión Europea en tiempos de pandemia’, Instituto Complutense de Estudios Internacionales, Universidad Complutense de Madrid Working Papers, available at: <https://www.ucm.es/icei/file/wp0420>.
Braudel, Fernand 1995, A History of Civilizations, translated by Richard Mayne, London: Penguin Books.
Carcanholo, Marcelo 2017, Dependencia, superexplotación del trabajo y crisis. Una interpretación desde Marx, Madrid: MAIA Ediciones.
Chesnais, François 2019, ‘La teoría de las ondas largas y la tecnología contemporánea’, Viento Sur, 11 February, available at: <https://vientosur.info/la-teoria-de-las-ondas-largas-y-la-tecnologia-contemporanea/>.
Day, Richard B. 1981, The Crisis and the Crash: Soviet Studies of the West (1917–1939), London: NLB.
Duménil, Gérard and Dominique Lévy 2004, Capital Resurgent: Roots of the Neoliberal Revolution, translated by Derek Jeffers, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Fernández, Ramón and Luis González 2018, En la espiral de la energía, Madrid: Libros en Acción y Baladre.
Freeman, Alan 2014, ‘Schumpeter’s Theory of Self-restoration: A Casualty of Samuelson’s Whig Historiography of Science’, Cambridge Journal of Economics, 38, 3: 663–679.
Freeman, Chris and Francisco Louçã 2001, As Time Goes By: From the Industrial Revolutions to the Information Revolution, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Gordon, David M. 1980, ‘Stages of Accumulation and Long Economic Cycles’, in Processes of the World-System, edited by Terence K. Hopkins and Immanuel Wallerstein, Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
Governeur, Jacques 2011, La economía capitalista. Una introducción al análisis económico marxista, Madrid: Maia Ediciones.
Gutiérrez Barbarrusa, Tomás 2019, ‘The Interpretation of the Cyclical History of Capitalism: A Comparison between the Neo-Schumpeterian and Social Structure of Accumulation (SSA) Approaches in Light of the Long Wave Theory’, Journal of Evolutionary Economics, 29: 1285–1314, <https://doi.org/10.1007/s00191-019-00631-0>.
Harman, Chris 2008, ‘Capitalism’s New Crisis: What Do Socialists Say?’, available at: <https://www.marxists.org/archive/harman/2008/10/newcrisis.html>.
Harvey, David 2003, The New Imperialism, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Husson, Michel 2008, Un pur capitalisme, Lausanne: Page deux.
Husson, Michel 2013, ‘La teoría de las ondas largas y la crisis del capitalismo contemporáneo’, Viento Sur, December, available at: <https://vientosur.info/wp-content/uploads/spip/pdf/Ondas_largasHusson.pdf>.
Katz, Claudio 2011, Bajo el imperio del capital, Buenos Aires: Espacio crítico ediciones.
Katz, Claudio 2018, La teoría de la dependencia 50 años después, Buenos Aires: Editorial Batalla de las Ideas.
Kondratieff, Nikolai 1998, The Works of Nikolai D. Kondratiev, four volumes, edited by Natalia Makasheva, Warren J. Samuels and Vincent Barnett, London: Pickering and Chatto.
Louçã, Francisco 2019, ‘As Time Went By – Long Waves in the Light of Evolving Evolutionary Economics’, SPRU Working Paper Series 2019-05, Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex Business School.
Louçã, Francisco 2021, ‘As Time Went By – Why Is the Long Wave so Long?’, Journal of Evolutionary Economics, 31, 3: 749–771.
Maddison, Angus 2001, The World Economy: A Millennial Perspective, Paris: OECD Publishing, <https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264189980-en>.
Malm, Andreas 2018, ‘Long Waves of Fossil Development: Periodizing Energy and Capital’, Mediations: Journal of the Marxist Literary Group, 31, 2: 17–40.
Mandel, Ernest 1968, Marxist Economic Theory, New York: Monthly Review Press.
Mandel, Ernest 1969, Ensayos sobre el neocapitalismo, Mexico City: Editorial Era.
Mandel, Ernest 1995, Long Waves of Capitalist Development: A Marxist Interpretation, Revised Edition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Mandel, Ernest 1999, Late Capitalism, London: Verso.
Mandel, Ernest 2018 [1989], ‘How To Make No Sense of Marx’, available at: <https://www.marxists.org/archive/mandel/1989/xx/nosense.htm>.
Marini, Ruy Mauro 1992, América Latina: dependência e integração, São Paulo: Brasil Urgente Página Aberta Ltda.
Mateo, Juan Pablo 2011, ‘Financialization as a Theory of Crisis in a Historical Perspective: Nothing New under the Sun’, University of Massachusetts-Amherst Working Paper Series, № 262, July, available at: <https://peri.umass.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/WP262.pdf>.
Mateo, Juan Pablo 2020, ‘La acumulación de capital en la periferia. Una propuesta analítica de la economía política’, Cuadernos de Economía, 43: 105–242, <https://doi.org/10.32826/cude.v42i122.173>.
Mateo, Juan Pablo and Ricardo Molero (eds.) 2010, Otra teoría económica es posible. Ensayos críticos de economía política, Madrid: Editorial Popular.
