Foreword and acknowledgements
1. Introduction
The dimensions of power in social sciences
The unidimensional view of power in economics
Methodological choices and ontological necessities
Historical materialism, exploitation and social coercion
Marx's critique of capital and the critique of power
Structure of the book
PART I. POWER IN ECONOMICS
2. The economic debate on power
The contractual approach of Alchian and Demsetz
Williamson's transaction costs economics
The property rights approach of Hart and Moore
The radical political economics of Bowles and Gintis
Golfberg's institutional perspective
The terms of the debate
3. Power and post Walrasian economics
Post Walrasian economics
From Walrasian to post Walrasian economics
The theoretical results of Walrasian economics
The role of perfect competition in the debate on power
Conclusions
4. Power demystification
The categories of post Walrasian economics
As-if economic history
History and efficiency
Free contracting, imperfections and class relations
Exchange without production
Production, circulation, and the free trader vulgaris
Scientific research and cultural hegemony
Conclusions
PART II. THE ONTOLOGY OF CAPITALIST POWER AND THE COERCIVE LAW OF COMPETITION
5. Marx’s critique of capital and competition
Competition in Marx's work
Total social capital and competition between individual capitals
The origins of competition
Competition and the contradictions of capital
The development of competition and the process of capital subsumption
Association against competition
The end of competition
Bourgeois economics and the myth of perfect competition
Conclusions
6. Capitalism as a system of power
Critical realism
Critical realism and Marxism
The ontology of power
The ontology of capitalist power
Conclusions
7. Final remarks
Scientific goals, methodology and ontology
Formal similarities within opposite conceptions
Economists as servant of power
Reorienting the struggle
Biography
Giulio Palermo is Researcher in Economics at the University of Brescia, Italy.
