Study On The Historical Evolution Of Social Structure Of Accumulation In The United States

In the late 1970s,the “economic stagflation” with high unemployment and high inflation in the United States challenged Keynesian economics and triggered theoretical innovation in the field of economics.Social Structure of Accumulation school has emerged in the theoretical circle of Marxist political economy in the United States,which focus on the succession of the social structure of accumulation(SSA)to explain the “long wings” of the American capitalist economy.SSA school has become the America-renowned and even the world-renowned Marxist political economy theory school.The founders of SSA school-David Gordon et al.have historically divided the stages of American capitalism on the basis of three major structural changes in the organization of work and the structure of labor markets.Under the analytical framework of Gordon et al.,the organization of work(labor process)and the structure of labor markets are the constituent institutions of SSA,therefore,the succession of SSA is embodied in the evolution of labor process and labor market structure.Along with the four historical transformations of American capitalist labor process and labor market structure,the “control system” dominated by capitalist workplace has also evolved historically,and each evolution was aimed at resolving the increasingly intensified “capital-labor conflict” in the workplace.The endless pursuit of surplus value urges the capitalists to demand the control of the capitalist labor process.The capitalists constantly reconstruct the labor process to solve the control crisis in the workplace,forcing the workers to submit to the iron law of capitalist accumulation.Gordon,Edwards,and Reich(1982)identified three social structures of accumulation—“initial proletarianization SSA”,“homogenization SSA” and“segmentation SSA” to match with the three “long swings” in the history of American capitalism.The dominant labor control systems were respectively “simple control system”,“technical control system” and “bureaucratic control system”.In the final section of Segmented Work,Divided Workers: The Historical Transformation of Labor in the United States,Gordon et al.pointed out “the crisis that began in the early 1970 s can only be resolved by the construction of a new social structure of accumulation”.However,Gordon et al.did not make much prediction about what exactly is the fourth SSA in the history of American capitalism and what are its characteristics.Since then,scholars have conducted relevant researches on the new SSA after the 1970 s and there are many theoretical differences.Spatialization School provides a representative explanation.Spatialization School originated in the 1990 s as an extension of social structure of accumulation(SSA)theory.Spatialization School represented by Michael Wallace et al.inherited and developed Gordon,Edwards,and Reich's tradition of studying capitalist labor process.They contend that since the early 1970 s or so,the United States has been traversing the exploratory stages of a fourth “long swings”,which “spatialization SSA” started to dominate.This new SSA is characterized by the spatial restructuring of work as the primary means of employers to reassert control over the labor process.The dominant labor control system is named “technocratic control system”.Based on the spatial dimension of capitalist production and accumulation,Spatialization School proposed two core concepts of “spatialization SSA” and “technocratic control system”,and elaborated the evolution of labor process and labor market structure from “segmentation” to “spatialization”.Spatialization School revealed the new characteristics of capitalist labor process by emphasizing the notion of “control system”,which is crucial for linking macro-level institutional changes in the capital accumulation process to micro-level features of the organization of work.The above content is different from the study of other successors of SSA school(for example,the “neoliberal SSA” represented by David Kotz).Based on the theoretical perspective of Spatialization School,this paper studies the historical evolution of SSA,which is dominated by American capitalism,mainly through three dimensions: Firstly,the vertical dimension-a historical investigation of the American capitalist SSA,provide further study of the specific characteristics of the corresponding labor process and labor market structure under each SSA;Secondly,the horizontal dimension-a comparative study of the name and characteristics of the fourth SSA in the history of American capitalism to clarify the theoretical differences between different scholars on this issue;Thirdly,the trend dimension-the future investigation of the next SSA of American capitalism,provide reasonable inference and outlook based on the new characteristics of current capitalist labor process and labor market structure.Finally,on the basis of the investigation of these three dimensions,an overall evaluation is made on the theory of the historical evolution of the accumulated social structure.And extract the beneficial part of the accumulated social structure theory to the economic development of our country from the perspective of methodology.In addition,this paper tries to make an exploratory analysis of the current labor process and labor market structure in China by comparing it with the SSA in the history of American capitalism.Specifically,the development of capitalist production was accompanied by the“initial proletarianization” of labor,with wage labor becoming the dominant form of labor.Capital accumulation deprived large numbers of people of their means of production and forced them to sell their own labor force to support themselves,so as to enter the army of workforce.The growth of wage labor has not brought about a qualitative change in the labor process and labor market structure of capitalism.Instead,capitalists have gathered together the basic elements of production such as labor force,means of production and tools of labor to organize production.Skilled workers control the labor process by virtue of their “craft skills” and “intimate knowledge” of production.The diversity of labor process organization forms a fragmented,highly dispersed and isolated labor market structure.At this stage,the dominant labor control system is “simple control”,including “entrepreneurial control” and “hierarchical control”.As production becomes more and more social,capitalists' demand for “control”gradually increases,while the continuous expansion of enterprise scale leads to the decline in the effectiveness of “simple control” in the workplace.The contradiction between the two triggers the “control crisis” in the workplace.The harsh conditions in the factory and the arbitrary exercise of the foreman's power intensified the conflict between the foreman,the capitalist and the workers,while the skilled workers controlled