Is Communism in the Marxian Sense Possible at All?

Abstract

How Is Critical Economic Theory Possible?, a magisterial work by G. Bence, J. Kis and G. Márkus had been written and banned  50 years ago and published only after the demise of state socialism. Its argument is still valuable and valid. My reconstruction of their critique of the Marxian model of a socialist/communist economy is followed by a critical discussion of the non-economic components of Marx’s conception of communism. This leads me to the following five claims: (1) The communism of primitive societies could not provide a model for a postcapitalist communism. (2) The social cohesion of communities is mostly sustained by the awareness of real or imagined enemies within or outside the community. (3) The assumptions that large and complex societies could survive the elimination of the state, the law and morality or interpersonal conflicts of all kinds could disappear in such societies are unfounded. (4) The reconciliation of self-realisation and communitarian participation is not unproblematic. (5) No society can vouchsafe creative self-realisation for all its members.