MICHAL KALECKI ON A SOCIALIST ECONOMY

MICHAL KALECKI ON A SOCIALIST ECONOMY

Also by Jerzy Osiatyftski CAPITAL, DISTRIBUTION AND VALUE (in Polish) KALECKI'S COLLECTED WORKS (editor, in Polish)

Michal Kalecki on a Socialist Economy J erzy Osiatynski Translated by Jan Toporowski M MACMILLAN PRESS

Jerzy Osiatynski 1988 Foreword Wiodzimierz Bros 1988 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1988 978-0-333-38844-0 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1956 (as amended), or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 33-4 Alfred Place, London WClE 7DP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. First published 1988 Published by THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Osiatynski, Jerzy Michal Kalecki on a socialist economy. 1. Kalecki, Michal 2. Economics I. Title 330.15'5 HB114.K28 ISBN 978-1-349-07875-2 ISBN 978-1-349-07873-8 (ebook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-07873-8

Contents Preface Foreword by Wfodzimierz Brus vii ix 1 The Democratically Planned Economy 1 2 The Question of Workers' Self-Management 19 3 The Functioning of the Socialist Economy 35 4 Long-Term Planning 57 5 The Foundations of Growth Theory 97 6 Calculating the Efficiency of Investment 135 7 Some Social and Economic Problems of Post-War Poland 161 8 Kalecki's System 171 Index 189

Preface This book arose out of my research on the work of Michal Kalecki on the theory and practice of the socialist economy. This research was undertaken in preparing the third and fourth volumes of Kalecki's Collected Works,l comprising his work on this subject. The papers that I discovered in the archives of the Council of Ministers and the Planning Commission confirm the unusually close link between Kalecki's theories and his activity as an expert and adviser to the highest economic authorities. In so far as it is possible, I would like to make available to the reader an account of this aspect of Kalecki's work, which is today unknown and partly forgotten, and its influence on his theoretical ideas. This will also enable certain important themes in the recent history of Polish economic thought and in post-war Polish economic history to be brought out of obscurity. This is the first aim of my book. Kalecki did not leave behind any work which systematically deals with the whole range of problems of socialist reproduction, a work which could be the counterpart to his Theory of Economic Dynamics of the capitalist economy.2 He himself never tried to bring together his reflections on various aspects of the socialist economy. My second purpose in writing this book has been to try to bring together the various fragments and elements of Kalecki's theory and, on this basis, to reconstruct his views on the functioning and development of a socialist economy. At the same time, I have tried to present not only the directions in which Kalecki's ideas evolved, but also the criticisms with which they met, and the course of further theoretical researches by other economists, as well as the issues that remain unresolved. The career of the central character of this book, and the close connection between his theoretical work and economic practice in Poland have determined the manner of presenting his contribution to this branch of knowledge. This book has a narrative-analytical character. This allows the theoretical work of Kalecki to be placed in its actual socio-economic context, and to be applied to the real process of Polish economic development. The narrative theme therefore provides a natural background to the analysis. Nevertheless, I have tried to ensure that the former does not predominate over the Vll

viii Preface latter, or precipitate the loss of the necessary distance that is required in assessing the work of Kalecki. In the course of my research on Kalecki's work, many colleagues and friends have helped and advised me, and many have encouraged me to write this book. I am deeply grateful for this help, advice and encouragement. I would also like to thank my Polish publishers, Panstwowe Wydawnictwo Ekonomiczne, who have allowed me to make extensive use in this book of the notes and commentaries in the third and fourth volumes of Kalecki's Collected Works. Notes JERZY OSIATYNSKI 1. M. Kalecki, Dziefa (Collected Works), Panstwowe Wydawnictwo Ekonomiczne (PWE), Warsaw, vol. III (1982), vol. IV (1984) 2. M. Kalecki, Theory of Economic Dynamics (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1954).

Foreword Michal Kalecki (1899-1970) belongs to the few Polish economists who left an indelible mark on the development of economic thought worldwide. His reputation in the West rests however mainly on his seminal contribution to the theory of dynamics of the capitalist economy, where - to quote Lawrence Klein - 'Kalecki's greatest achievement, among many, was undoubtedly his complete anticipation of Keynes' General Theory'.1 His work on socialist economy is much less known outside Poland, and perhaps several other socialist countries. In English, apart from a small number of papers dispersed among not always easily accessible journals, the main sample of Kalecki's own writings on socialism is his Introduction to the Theory of Growth in a Socialist Economy included also in the volume of Selected Essays on the Economic Growth of the Socialist and the Mixed Economy brought together by Kalecki himself shortly before his death.2 His work on other issues of socialist economics, particularly those related to the system of functioning (economic mechanism) has been made known to the English reader only in part and indirectly through the intermediary of books devoted to Kalecki and his economics in general, such as G. R. Feiwel's The Intellectual Capital of Michal Kalecki or M. C. Sawyer's The Economics of Michal Kalecki; among the rather rare articles on the subject of socialist economics D. M. Nuti's 'Michal Kalecki's Contribution to the Theory and Practice of Socialist Planning' stands out recently. 3 Jerzy Osiatynski's book is much more than an addition to this slim list, and not only because it is devoted entirely to Kalecki's economics of socialism. The singularity of this book lies in the fact that it is based on meticulous research of both Kalecki's published work and of the mass of the hitherto unpublished archival material: records of meetings in which Kalecki participated (including discussions in the advisory Economic Council of Poland in the late 1950s), his correspondence, memos written in his capacity as adviser to central planning authorities and head of the Polish delegation to the Economic Commission of the Council of Mutual Economic Assistance (Comecon). The wealth of material of this type not merely makes one aware of the close links between Kalecki's theoretical work and ix

x Foreword his activity in planning practice, which is rightly stressed by the author in his own Preface, but also puts every piece of Kalecki's writings into a proper context, allowing the reader to judge the argument against the background of an adequate presentation of the issues in question and of other views on the matter. Although the book should by no means be seen as a simple compilation of Kalecki's writings enriched by the related archival material- this is Osiatynski's own book with original analysis leading to a valiant attempt at a synthesis in the concluding chapter - one is justified in treating much of the contents as an authentic, first-hand source. The author himself intends apparently to convey this idea by choosing the title Michal Kalecki on a Socialist Economy, which is both modest and accurate. As I have had the privilege to work closely with Kalecki on a number of theoretical and practical problems of a socialist economy, I can appreciate this in full. Invited to write this foreword, I first contemplated writing a brief essay. However, having studied the book carefully, I finally decided against this because it became clear to me that there was very little which could be added to the text itself by way of useful introduction. The picture of Kalecki's economics of socialism - both his methodological approach and his substantive conclusions - emerges from Osiatynski's book clearly and comprehensively. Needless to say, much of it is controversial and subject to various interpretations, but all is in my view highly relevant not only to the problems of the 'really existing' (that is, the communist version of) socialism, but to any kind of socialist alternative. Notes WWnZIMIERZ BRUS 1. Lawrence R. Klein, foreword to The Intellectual Capital of Michaf Kalecki. A Study in Economic Theory and Policy, by G. R. Feiwel (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1975). 2. Michal Kalecki, Introduction to the Theory of Growth in a Socialist Economy Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1969); Selected Essays on the Economic Growth of the Socialist and the Mixed Economy (Cambridge University Press, 1972). 3. G. R. Feiwel, see n. 1 above; M. C. Sawyer, The Economics of Michal Kalecki (London and Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1985); D. M. Nuti, 'Michal Kalecki's Contribution to the Theory and Practice of Socialist Planning', Cambridge Journal of Economics, vol. x, no. 4 (December 1986), pp 333-53.