br Sraffa Leontief and Lange

Sraffa, Leontief and Lange: towards the political economy of input-output economics When the objective function and the technical constraints are clearly defined it is possible to determine the option that solves the allocation problem. However, the definition of the objective function itself is a matter of political struggle over the pattern of economic reproduction. In the pure capitalist mode of production the law of value determines directly the objective function, which assumes the form of maximization of profits for the unit of capital. This is the reason of why the basic optimization problem appears as something evident in all presentations of maximization of utility or value under conditions of restriction. But, when the allocation of the output follows some constructed plan by the clear definition of specific aims and of the limits, we leave the automatic operation of distribution and production and we move towards economic planning. This distribution of factors which is subordinated to any objective different from the principle of simple maximization of abstract wealth is viable trough the use of the technique of programming. This process goes beyond the logic of the law of value, which is the theoretical expression in Marx for the allocation mechanism imposed by the market. In the capitalist mode of production, these leaps are made by the imposition of the logic of valorization, and for that reason, the social planning was not a precondition for the increase of the aggregate output. Another way to capture this movement is to recognize that the process of capitalist metabotropic receptors forces the development of the productive forces, which is merely another expression for the improvement of the technical coefficients of production. The concept of productivity is generally used to measure this advance. In practice, the expansion of the system through increasing productivity does not follow a stable pattern. It develops through ruptures and crises. Formally, the programming problem can always be written as some objective function Y=income (or profit, etc.) which is dependent on the produced use values and their empirical prices (defined at the time of value realization). The basic problem in capitalism is described by pointing that the aim is to maximize Y, so that the knowledge about the technical constraints will allow punctual actions to avoid the crisis and allow the system to expand in a growth trajectory. All growth models of the steady state type are illustrations of this mechanism which is desired by the capitalist States since the end of laissez-faire. The counterpart of the expansion of value without the disruption of reproduction is that the system in its use value structure should expand proportionally. This is the main effort of the capitalist State acting as a ‘referee’ uniting and coordinating individual capitals. Consequently, the maximization of the aggregate income would be converted into the aim ‘maximize the sum of use values that compound the output in a stable way’. In other words, it would be a situation where the system grows as fast as possible without violating the balance proportions. That is the same idea explained by Amin ([1977]1981) when he describes a dynamic and expansive equilibrium. In fact, since the generalization of commodity relations, the economic problem of shortage has always been solved by capital. That is why Keynes (1920) says that capitalism is justifiable for the accumulation of wealth (as use values) it provides. Similarly, Marx indicates that the solution to the problem of the low level of development of the productive forces, and consequently of insufficient material wealth, is exactly one of the historical tasks of the capitalist mode of production. On the other side, in the socialist society, the technique is used to achieve aims that are socially determined. And these aims can also be the expansion of material wealth, as it collaterally happens under capitalism. Indeed, due to the fact that all socialist revolutions took place in countries with a comparatively low level of productive forces, the aim of economic coordination was always de increase of material wealth trough industrialization. Because of this, at a formal level, the capitalist and socialist economies can be modeled by the dynamics of input-output identically when the objectives of the systems are the same (or at least, when they coincide regarding some aspects). But as it is comprehensible from the ideological debates, these two kinds of social organization must have different objectives.