Big Society, Free Economy, and Strong State: Bonefeld’s Open Marxism and the Critique of Political Economy

Abstract

This paper introduces Open Marxism as a critical Marxist school of thought to a wider readership and constructs an Open Marxist theoretical framework to understand contemporary political economy. This paper argues that Werner Bonefeld’s Open Marxism is a beneficial tool to understand contemporary political economy. It offers three distinct theories of the Big society, economic freedom, and the strong state. Bonefeld addresses the vitality of these three concepts in his critique of political economy, offering theoretical terrains for ‘human agency’ and rejecting determinist and positivist conceptions of society.  He posits that society should be a ‘subject’ of human social life and humans need to be the subject of their own conceptions of human social, economic and political destinies. For Bonefeld, society is the analytical point of departure. The economy and the state together play important roles in creating the human economy, a system that attempts to liberate humans from existing capitalist social relations, and achieving that aim is the task of ordinary human agencies, like us all.