ABSTRACT
The authors of Monopoly Capital, Paul A. Baran and Paul M. Sweezy, attempt to overcome "the stagnation of Marxian social science" by shifting the focus of attention from competitive to monopoly capital. For Baran and Sweezy, the asserted 'fundamental structural change' from competitive to monopoly capitalism demands an alteration in the laws derived from Karl Marx's 'competitive model', as that of the falling rate of profit. Monopoly profits reduce the competitively established average rate of profit and therewith lead to the progressive decline of the quantity of profits transferable to monopoly capital. According to Baran and Sweezy, 'monopoly capital' prevents the loss by limiting the 'surplus' through the limitation of production. The 'potential surplus' of 'monopoly capital' is more than matched by the actual lack of everything in the capital-poor nations. Marx's 'analytical method' may seem to have lost its relevance because of the modifications brought about by monopoly capital and government interventions into the economy.
