Michał Kalecki and Rosa Luxemburg on Marx’s Schemes of Reproduction: Two Incisive Interpreters of Capitalism

Abstract

In addition to his own contributions to economic thought, Tadeusz Kowalik has added substantially to our knowledge of three great Polish economists, Rosa Luxemburg, Oskar Lange and Michał Kalecki. He edited collections of their works and has contributed to our understanding of their contemporary relevance. He co-authored with Kalecki a sequel to the latter’s fundamental contribution to political economy, ‘Political aspects of full employment’ (Kalecki, 1943a), considering the question of whether a crucial reform had occurred in capitalist economies to allow full employment to be maintainable (Kalecki and Kowalik, 1971). Kowalik was joint editor of the Polish editions of the collected works of both Oskar Lange and (with Jerzy Osiatyński) Kalecki, as well as editing a new edition of Rosa Luxemburg’s The Accumulation of Capital. In addition, he has written extensively on the writings of Kalecki and Luxemburg, arguing that ‘Michał Kalecki’s theory is the best theoretical continuation and solution to the main problems that Rosa Luxemburg wanted to solve in her magnus opum’ [sic] (Kowalik, 2009: p. 102).