MONTHLY REVIEW NOVEMBER 1965
adored the New Hampshire spring, explored the surrounding
country on foot, read a great deal, did her share of the little
housekeeping that was necessary, and rested to her heart's
content. She had enough to do to fill every day, and she was
thoroughly content. Far from being hampered, our work went
better and smoother while she was there. And always after that
-the last time was just before the end of August-Gert would
recall with pleasure those spring days in the New Hampshire
countryside.
In conclusion, let me say a word about Gert's relation to
the politics and ideology of MR. Her concern was people, not
doctrines or theories; and much that went into the magazine
interested her only mildly. But for all that she was completely
in accord with the aims and purposes to which M R has always
been dedicated. If she hadn't been, she could not have been the
completely integral part of the enterprise she was. And her
socialism, even though it was seldom proclaimed and never
argued about, was an inseparable aspect of her personality. She
didn't need to be convinced by elaborate arguments that
capitalism is a barbarous society, unworthy of human beings.
She could see it every day of her life. And rather than asserting
her socialism, she lived it-in her modesty, her concern for
people, her refined tastes, her instinctive devotion to civilized
values. Would that more socialistswere like Gertrude Huberman.
ON PAUL BARAN'S
POLITICAL ECONOMY OF GROWTH
BY MICHAL KALECKI
The following note was written for MR's memorial issue to Paul
Baran (March 1965) but arrived too late to be included. Michal Kalecki
58
ON "THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF GROWTH"
is the famous Polish economist who, in Joan Robinson's words, "discovered
the General Theory [of Keynes] independently."-The Editors
This book is certainly the most important of Paul Baran's
contributions to the social sciences. I think the title is somewhat
misleading because it may suggest that this is a treatise on the
purely economic theory of growth. Although the book contains
elements of such a theory, this is not its main subject. It is an
analysis of the social and economic forces behind the process
of development rather than a specific explanation of the
mechanism of economic growth.
Not that it does not contain very valuable material in the
field of economic theory in the strict sense: I find, for instance,
most illuminating the treatment of innovations as the main-
spring of capitalist development and the emphasis on the weak-
ening of this development factor in the phase of monopoly
capitalism. However, the most important and original con-
tribution of the book is certainly the characterization of various
economic systems by the way in which the economic surplus
is generated and utilized.
Baran distinguishes between the potential and the actual
economic surplus, but he does not by any means limit the dis-
cussion to the discrepancy of these two values which makes for
an underutilization of existing resources. This focal point of
the economic discussion in the last thirty years, generated by the
great depression of the 1930's, accounts for only a part of his
argument. He goes far beyond that and concentrates his at-
tention on how the economic surplus is being utilized even if
it is utilized more or less to the full. And indeed some of the
most brilliant pages of his book are devoted to the analysis of
the assimilation of the New Deal ideas by monopoly capital-
ism. From all alternatives of "filling the gap in effective de-
mand" there emerges as acceptable to the ruling class only that
which is most absurd and perverse: the manufacturing of the
weapons of destruction as a means of keeping the economy going
and enabling people to earn their livelihood.
In underdeveloped countries the appropriation of the eco-
nomic surplus by foreign capital or its absorption by nonessential
consumption of the parasitic upper classes is emphasized, the
59
MONTHLY REVIEW NOVEMBER 1965
repercussions being a low level of investment and slow economic
growth.
But whether a developed or an underdeveloped capitalist
country is analyzed, the discussion is never confined to the
purely economic impact of the generation and utilization of the
economic surplus. It is penetratingly shown how this basic
characteristic of the economic system determines its whole social
fabric. Indeed the book is a pioneer performance in the
classification of social systems and their stages of development
according to this characteristic. And as an outcome of the
analysis socialism emerges as a system which makes possible
a full and rational utilization of the economic surplus for the
benefit of the present and future consumption of the working
population.
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