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Political Marxism is a term that causes a good deal of confusion. I was lucky to study, in undergrad, with an excellent representative of the Political Marxist tendency––the political scientist and comparative historian George Comninel––and to receive a pretty good education in its worldview. I think that this experience may still be usefully drawn upon to talk about contemporary Political Marxism.
To study the history of capitalism with a Political Marxist is to take on a concern with the fundamental distinction between “capitalism” as a very specific mode of exploitation and “capitalism” as a sort of placeholder word that encompasses modernity, progress, the disenchantment of the world, technological revolutions, consumerism, reification and alienation, etc. A student of Political Marxism learns that for “capitalism” to be “capitalism,” three features must be present: market-driven labor compulsion (that is, hunger, rather than some feudal bully, makes sure that you go out and find a job); a regime of accumulation based on surplus labor extraction (not robbery, nor discovery of some cave full of precious metals, nor the profits from unpaid slave labor); and the presence of a liberal state muscular enough to maintain the “rule of law,” thereby ensuring the protection of private property.
full: http://s-usih.org/2015/06/political-marxism-and-the-new-historiography-of-capitalism-and-slavery-invitation-to-an-open-discussion.html
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