Charles Bettelheim
Encyclopedia
Charles Bettelheim was a French
economist
and historian
, founder of the Center for the Study of Modes of Industrialization (CEMI : Centre pour l'Étude des Modes d'Industrialisation) at the Sorbonne
), economic advisor to the governments of several developing countries during the period of decolonization. He was very influential in France's New Left, and considered one of "the most visible Marxists in the capitalist world." (Le Monde, April 4, 1972), in France as well as in Spain
, Italy
, Latin America
, and India
.
Austria
n of Jewish origin, and a representative of a Swiss bank in Paris
. The family had to leave France after the beginning of the First World War in 1914. The Bettelheims lived in Switzerland
then in Egypt
. In 1922, Charles Bettelheim returned to Paris with his French mother, during which time his father, who was living in Egypt, committed suicide.
After Adolf Hitler
's rise to power in 1933, Charles Bettelheim broke away from his familiar environment, first joining the "Young Communists" (Jeunesses communistes), and subsequently the French Communist Party
. In addition to his studies in philosophy, sociology, law and psychology, he also learned Russian. In July 1936, he arrived in Moscow
with a tourist visa. Thanks to his mastery of the language, he was able to get a resident permit for five months, during which time he worked as a tourist guide, and later on with the French edition of the Moscow Journal, and finally at Mosfilm
, where he directed film dubbing. His experiences during his Moscow stay, in the anxious atmosphere at the beginning of the "purges
" and the trials of the Bolshevik
leaders who opposed Joseph Stalin
, made him keep a critical distance from the Soviet Union
, without actually abandoning his Communist convictions. He was excluded from the Communist Party for his "slanderous" remarks. In 1937, he married a young militant Communist, Lucette Beauvallet. During the German occupation, he cooperated with the French Trotskyites(the International Workers Party
.)
His decision to choose economics
as a profession was not an easy one, since at that time economics was considered a minor science; however, inasmuch as he had become so knowledgeable about the Soviet Union
and about economic planning
, Bettelheim was able to fill a gap. After the War
, he became an official in the Ministry of Labor. In 1948 he entered the "Sixth Section" of the École Pratique des Hautes Études
(EPHE).
In the Fifties, Bettelheim began his international activities as an advisor to the governments of Third World countries; he was the spokesperson for Nasser
in Egypt, for Nehru in India, and for Ben Bella in Algeria. In 1958, he created an institutional base for his research by founding the CEMI. In 1963, Che Guevara
invited him to Cuba
, where he participated in a "grand debate" on socialist economics
.
In 1966, Bettelheim was particularly interested in China. He helped the Union of Young Communists (Marxist-Leninist) with theoretical planning, without being directly affiliated with the organization. In his capacity as President of the Franco-Chinese Friendship Association (Association des amitiés franco-chinoises), he visited the People's Republic of China
several times, in order to study new methods of industrial development created by the "Cultural Revolution
." After the death of Mao Zedong
in 1976, Bettelheim was very critical of the new leaders (Hua Guofeng
and Deng Xiaoping
) who began to abandon Maoist principles, and replacing them with a politics of modernization which Bettelheim considered reactionary and authoritarian.
From 1980 onward, Bettelheim fell more and more by the wayside—a result of the profound political changes in the Third World
—and, in Europe, of the decline (and eventual failure) of "hard-line socialism
", which rendered "obsolete" any debate over the paradigm
s of development in the Southern countries, in an atmosphere of planned economy independent of the world market
—an economy to which Bettelheim had contributed so much. Bettelheim has written a book of memoirs which, as yet, has remained unfinished.
Until his death, Bettelheim lived in Paris. He did not publish anything in his later years. His student and long-time colleague Bernard Chavance is among the leading exponents of "Regulation" theory
.
" inaugurated by Nikita Khrushchev
at the Twentieth Congress of the Soviet Communist Party, as well as the reforms conceived by Soviet economist Evsei Liberman
, suggesting a decentralization of decisions made within the planning leadership.
n debate of 1963, Bettelheim was opposed to the voluntarist ideas of Che Guevara
, who wanted to abolish free market and the production of merchandise through a very rapid and centralized industrialization, morally mobilizing "the new man." Bettelheim took a position against this plan - to which Fidel Castro
had also subscribed : both Che Guevara and Castro preferred the monoculture
of sugar
as the basis of Cuban economy, rather than a strict analogy to the economy of the Soviet Union. In Cuba, Bettelheim recommended a diversified economy, based on agriculture, prudent industrialization, broad central planning, mixed forms of property ownership with market elements—a pragmatic strategy similar to the "New Economic Policy
" begun in Russia by Vladimir Lenin
in 1922. Opposing Guevara, Bettelheim argued (in line with the last writings of Stalin) that the "law of value
" was the manifestation of objective social conditions which could not be overcome by willful decisions, but only by a process of long-term social transformation.
