In this study, distinguished international contributors project an ‘open’ Marxism - a rejection of the determinism and positivism which characterise so much of contemporary left-wing thought. Topics covered in the two volumes include Marxism and political economy, historical materialism, dialectics, state theory, class, fetishism and the periodisation of capitalist development.

Werner Bonefeld lectures in Politics at the University of York. Research interests include political economy, Marxist social theory, and European Integration. He has been on the editorial board of Capital & Class and is on the editorial board of Common Sense. He is also on the Advisory Board of Historical Materialism. He has published in a number of journals, including Capital & Class, Common Sense, and Review of Radical Political Economy. His work has been translated into many languages, including German, Greek, Spanish, Italian and French.

Richard Gunn lectures in political theory at Edinburgh University, co-edits Common Sense and is a former member of the editorial board of Capital and Class.

Kosmas Psychopedis teaches at the University of Athens

Introduction - Werner Bonefeld, Richard Gunn, Kosmas Psychopedis
1. Dialectical Theory: Problems of Reconstruction - Kosmas Psychopedis
2. Between Philosophy and Science: Marxian Social Economy as Critical Theory - Hans-Georg Backhaus
3. Social Constitution and the Form of the Capitalist State - Werner Bonefeld
4. The Global Accumulation of Capital and the Periodisation of the Capitalist State Form - Simon Clarke
5. The Bourgeois State Form Revisited - Heide Gerstenberger