‘The Mute Compulsion of Economic Relations’: Towards a Marxist Theory of the Abstract and Impersonal Power of Capital

Abstract

According to Marx’s unfinished critique of political economy, capitalist relations of production rely on what Marx refers to in Capital as ‘the mute compulsion of economic relations’. The aim of this article is to demonstrate that this constitutes a distinct form of economic power which cannot be reduced to either ideology or violence, and to provide the conceptual groundwork for a systematic theory of capital’s mute compulsion.

Discussion on Marxist Theory and Innovation of Ideological and Political Education Teaching Research

“…For the characteristics of the Marxist theory, from the generalization of science and revolution, to the generalization of science, people, practice and openness, to generalization of science and truth, people and practice, openness and times The generalization is the sublimation of the understanding of the historical development and theoretical system of Marxism, the condensing of the historical vision and ideological essence of the Sinicization of Marxism, especially the Sinicization of Marxism in the 70 years of New China, and the wisdom and the theory of Marxism in the 21st century as the display of the glamour. Different from the empirical common sense, as a conceptual system to explain, guide, and regulate human thought and behavior, theory, a special way of grasping the world, has a distinct logic and systemicity [6][7][8][9][10].…”

Introduction to special issue: Value, values, and anthropology

“…A bit more specifically, considering economic anthropology's ongoing dialogue with Marxian theories of labor, there is an interesting prospect of interchange with contemporary forms of Marxist philosophy focusing not on the labor theory of value, but on the consequences of the social dissemination of the value‐ form under capitalism. Marxist value‐form theorists thus emphasize “the impersonal and abstract domination of everyone—regardless of their class position—by the value form” (Mau, 2021, 6). Synthesizing and extending this line of research, a recent contribution explores how the capitalist relations of production rely on what Marx refers to in Capital as “the mute compulsion of economic relations,” and how this economic power is different from both ideology and violence (Mau, 2023).…”

“…Marxist value‐form theorists thus emphasize “the impersonal and abstract domination of everyone—regardless of their class position—by the value form” (Mau, 2021, 6). Synthesizing and extending this line of research, a recent contribution explores how the capitalist relations of production rely on what Marx refers to in Capital as “the mute compulsion of economic relations,” and how this economic power is different from both ideology and violence (Mau, 2023). Economic power is a mediated form of power, that works on subjects only indirectly, by remolding “their social and material environment in a manner that forces [them] to act in accordance with the logic of valorization” (Mau, 2021, 8).…”

Governed by digital technology?

“…The self-perpetuation of technology relies on the separation of the worker from the means of production because the fact that workers do not have the power, legally or factually, to dispose of the means of production is the precondition for them to be subjected to these means in the labour process. Moreover, the self-perpetuation of technology is directly intertwined with the dominance of the principle of valorisation − in itself a man-made yet selfperpetuating principle which exercises its 'mute compulsion' (Mau, 2019) on workers as well as on capitalists.…”