This debate demonstrated the profound differences which, from then on, separated Bettelheim from Marxist "orthodoxy
", which considered Socialism as the result of "the development of maximum centralization of all forces of industrial production". For Bettelheim, socialism is rather an alternative voice in development ; a process of transformation of social understandings. Inspired by the Chinese Cultural Revolution
and the thought of Mao Zedong
, and in cooperation with the Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser
, Bettelheim was opposed to "economism
" and to the "primacy of the means of production" of traditional Marxism
: against the idea that socialist transformation of social bonds was a necessary effect of the development of the forces of production
(liberating those bonds from them, according to Marxist orthodoxy, since private property dominates them in "bourgeois" society), he affirmed the necessity for actively and politically transforming social connections. In his book Economic Calculations and Forms of Ownership (Calcul économique et formes de proprieté), Bettelheim re-thinks the problems of transition to socialism, while criticizing the supposition that nationalization
and state ownership of the means of production was already "socialist"—it is not the legal form of property, but true socialization of the web of production, which characterizes such a transition ; the crucial problem in socialist planning is the replacement of the form of "value" with the development of a method of measurement which takes into account the social utility of production.
, Andre Gunder Frank
, Samir Amin
and others who, by fighting against theories of "modernization," affirmed that at the periphery of the worldwide capitalist system, in "under-developed" countries, "development" is only possible under conditions where these countries pry themselves free from their unequal and asymmetrical connections with the world market, dominated by imperialist countries, in order to choose a different and autonomous path: a development of production neither for profit, nor for an accumulation of abstract wealth, but for the needs of the people.
Under the banner of such a "Maoist" approach, Bettelheim began his voluminous work on the history of the Soviet Union : Les luttes de classes en URSS (1974–1982) (Class Struggle in the USSR (1974–1982)), where he examines the reasons for the distortions of soviet socialism, which, according to Bettelheim, is nothing more than a "State Capitalism." Bettelheim showed that after the October Revolution
, the Bolshevik
s had not succeeded in any long-term stabilization of the alliance between workers and poor peasants which had earlier been conceived by Lenin. During the 1920s, this alliance was replaced by an alliance of elite workers and technological intellectuals against the peasants, culminating in the forced collectivization of agriculture in 1928. "Economistic" ideology (the "primacy of the forces of production"), born in social-democracy and fed by the interests of the "worker aristocracy" and progressivist intellectuals, was resurrected by the enablement of the Bolshevik Party, acting as a legitimization of new technocratic elites which established the same hierarchies, divisions of labor and social differentiations, as had capitalism. However, the "legal" mirage, according to which the property of the State is defined as "socialist," hides the actual exploitation.
Finally, Bettelheim called into doubt the socialist character of the October Revolution
, interpreting it as a seizing of power by a radical branch of the Russian intelligentsia, which "confiscated" a popular revolution.
Bettelheim was a leading proponent of the thesis that "development" in the countries of the "Third World" necessitates a political break with imperialism and a distantanglement from the bonds of dependency on the unequal international division of labor of the world market. This position also includes a sharp criticism of the international role of the Soviet Union
whose politics of development Bettelheim saw as just another variant of capitalist accumulation models. This theory saw a chance for a disentanglement of the political groundwork in order to practice an alternative development model, one that was not oriented towards accumulation and profit, but rather towards an economy for the everyday needs of the people, with a balanced proportion allowed between agriculture and industry.
, under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping
, put paid to the "Maoist" strategy of autarkic (tr. note: independent and self-sustaining) development, guided by political priorities, in order to reaffirm the primacy of the economy and to introduce itself into the world market, the theoreticians' paradigm of autonomous development lost the force of its convictions. At the same time, Marxism lost its influence, especially in France
, where a wave of anti-Communism succeeded in discrediting not only the "archaeo-Communist" orthodoxy, but also Marxist critics such as Bettelheim. Bettelheim, who had never abandoned Marxist thinking, was condemned to disappear. In 1982, he published the two volumes of the third part of Class Struggle in the USSR, dedicated to the "dominated" and "dominators" of Stalinism
, but the Marxist environment, in which Bettelheim had been rooted before, had dissolved. Today, India
is the only country where Bettelheim is still the object of discussion.
