Beyond Capital-Nation-State

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Publication Type:

Journal Article

Authors:

Karatani, K.

Source:

Rethinking Marxism, Routledge, part of the Taylor \& Francis Group, Volume 20, Issue 4, Number 4, p.569 (2008)

URL:

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08935690802299447

Keywords:

20-4

Abstract:

This essay proposes to abandon the architectural metaphor of base/superstructure that has come to inform historical materialism since Marx and reconstruct a Marxian theory of social formation around the notion of 'exchange' (Verkher). With different degrees of dominance, different historical social formations are composed of four modes of exchange (reciprocity/gift exchange, redistribution/plunder, commodity exchange, and X) and their corresponding institutional forms. A discussion of the capital-nation-state as a particularly modern form of articulation of commodity exchange, reciprocity, and redistribution is followed by a proposal for a world republic as a regulative idea.