Towards a new structural crisis on the capitalist system?

Abstract

The capitalist mode of production is characterized by an in¬ herent contradiction: the contradiction between the ever growing social nature of the productive forces and the persistently narrow I nature of production relations. This contradiction appeared from the beginning, so it does not imply an impending "final breakdown". It has been surmounted for at least a century-both by the expansion of the capitalist system and the revewal of its accumulation model. Marx reminds us that the capitalist mode is compelled to revolutionize pro— • ï duction continually, it is therefore also compelled to revolutionize production relations continually so as to adapt them to the require¬ ments of the continous development òf the productive forces. The his¬ tory of capitalism is therefore necessarily that of the process #f adjustment of production relations to the requirements of the progress of productive forces.