," between Socialism
and Ecology
. In the realm of economic theory, his analysis, distinguishing different forms of capitalism, influenced the school of "Regulation."
The above article is a translation of the French Wikipedia article on Charles Bettelheim.
In addition, several paragraphs of the German article on Charles Bettelheim have also been translated and are indicated by ">>" at the beginning of the paragraphs.
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
economist
Economist
An economist is a professional in the social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy...
and historian
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
, founder of the Center for the Study of Modes of Industrialization (CEMI : Centre pour l'Étude des Modes d'Industrialisation) at the Sorbonne
Sorbonne
The Sorbonne is an edifice of the Latin Quarter, in Paris, France, which has been the historical house of the former University of Paris...
), economic advisor to the governments of several developing countries during the period of decolonization. He was very influential in France's New Left, and considered one of "the most visible Marxists in the capitalist world." (Le Monde, April 4, 1972), in France as well as in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
, and India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
.
Biography
Henri Bettelheim, the father of Charles Bettelheim, was a VienneseVienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n of Jewish origin, and a representative of a Swiss bank in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. The family had to leave France after the beginning of the First World War in 1914. The Bettelheims lived in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
then in Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
. In 1922, Charles Bettelheim returned to Paris with his French mother, during which time his father, who was living in Egypt, committed suicide.
After Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
's rise to power in 1933, Charles Bettelheim broke away from his familiar environment, first joining the "Young Communists" (Jeunesses communistes), and subsequently the French Communist Party
French Communist Party
The French Communist Party is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism.Although its electoral support has declined in recent decades, the PCF retains a large membership, behind only that of the Union for a Popular Movement , and considerable influence in French...
. In addition to his studies in philosophy, sociology, law and psychology, he also learned Russian. In July 1936, he arrived in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
with a tourist visa. Thanks to his mastery of the language, he was able to get a resident permit for five months, during which time he worked as a tourist guide, and later on with the French edition of the Moscow Journal, and finally at Mosfilm
Mosfilm
Mosfilm is a film studio, which is often described as the largest and oldest in Russia and in Europe. Its output includes most of the more widely-acclaimed Soviet films, ranging from works by Tarkovsky and Eisenstein , to Red Westerns, to the Akira Kurosawa co-production and the epic Война и Мир...
, where he directed film dubbing. His experiences during his Moscow stay, in the anxious atmosphere at the beginning of the "purges
Great Purge
The Great Purge was a series of campaigns of political repression and persecution in the Soviet Union orchestrated by Joseph Stalin from 1936 to 1938...
" and the trials of the Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
leaders who opposed Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
, made him keep a critical distance from the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, without actually abandoning his Communist convictions. He was excluded from the Communist Party for his "slanderous" remarks. In 1937, he married a young militant Communist, Lucette Beauvallet. During the German occupation, he cooperated with the French Trotskyites(the International Workers Party
International Workers Party
The International Workers Party is supposedly a secretive Marxist political organization founded by controversial organizer, playwright and psychotherapist Fred Newman.-Origins:The history of the IWP is itself controversial...
.)
His decision to choose economics
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
as a profession was not an easy one, since at that time economics was considered a minor science; however, inasmuch as he had become so knowledgeable about the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
and about economic planning
Economic planning
Economic planning refers to any directing or planning of economic activity outside the mechanisisms of the market, in an attempt to achieve specific economic or social outcomes. Planning is an economic mechanism for resource allocation and decision-making in contrast with the market mechanism...
, Bettelheim was able to fill a gap. After the War
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, he became an official in the Ministry of Labor. In 1948 he entered the "Sixth Section" of the École Pratique des Hautes Études
École pratique des hautes études
The École pratique des hautes études is a Grand Établissement in Paris, France. It is counted among France's most prestigious research and higher education institutions....
(EPHE).
