The peasantry in the feudal mode of production: Towards an economic model

Over the last thirty years a substantial body of historical writing has evolved which deals in one way or another with the nature and tendencies of feudal economy. From the shorter conjuncture‐studies published in Annales, the regional monographs sponsored in France, the monographic estate‐studies popular in England, to the more concentrated historical synopses based on them, this literature¹ covers a vast field, geographically and chronologically—sufficiently broad, in fact, to stimulate the recent tendency of historical writing to explore the character of feudal economy at a deeper level of abstraction. Kula's study [1970] stands today as the major forerunner of this tendency. Based largely on Kula's book, this short essay sketches a framework within which it becomes possible to explore more concretely the connections between commodity‐economy and feudal production, and the specific historical relationships between the enterprises of feudal production and the peasantry.²     

Summary of selected parts of Kautsky's

This paper covers two major contentious points in the history of the relationship between the sciences and social thought - the question of the character of ideological intervention within the sciences and the effect of a scientific discovery upon the ideological and cultural milieu in which it appears. In particular it uses the construction of Darwin's Descent of Manto illustrate a number of general points about this relationship.     

The Social Psychology of Ordinary Ethical Failures

Social Justice Research -     

Gunder frank in retreat?

World Accumulation, 1492–1789, by Andre Gunder Frank. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1978. Pp. 303, index. £3.95, paper.

In this review article, Andre Gunder Frank's latest book, World Accumulation, is given extended critical treatment. It is argued that, in generalising his earlier arguments (which were formulated with respect to Chile and Brazil) across space and time, and in responding to a decade of criticism of his work, Frank has moved closer to the position of one of his best‐known critics, Laclau. Frank is taken to task for his ‘world market abstractionism’ and it is posited that the incorporation model which he espouses does not transcend the limits of petty‐bourgeois theory and downgrades the class struggle between bourgeoisie and proletariat. The article falls into two parts. In the first, issues relating to Frank's historical framework are taken up—basically with regard to (i) Frank's ‘cycles of accumulation’ and (ii) Frank's interpretation of the second serfdom in eastern Europe; and in the second certain theoretical issues, around the theme of'wage‐labour’, are discussed. Both Frank's historical framework and his theoretical formulations are shown to be seriously defective.