Analytical Marxism

Analytical Marxism is a late twentieth-century approach that uses analytic philosophy and social science to reconstruct Marxist arguments. It tests those arguments for logical clarity and empirical support.

G. A. Cohen: G. A. Cohen was a Canadian philosopher who developed an influential analytical interpretation of historical materialism. His 1978 book helped launch the school by reconstructing Marx’s theory of history.
Rational choice theory: Rational choice theory explains actions by modeling agents as selecting options according to preferences and constraints. Some analytical Marxists used it to derive collective outcomes from individual decisions.
Historical materialism: Historical materialism explains historical change through material production, social relations, and conflicts over resources. Cohen’s influential reconstruction made this Marxist theory of history a central test case.
Hegelian Marxism: Hegelian Marxism interprets Marx through concepts associated with Hegel, including dialectical development and totality. Analytical Marxists rejected appeals to dialectic when they could not be stated as clear arguments.
Class analysis: Class analysis studies how social positions tied to economic resources shape life chances, power, and political behavior. Wright’s research made class structure a durable empirical field of inquiry.
Jon Elster: Jon Elster is a Norwegian social theorist known for applying rational-choice explanation to political and social analysis. He challenged functional explanations in Marxism and urged analysts to specify individual-level mechanisms.
Methodological individualism: Methodological individualism explains social phenomena through the actions and interactions of individuals. It supplied a standard for replacing unexplained social functions with actor-level mechanisms.
Marxian economics: Marxian economics analyzes capitalism using concepts such as value, accumulation, exploitation, and class relations. Analytical Marxists recast its arguments using formal economic tools and explicit assumptions.
Structural Marxism: Structural Marxism explains social relations through structures that constrain individuals and reproduce social systems. Its structural explanations often conflicted with analytical Marxism’s emphasis on explicit actor-level mechanisms.
Exploitation and Class: Exploitation and Class is John Roemer’s 1982 book offering a formal account of exploitation and class relations. It exemplifies the school’s attempt to reconstruct Marxian concepts with economic models.

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