ABSTRACT
Before we can discuss whether or not prison labor is slavery, we have to define slavery. This is difficult, for slavery is an institution with a long history and many, varied forms. Any theory employed to understand economics or society must by necessity be limited in its consideration of only a select number of social processes occurring at a given time and place. Societies are complex-each may contain a nearly limitless number of people, objects, ideas, and relationships. This makes it impossible for any theory to hope to be truly comprehensive-it would require an infinite amount of knowledge and time to evaluate all social processes and the relationships between them-if we had such knowledge, presumably we would not need to create theories at all. 1
Because of the complexity of social relationships, it is necessary for each theoretician to select a few aspects of a society on which to focus, while excluding the rest. In terms of theorizing the causes of whatever social relationship is the object of the theory, different theoreticians may well select different causes. Even when theorists agree to consider a certain aspect of society-say, the ways in which production of goods and services is organized-they often differ on what are the important features of production. After all, each production process is different from every other production process. The task of theory is to show the common elements in each kind of production. Marxists have traditionally called such common elements a ‘mode of production,’ but there is a great deal of disagreement and difference over what constitutes a mode of production, and how one mode of production may change into another.
