A Critical Rethinking Of Henryk Grossman’s Theory Of Breakdown

Henryk Grossman described a theory of capitalist economic breakdown based on capitalists’underconsumption in the book The Law of Accumulation and Breakdown of the Capitalist System:Being also a Theory of Crisis, which was published on the eve of the "Great Depression" in 1930’s.This paper, which is based on the latest abroad achievements after the Cold War, aims to rethink about the misunderstandings of Grossman and his theory in the field of political economy and study on Frankfurt School. On the one hand, I’ll reveal and conclude the whole content of Grossman’s breakdown theory to change Grossman’s role of a economic determinist in the history of political economy; On the other hand, I’ll inspect on the relationship between Grossman and early Western Marxism and early Frankfurt School on the base of Grossman’s new role, then find out the historical political and textual reasons of Grossman’s being misunderstood and give back an image of a revolutionary Marxist to Grossman.Actually, his theme was a continuation of an argument over economic crises between the Orthodox and Revisionism in the Second International. Kautsky made this issue too political and refused to acknowledge the existence of it, unlikely, Grossman accepted Bernstein’s theoretical weapon and modified it to be more revolutionary. He put views about the law of falling rate of profit in Capital Volume III in the core place of his theory, meanwhile used theories of Austrian Marxist economists as the materials, and combined his rich revolutionary experience, thenformed a revolutionary political economy which differs from Economic Determinism and calls for the proletariat revolution.Grossman defined breakdown as the inner insurmountable limitation of capitalism, which refers to the necessity of development and extinction of capitalism. Grossman deduced the table of Otto Bauer and made a conclusion that capitalist economy would breakdown by the deficit of surplus value to fulfill the consumption of capitalists. The inner mechanism of this process dues to the law of rising organic composition of capital and falling rate of profit. Capitalists will take several measures to overcome the tendency which acts as temporary crises, however, that couldn’t change the breakdown of capitalism by the double blow of economic crises and proletariat revolutionary.Grossman’s emphasis on the subjectivity of revolution made his political economy a supplement of thoughts of Georg Lukacs in History and Class Consciousness. It also made him the most authoritative political economist of the early Frankfurt School one time. However, the "Great Depression" didn’t destroy the capitalist system, but gave birth to the formation of monopoly capitalism. Grossman failed to realize his prophecy and his theory gradually fell behind the economic reality. Thereafter, Pollock’s study of state capitalism took the leading position and constructed the basis of Frankfurt School critical theory.