In the Fifties, Bettelheim began his international activities as an advisor to the governments of Third World countries; he was the spokesperson for Nasser
Gamal Abdel Nasser
Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein was the second President of Egypt from 1956 until his death. A colonel in the Egyptian army, Nasser led the Egyptian Revolution of 1952 along with Muhammad Naguib, the first president, which overthrew the monarchy of Egypt and Sudan, and heralded a new period of...
in Egypt, for Nehru in India, and for Ben Bella in Algeria. In 1958, he created an institutional base for his research by founding the CEMI. In 1963, Che Guevara
Che Guevara
Ernesto "Che" Guevara , commonly known as el Che or simply Che, was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, intellectual, guerrilla leader, diplomat and military theorist...
invited him to Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
, where he participated in a "grand debate" on socialist economics
Socialist economics
Socialist economics are the economic theories and practices of hypothetical and existing socialist economic systems.A socialist economy is based on public ownership or independent cooperative ownership of the means of production, wherein production is carried out to directly produce use-value,...
.
In 1966, Bettelheim was particularly interested in China. He helped the Union of Young Communists (Marxist-Leninist) with theoretical planning, without being directly affiliated with the organization. In his capacity as President of the Franco-Chinese Friendship Association (Association des amitiés franco-chinoises), he visited the People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
several times, in order to study new methods of industrial development created by the "Cultural Revolution
Cultural Revolution
The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, commonly known as the Cultural Revolution , was a socio-political movement that took place in the People's Republic of China from 1966 through 1976...
." After the death of Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung , and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution...
in 1976, Bettelheim was very critical of the new leaders (Hua Guofeng
Hua Guofeng
Su Zhu, better known by the nom de guerre Hua Guofeng , was Mao Zedong's designated successor as the Paramount Leader of the Communist Party of China and the People's Republic of China. Upon Zhou Enlai's death in 1976, he succeeded Zhou as the second Premier of the People's Republic of China...
and Deng Xiaoping
Deng Xiaoping
Deng Xiaoping was a Chinese politician, statesman, and diplomat. As leader of the Communist Party of China, Deng was a reformer who led China towards a market economy...
) who began to abandon Maoist principles, and replacing them with a politics of modernization which Bettelheim considered reactionary and authoritarian.
From 1980 onward, Bettelheim fell more and more by the wayside—a result of the profound political changes in the Third World
Third World
The term Third World arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either capitalism and NATO , or communism and the Soviet Union...
—and, in Europe, of the decline (and eventual failure) of "hard-line socialism
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
", which rendered "obsolete" any debate over the paradigm
Paradigm
The word paradigm has been used in science to describe distinct concepts. It comes from Greek "παράδειγμα" , "pattern, example, sample" from the verb "παραδείκνυμι" , "exhibit, represent, expose" and that from "παρά" , "beside, beyond" + "δείκνυμι" , "to show, to point out".The original Greek...
s of development in the Southern countries, in an atmosphere of planned economy independent of the world market
Market
A market is one of many varieties of systems, institutions, procedures, social relations and infrastructures whereby parties engage in exchange. While parties may exchange goods and services by barter, most markets rely on sellers offering their goods or services in exchange for money from buyers...
—an economy to which Bettelheim had contributed so much. Bettelheim has written a book of memoirs which, as yet, has remained unfinished.
Until his death, Bettelheim lived in Paris. He did not publish anything in his later years. His student and long-time colleague Bernard Chavance is among the leading exponents of "Regulation" theory
Regulation school
The Régulation School is a group of writers on political economy and economics whose origins can be traced to France in the early 1970s where economic instability and stagflation were rampant in the French economy. The term ‘régulation’ was coined by Frenchman Destanne de Bernis who aimed to use...
.
Thought
Despite his negative experiences in Moscow, Bettelheim retained a favorable attitude towards Soviet socialism until the Sixties, citing the economic accomplishments of the Soviet Union, which he appreciated from an independent point of view. In 1956, he endorsed the "de-StalinizationDe-Stalinization
De-Stalinization refers to the process of eliminating the cult of personality, Stalinist political system and the Gulag labour-camp system created by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. Stalin was succeeded by a collective leadership after his death in March 1953...
" inaugurated by Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964...
at the Twentieth Congress of the Soviet Communist Party, as well as the reforms conceived by Soviet economist Evsei Liberman
Evsei Liberman
Evsei Liberman was a Soviet economist who lived in Kharkiv .He was a teacher at the Kharkiv Institute of Peoples Econome, the Kharkiv Institute of Engineering and Economy and the University of Kharkiv....
, suggesting a decentralization of decisions made within the planning leadership.
From the Cuban debate to the critique of "Economism"
In the CubaCuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
n debate of 1963, Bettelheim was opposed to the voluntarist ideas of Che Guevara
Che Guevara
Ernesto "Che" Guevara , commonly known as el Che or simply Che, was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, intellectual, guerrilla leader, diplomat and military theorist...
