Libertarian Communism

This book presents a re-reading of the political economy theories of Marx and Engels as a theory of freedom.

This book re-examines and brings to light the libertarian components of Marx’s and Engel’s political and economic thought. Central to the book is a discussion of the notion of freedom in Marx and Engel’s work. In a post-Soviet world, there is a need to revise Marxism in the search for a libertarian foundation of political economy. The book argues that the libertarian foundations were present in Marx’s and Engel’s work and utilizes contemporary theory’s of freedom to re-interpret and analyse their original work.

ERNESTO SCREPANTI is Professor of Political Economy at the University of Siena, Italy. He has published extensively on the institutions of capitalism, the history and methodology of economics, the theory of value and the theory of freedom. His recent publications include The Fundamental Institutions of Capitalism, ‘Freedom and Social Goods: Rethinking Marx’s Theory of Communism’, in Rethinking Marxism, An Outline of the History of Economic Thought (with S. Zamagni) and ‘Taxation, Social Goods, and the Distribution of Freedom’ in Metroeconomica.

Introduction * PART I: A THEORY OF WELFARE? * Communitarian Communism * The Communism of Abundance * PART II: A THEORY OF FREEDOM * Freedom and the Individual * The Emancipation of Labour * PART III: A REFORMULATION * Foundations of the Liberation Theory * The Politics of Communism