Beyond Liberalism - (Columbia Themes in Philosophy) by Prabhat Patnaik

About the Book

This book is a Marxist critique of liberalism. Prabhat Patnaik brings together political philosophy and political economy to offer a renewed vision of socialism.

Book Synopsis

Liberalism holds that individual freedom can be realized under capitalism. "Classical liberalism" tends to focus on excessive state interference as the primary threat to freedom. More recent theorists, however, recognize that capitalism, left to itself, would be characterized by mass social ills and argue that state intervention is necessary to guarantee individual freedom.

This book is a Marxist critique of liberalism. Prabhat Patnaik demonstrates that liberalism and Marxism provide vastly differing accounts of individual freedom and the forces that restrict it. In the Marxist view, people, contrary to appearances, lack real agency under capitalism. Competition coerces individuals to act according to the impersonal logic of capitalism, making them mere instruments of the system. In this way, capitalism creates universal alienation, and true individual freedom is possible only through overcoming it.

Patnaik argues that socialism can secure individual agency in both economic and political spheres, though actually existing socialism has failed in this respect. He also considers what a socialist society should look like: not a planned economy but a highly decentralized system in which citizens are directly involved in taking decisions affecting their lives and enjoy fundamental economic rights as well as political ones. Readable yet rigorous, Beyond Liberalism brings together political philosophy and political economy to offer a renewed vision of socialism.

Review Quotes

[Beyond Liberalism] provides an excellent starting point for discussing the shape of an alternative society that would be a normative advance in world history. For this reason and many, many others, Patnaik's book warrants the strongest recommendation.-- "Cambridge Review of International Affairs"

Beyond Liberalism by Prabhat Patnaik is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the underlying assumptions that seem to guide our world, be it in the realms of policy, economy or politics.-- "The Wire, India"

Patnaik's proposal provides a refreshing approach to post-Soviet Marxism, which often does not engage in the practical problems that face Marxist revolutions. Beyond Liberalism is a hopeful discourse in the 21st century. Patnaik provides a thought-provoking and necessary change in Marxist discourse.-- "Choice"

This book offers a deep analysis of the idea of individual freedom under capitalism. Patnaik first pursues this question through examining the works of major authors, including Locke, Smith, Keynes, and Marx. Within this framework, he then considers issues around colonialism, imperialism, socialism, and social democracy with insight and force.--Robert Pollin, coauthor of Climate Crisis and the Global Green New Deal

Prabhat Patnaik's book, integrating perspectives from economics, philosophy, and politics, is a brilliant critique of the complicity of liberal doctrine with capitalism through its entire history: from its earliest formations in the seventeenth century through the extended period of European colonialism, the Keynesian caesura after the Second World War, down to the neoliberal period of globalized finance of our own time.--Akeel Bilgrami, author of Capital, Culture, and the Commons

Prabhat Patnaik skillfully combines empirical evidence and philosophical reasoning to make an engaging and insightful interdisciplinary critique of liberal doctrine, questioning its account of capitalism at its avowedly strongest point: its claim to embody and promote individual freedom.--David Leopold, author of The Young Karl Marx: German Philosophy, Modern Politics, and Human Flourishing

About the Author

Prabhat Patnaik has taught economics at the University of Cambridge and Jawaharlal Nehru University, where he is currently professor emeritus. His books include Accumulation and Stability Under Capitalism (1997), The Value of Money (2009), A Theory of Imperialism, with Utsa Patnaik (2017), and Capital and Imperialism, with Utsa Patnaik (2021).