McDonough, Terrence 2021, ‘Social Structure of Accumulation TheoryL’, in Terrence McDonough, David M. Kotz and Michael Reich, Social Structure of Accumulation Theory, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
Menton, Jessica and Elena Popina 2023, ‘History Says Big Tech’s Rule Over US Stocks Shouldn’t Be Feared’, Bloomberg UK, available at: <https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-07-09/history-says-big-tech-s-dominance-over-us-stocks-poses-no-risk#xj4y7vzkg>.
Montibeler, Everlan Elias 2009, Estudio comparativo de la competitividad bilateral entre China y Estados Unidos: una aplicación de la teoría del valor trabajo, Doctoral Thesis, Universidad Complutense de Madrid.
Pérez, Carlota 2002, Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital: The Dynamics of Bubbles and Golden Ages, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
Pérez, Carlota 2015, ‘From Long Waves to Great Surges’, European Journal of Economic and Social Systems, 27, 1–2: 69–79.
Roberts, Michael 2016, The Long Depression: How It Happened, Why It Happened, and What Happens Next, Chicago: Haymarket Books.
Roberts, Michael 2017, ‘Towards a World Rate of Profit – Again’, Michael Roberts Blog, 9 September, available at: <https://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2017/09/09/towards-a-world-rate-of-profit-again/>.
Roberts, Michael 2020, ‘More on the World Rate of Profit’, Michael Roberts Blog, 20 September, available at: <https://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2020/09/20/moreon-a-world-rate-of-profit/>.
Roberts, Michael 2022, ‘A World Rate of Profit: Important New Evidence’, Michael Roberts Blog, 22 January, available at: <https://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2022/01/22/a-world-rate-of-profit-important-new-evidence/>.
Schumpeter, Joseph 1996, Capitalismo, Socialismo y Democracia I, Barcelona: Ediciones Folio.
Schumpeter, Joseph 2017, Business Cycles: A Theoretical, Historical and Statistical Analysis, Eastford, CT: Martino Fine Books.
Screpanti, Ernesto 1984, ‘Long Economic Cycles and Recurring Proletarian Insurgencies’, Review (Fernand Braudel Center), 7, 3: 509–548.
Shaikh, Anwar 1992, ‘The Falling Rate of Profit as the Cause of Long Waves: Theory and Evidence’, in New Findings in Long-Wave Research, edited by Alfred Kleinknecht, Ernest Mandel and Immanuel Wallerstein, London: Macmillan Press.
Shaikh, Anwar 2010, ‘The First Great Depression of the 21st Century’, in Socialist Register 2011: The Crisis This Time, edited by Leo Panitch, Gregory Albo and Vivek Chibber, London: The Merlin Press, available at: <https://socialistregister.com/index.php/srv/article/view/14330/11373>.
Shaikh, Anwar 2022, Capitalismo. Competencia, conflicto y crisis, Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura Económica.
Sweezy, Paul and Paul Baran 1968, Monopoly Capital: An Essay on the American Economic and Social Order, New York: Monthly Review Press.
Toussaint, Eric 2015, Bankocracy, Brussels: Resistance Books and IIRE.
Toussaint, Eric, Sonia Mitralias, CADTM Europe, Paul Murphy, Miguel Urbán Crespo, Andrej Hunko, Cristina Quintavalla, Manon Aubry and Leïla Chaibi 2021, ‘Why Eurozone Countries’ Debt to the ECB Must Be Cancelled’, Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt, 7 December, available at: <https://www.cadtm.org/Why-Euro-zone-countries-debt-to-the-ECB-must-be-cancelled>.
Trotsky, Leon 1923, ‘The Curve of Capitalist Development’, Fourth International, 2, 4: 111–114.
Tylecote, Andrew 1992, The Long Wave in the World Economy, London: Routledge.
United Nations 2022, ‘Conferences: Least Developed Countries’, available at: <https://www.un.org/en/conferences/least-developed-countries#:~:text=Afganist%C3%A1n%2C%20Angola%2C%20Bangladesh%2C%20Benin,%2C%20Malawi%2C%20Mal%C3%AD%2C%20Mauritania%2C>.
Vázquez, Juan 2021, ‘Estados Unidos y China. Un análisis de la correlación de fuerzas en la lucha por la hegemonía mundial’, Jornadas de Economía Crítica, available at: <https://www.researchgate.net/publication/349058116_Estados_Unidos_y_China_Un_analisis_de_la_correlacion_de_fuerzas_en_la_lucha_por_la_hegemonia_mundial>.
Wallerstein, Immanuel 1974, The Modern World-System, Volume 1: Capitalist Agriculture and the Origins of the European World-Economy in the Sixteenth Century, New York: Academic Press.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 779 | 779 | 61 |
| Full Text Views | 31 | 31 | 4 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 101 | 101 | 14 |
Ernest Mandel developed an original and comprehensive analysis of capitalism. Among his most important contributions is his controversial theory of long waves of accumulation. This article builds on this framework and attempts to update it for the current period. The theory of long waves must be articulated together with processes of accumulation by dispossession, the theory of absolute advantages, the theory of uneven development and the role of empowered labour in global productivity. All of these are determined by socio-political and endogenous development dynamics. We will attempt to characterise the transformations and current status of the ongoing long wave, and the possible reasons for its protracted duration. The article also attempts to characterise the actually-existing model of neoliberalism in which the state plays a leading role.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 779 | 779 | 61 |
| Full Text Views | 31 | 31 | 4 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 101 | 101 | 14 |