, who wanted to abolish free market and the production of merchandise through a very rapid and centralized industrialization, morally mobilizing "the new man." Bettelheim took a position against this plan - to which Fidel Castro
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary and politician, having held the position of Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and then President from 1976 to 2008. He also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961 until 2011...
had also subscribed : both Che Guevara and Castro preferred the monoculture
Monoculture
Monoculture is the agricultural practice of producing or growing one single crop over a wide area. It is also known as a way of farming practice of growing large stands of a single species. It is widely used in modern industrial agriculture and its implementation has allowed for large harvests from...
of sugar
Sugar
Sugar is a class of edible crystalline carbohydrates, mainly sucrose, lactose, and fructose, characterized by a sweet flavor.Sucrose in its refined form primarily comes from sugar cane and sugar beet...
as the basis of Cuban economy, rather than a strict analogy to the economy of the Soviet Union. In Cuba, Bettelheim recommended a diversified economy, based on agriculture, prudent industrialization, broad central planning, mixed forms of property ownership with market elements—a pragmatic strategy similar to the "New Economic Policy
New Economic Policy
The New Economic Policy was an economic policy proposed by Vladimir Lenin, who called it state capitalism. Allowing some private ventures, the NEP allowed small animal businesses or smoke shops, for instance, to reopen for private profit while the state continued to control banks, foreign trade,...
" begun in Russia by Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...
in 1922. Opposing Guevara, Bettelheim argued (in line with the last writings of Stalin) that the "law of value
Law of value
-General:The law of value is a central concept in Karl Marx's critique of political economy, first expounded in his polemic The Poverty of Philosophy against Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, with reference to David Ricardo's economics...
" was the manifestation of objective social conditions which could not be overcome by willful decisions, but only by a process of long-term social transformation.
This debate demonstrated the profound differences which, from then on, separated Bettelheim from Marxist "orthodoxy
Orthodox Marxism
Orthodox Marxism is the term used to describe the version of Marxism which emerged after the death of Karl Marx and acted as the official philosophy of the Second International up to the First World War and of the Third International thereafter...
", which considered Socialism as the result of "the development of maximum centralization of all forces of industrial production". For Bettelheim, socialism is rather an alternative voice in development ; a process of transformation of social understandings. Inspired by the Chinese Cultural Revolution
Cultural Revolution
The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, commonly known as the Cultural Revolution , was a socio-political movement that took place in the People's Republic of China from 1966 through 1976...
and the thought of Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung , and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution...
, and in cooperation with the Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser
Louis Althusser
Louis Pierre Althusser was a French Marxist philosopher. He was born in Algeria and studied at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, where he eventually became Professor of Philosophy....
, Bettelheim was opposed to "economism
Economism
Economism is a term used to describe economic reductionism, that is the reduction of all social facts to economical dimensions. It is also used to criticize economics as an ideology, in which supply and demand are the only important factors in decisions, and outstrip or permit ignoring literally...
" and to the "primacy of the means of production" of traditional Marxism
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
: against the idea that socialist transformation of social bonds was a necessary effect of the development of the forces of production
Productive forces
Productive forces, "productive powers" or "forces of production" [in German, Produktivkräfte] is a central idea in Marxism and historical materialism....
(liberating those bonds from them, according to Marxist orthodoxy, since private property dominates them in "bourgeois" society), he affirmed the necessity for actively and politically transforming social connections. In his book Economic Calculations and Forms of Ownership (Calcul économique et formes de proprieté), Bettelheim re-thinks the problems of transition to socialism, while criticizing the supposition that nationalization
Nationalization
Nationalisation, also spelled nationalization, is the process of taking an industry or assets into government ownership by a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to private assets, but may also mean assets owned by lower levels of government, such as municipalities, being...
and state ownership of the means of production was already "socialist"—it is not the legal form of property, but true socialization of the web of production, which characterizes such a transition ; the crucial problem in socialist planning is the replacement of the form of "value" with the development of a method of measurement which takes into account the social utility of production.