the working speed and rhythm of the factory by means of their “knowledge monopoly” on the production process,which hindered the further improvement of labor productivity and made it difficult to reduce labor costs.Accompanied by the economic crisis at the end of the 19 th century,the “initial proletarianization SSA”finally collapsed,and the capitalists began to explore the establishment of a new social structure of accumulation-“homogenization SSA”.In this stage,the labor process and labor market structure underwent a qualitative change.Through the application of new technologies,capitalists fundamentally changed the organization of work in factories,and the labor force became more and more homogeneous.The homogenization of labor attempts to regain the capitalist control over the labor process through the“deskilling” of workers,which means the fragmentation of labor process,the homogenization of labor conditions and labor skills.At the same time,a unified labor market began to take shape and the labor market became more general and competitive.The labor control system dominated by “homogenization SSA” is “technical control”,which workers became increasingly unable to understand and master production and lost control of the capitalist labor process.In the mid-1930s,an unprecedented outbreak of worker protests in the mass production industry marked the demise of the “homogenization SSA”,and capitalists began to explore a more effective labor control system,thus entering the stage of“segmentation SSA”.At this stage,the labor market structure was divided into primary labor market and secondary labor market,and the “carrot” structured labor control system and “stick” conflicted labor control system were adopted respectively.In the course of many bloody conflicts between labor and capital,with wage labor giving up control over the capitalist labor process as the cornerstone,the collective bargaining system was established between labor and capital,and “bureaucratic control” appeared.The most fundamental feature of “bureaucratic control” is to institutionalize the exercise of hierarchical power within the labor process,and capital implements overall control over the labor process by establishing structured rules and procedures.In the early 1970s,the American capitalist economy slowed down and fell into a crisis of productivity and accumulation,which marked the demise of “segmentation SSA”.The rapid technological change broke down the time and space barriers in the era of mass production.In order to maintain their competitive advantages,capitalists had to expand outward,thus entering the stage of “spatialization SSA”.The key changes in this stage are as follows: the capitalist mode of production changed from“standardized mass production” to “flexible production”;the capitalist labor process changes from “rigid labor process” to “flexible labor process”;the polarization trend of labor market structure became more obvious.In order to realize the mass customization and low-cost of “flexible production”,capitalists use computerized control system in the workplace to monitor workers' production activities,and use computer technology to flexibly adjust the labor process,forming “technocratic control”.Since the outbreak of the international financial and economic crisis in 2008,the American economic policy has shifted from the original capital “globalization” to“anti-globalization”,from “deindustrialization” to “reindustrialization”,and from“liberalism” to “trade protectionism”,resulting in a great increase in policy uncertainty.The new SSA in the United States was gradually established during the outbreak and resolution of the crisis.At the same time,a new form of work organization based on Internet technology began to emerge and gradually occupy the dominant position of national economy.“Digital labor” had also become a new form of wage labor.The new SSA mainly presents the following characteristics: the labor process is fragmented and flexible,the labor market structure is unstable and differentiated,the labor control forms are diversified and hidden,the employment relationship is vague and temporary,and the exploitation of labor by capital is intensified.By sorting out the historical evolution process of American capitalist SSA and comparing it with China's labor process and labor market structure,it can be seen that:“proletarianization”,“homogenization”,“segmentation” and “spatialization” of labor coexist in the current Chinese labor market.Among them,“proletarianization”(strictly speaking,“semi-proletarianization”)mainly exists in the group of migrant workers who depend on the income of migrant workers;“homogenization” mainly exists in labor-intensive industries(such as manufacturing and construction);“segmentation”mainly exists in large and medium-sized enterprises with “modern enterprise system”;and “spatialization” mainly exists in the subsidiaries of multinational enterprises located in China.Correspondingly,“simple control”,“technical control”,“bureaucratic control” and “technocratic control” also exist in the enterprise internal control structure at different levels in China.Generally speaking,the theory of SSA has both positive theoretical value and theoretical limitations.Its theoretical value lies in that the theory of SSA,concretely transforms the Marxist principle of “productivity-production relation” into“accumulation process-SSA”,and constructs an analytical paradigm of “intermediate level”.From the sense of methodology,we can transform “productivity-production relation” into “new development-new development condition”,namely “quality development-institutional structure supported the development of high quality”.This is exactly corresponding to the requirement of “industrial system-economic structure”at two levels of the construction of the modern economic system,so as to facilitate the application of abstract Marxist economic principles to the concrete reality of economic and social development in our country.The limitation of this theory is that SSA school emphasizes too much the decisive role of “institutional structure” on “capital accumulation”,thus ignores the important role of “technological innovation” and other factors on “capital accumulation”.Moreover,it is subject to the socialist basic economic system when applying the theory of SSA to explain China's economic development.To what extent and in what sense can the theory of SSA be applied to our country's economy is a question worth thinking about.China's socialist market economy has its particularity.Although the labor process and labor market structure of our country may possess the form of wage labor,they do not have the nature of wage labor.China's capital not only pursues the goal of maintaining and increasing value,but more importantly,assumes social responsibilities.Therefore,we should critically absorb the beneficial elements of SSA theory to help our country's high-quality economic development.