Class Struggle and the Socialist Economic Calculation Debate

Authors

• Tiago Camarinha Lopes, Universidade Federal de GoiasFollow

ORCID

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5907-777X

Keywords

socialist economic calculation, class struggle, warfare, philosophy, education

Document Type

Essay

Abstract

The socialist economic calculation debate is often portrayed as a sharp and straightforward conflict between two opposing sides. While this characterization is valid given the ideological clash between defenders of capitalism and proponents of socialism, this paper offers a more nuanced perspective on the interaction between the main schools of economic thought involved in the debate, the Marxist and the Austrian. Drawing on the humanist approach of critical pedagogy developed by Brazilian philosopher Paulo Freire (1921–1997), the paper argues that the debate over socialist economic calculation is not only a clear expression of class struggle within economics. It also involves a reciprocal process of learning and teaching, as opposing sides refine and defend their political positions through technical argumentation. By recovering the constructive spirit of the debate’s “golden age”, the paper shows that such exchanges fostered a form of intellectual cooperation grounded in reciprocal recognition of political antagonism. In this sense, economics and politics should not be understood as separate spheres, but as a unified whole that constitutes scientific Political Economy.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

Recommended Citation

Camarinha Lopes, Tiago (2026) "Class Struggle and the Socialist Economic Calculation Debate," Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis: Vol. 4: Iss. 5, Article 5.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.55533/2765-8414.1171
Available at: https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/emancipations/vol4/iss5/5