The Chinese experience and analysis of the USSR
In China, Bettelheim had the impression that he was in the process of witnessing just such a process of transformation. More specifically, he noted that the Cultural Revolution—a revolution of the political, ideological and cultural superstructure—changed the industrial organization accompanying it by a general participation by the workers in all decisions, and overcoming the division of "manual" and "intellectual" labor. During these years, China was the benchmark for the Neo-Marxist "radical school of economics", represented by Bettelheim, Paul SweezyPaul Sweezy
Paul Marlor Sweezy was a Marxist economist, political activist, publisher, and founding editor of the long-running magazine Monthly Review...
, Andre Gunder Frank
Andre Gunder Frank
Andre Gunder Frank was a German-American economic historian and sociologist who promoted "dependency theory" after 1970 and "World Systems Theory" after 1984...
, Samir Amin
Samir Amin
Samir Amin is an Egyptian economist. He currently lives in Dakar, Senegal.- Biography :Samir Amin was born in Cairo, the son of an Egyptian father and a French mother . He spent his childhood and youth in Port Said; there he attended a French High School, leaving in 1947 with a Baccalauréat...
and others who, by fighting against theories of "modernization," affirmed that at the periphery of the worldwide capitalist system, in "under-developed" countries, "development" is only possible under conditions where these countries pry themselves free from their unequal and asymmetrical connections with the world market, dominated by imperialist countries, in order to choose a different and autonomous path: a development of production neither for profit, nor for an accumulation of abstract wealth, but for the needs of the people.
Under the banner of such a "Maoist" approach, Bettelheim began his voluminous work on the history of the Soviet Union : Les luttes de classes en URSS (1974–1982) (Class Struggle in the USSR (1974–1982)), where he examines the reasons for the distortions of soviet socialism, which, according to Bettelheim, is nothing more than a "State Capitalism." Bettelheim showed that after the October Revolution
October Revolution
The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
, the Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
s had not succeeded in any long-term stabilization of the alliance between workers and poor peasants which had earlier been conceived by Lenin. During the 1920s, this alliance was replaced by an alliance of elite workers and technological intellectuals against the peasants, culminating in the forced collectivization of agriculture in 1928. "Economistic" ideology (the "primacy of the forces of production"), born in social-democracy and fed by the interests of the "worker aristocracy" and progressivist intellectuals, was resurrected by the enablement of the Bolshevik Party, acting as a legitimization of new technocratic elites which established the same hierarchies, divisions of labor and social differentiations, as had capitalism. However, the "legal" mirage, according to which the property of the State is defined as "socialist," hides the actual exploitation.
Finally, Bettelheim called into doubt the socialist character of the October Revolution
October Revolution
The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
, interpreting it as a seizing of power by a radical branch of the Russian intelligentsia, which "confiscated" a popular revolution.
Bettelheim was a leading proponent of the thesis that "development" in the countries of the "Third World" necessitates a political break with imperialism and a distantanglement from the bonds of dependency on the unequal international division of labor of the world market. This position also includes a sharp criticism of the international role of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
whose politics of development Bettelheim saw as just another variant of capitalist accumulation models. This theory saw a chance for a disentanglement of the political groundwork in order to practice an alternative development model, one that was not oriented towards accumulation and profit, but rather towards an economy for the everyday needs of the people, with a balanced proportion allowed between agriculture and industry.
Decline of the Marxist Environment
When, in 1978, the People's Republic of ChinaPeople's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
, under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping
Deng Xiaoping
Deng Xiaoping was a Chinese politician, statesman, and diplomat. As leader of the Communist Party of China, Deng was a reformer who led China towards a market economy...
, put paid to the "Maoist" strategy of autarkic (tr. note: independent and self-sustaining) development, guided by political priorities, in order to reaffirm the primacy of the economy and to introduce itself into the world market, the theoreticians' paradigm of autonomous development lost the force of its convictions. At the same time, Marxism lost its influence, especially in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, where a wave of anti-Communism succeeded in discrediting not only the "archaeo-Communist" orthodoxy, but also Marxist critics such as Bettelheim. Bettelheim, who had never abandoned Marxist thinking, was condemned to disappear. In 1982, he published the two volumes of the third part of Class Struggle in the USSR, dedicated to the "dominated" and "dominators" of Stalinism
Stalinism
Stalinism refers to the ideology that Joseph Stalin conceived and implemented in the Soviet Union, and is generally considered a branch of Marxist–Leninist ideology but considered by some historians to be a significant deviation from this philosophy...
, but the Marxist environment, in which Bettelheim had been rooted before, had dissolved. Today, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
is the only country where Bettelheim is still the object of discussion.
Legacy
Although his name and work might have been forgotten, Charles Bettelheim has left some tracks. His heterodox Marxist thinking has helped bring into doubt the "Progressivism" and "Productivism" of classic leftism, giving rise to "alternative" thinking, which not only gave birth to the idea of "social emancipation from industrial growth" as an end in itself, but aspired to put productive development into the context of social consciousness (basically, it was no more than the idea originated by Marx: to end the submission of social action to the process of production, in favor of conscious submission to production for social needs). Thus, Bettelheim was an intermediary between "red" thinking and "greenGreen politics
Green politics is a political ideology that aims for the creation of an ecologically sustainable society rooted in environmentalism, social liberalism, and grassroots democracy...
," between Socialism
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
and Ecology
Ecology
Ecology is the scientific study of the relations that living organisms have with respect to each other and their natural environment. Variables of interest to ecologists include the composition, distribution, amount , number, and changing states of organisms within and among ecosystems...
. In the realm of economic theory, his analysis, distinguishing different forms of capitalism, influenced the school of "Regulation."
Publications
- La planification soviétique. Rivière, 1945 (Soviet planning)
- L'économie allemande sous le nazisme, un aspect de la décadence du capitalisme. Rivière, 1946 (Bibliothèque générale d'économie politique) (The GermanGermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
economy under NazismNazismNazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
, an Aspect of the Decadence of CapitalismCapitalismCapitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
) - Bilan de l'économie française (1919–1946). PUF, 1947 (Balance-sheet for the French Economy)
- Esquisse d'un tableau économique de l'Europe. Domat, 1948 (Draft of an economic picture of Europe)
- L'économie soviétique. Sirey, 1950 (The Soviet Economy)
- Une ville française moyenne. AuxerreAuxerreAuxerre is a commune in the Bourgogne region in north-central France, between Paris and Dijon. It is the capital of the Yonne department.Auxerre's population today is about 45,000...
en 1950. Étude de structure sociale et urbaine (avec Suzanne Frère). Colin, 1950 (An Average French City. AuxerreAuxerreAuxerre is a commune in the Bourgogne region in north-central France, between Paris and Dijon. It is the capital of the Yonne department.Auxerre's population today is about 45,000...
in 1950. Study of the Social and Urban Structure. - Modèles de croissance et développement économique. Tiers-Monde, tome I, nos. 1-2, 1960 (Models of Economic Growth and Development)
- L'Inde indépendante. Colin, 1962 (Independent IndiaIndiaIndia , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
) - Planification et croissance accélérée. Maspero, 1965 (Collection Économie et socialisme) (Planning and Accelerated Growth)
- La transition vers l'économie socialiste. Maspero, 1968 (Transition to a Socialist Economy)
- Problèmes théoriques et pratiques de la planification. Maspero, 1970 (Theoretical and Practical Problems with Planning)
- Calcul économique et formes de propriété. Maspero, 1971 (Economic Calculus and Forms of Ownership)
- Révolution culturelle et organisation industrielle en Chine. Maspero, 1973 (Cultural Revolution and Industrial Organization in China)
- Les luttes de classes en URSS – Première période, 1917-1923. Seuil/Maspero, 1974 ("Class Conflict in the USSR—First period, 1917-1923)
- Les luttes de classes en URSS – Deuxième période, 1923-1930. Seuil/Maspero, 1977 (Class Conflict in the USSR—Second period, 1923-1930)
- Questions sur la Chine, après la mort de Mao Tsé-toung. Maspero, 1978 (Collection Économie et socialisme) (Questions about China after the Death of Mao Tse-tung)
- Les luttes de classes en URSS – Troisième période, 1930-1941. Tome I: Les dominés, tome II: Les dominants. Seuil/Maspero, 1982 ("Class Conflict in the USSR -- Third Period, 1930-1941. Vol. I: "The Dominated," Vol II: "The Dominators.")
- La pensée marxienne à l'épreuve de l'histoire, interview in Les Temps modernes, nº 472, 1985 (Marxist Thinking About the Experience of History)
- La pertinence des concepts marxiens de classe et lutte de classes pour analyser la société soviétique, dans Marx en perspective, Éditions de l'EHESS, 1985 (The Relevance of Marxist Concepts of Class Conflict to the Analysis of Soviet Society)
The above article is a translation of the French Wikipedia article on Charles Bettelheim.
In addition, several paragraphs of the German article on Charles Bettelheim have also been translated and are indicated by ">>" at the beginning of the paragraphs.