Daniel James (HU Berlin): "Nothing Personal: Marx on Capitalist Domination"

It is no secret that Karl Marx believed there was something specifically wrong with capitalism—a wrong both unique and intrinsic to this mode of production. This wrong is unique to capitalism because it occurs exclusively within this mode of production and not in others, such as slavery or serfdom. It is intrinsic to capitalism because this mode of production is structured in a way that characteristically gives rise to it. 

Marx argues that slaves, serfs, and workers are subjected to the same kind of wrong, but what makes that wrong specific to capitalism is that it is obscured by the illusion of individual independence and freedom. This illusion, however, vanishes once we consider the classes of capitalists and workers, indicating that the class structure of capitalism both generates and obscures this wrong (Capital I: 568 – see MEGA II/5: 459). 

Recently, some commentators have claimed that Marx's critique of capitalism is best understood in terms of domination, specifically structural domination (e.g., Postone 1993; Renault 2014; Gourevitch 2015; Roberts 2017; Leipold 2022, 2024). There are two plausible interpretations of this claim: first, that the working class is dominated by the capitalist class; second, that workers (and, perhaps even capitalists) are dominated by the capitalist mode of production itself. Can these interpretations be reconciled?

This paper proposes a third interpretation to resolve this tension, combining elements of both views. Drawing on the Aristotelian idea of iterated powers—which manifest in the acquisition of further powers—it argues that capitalist domination is the power of the capitalist mode of production to be such that capitalists easily acquire uncontrolled power to exploit workers. This domination is concealed when viewing capitalists and workers as individuals rather than class members. This is, in Marx’s view, what is specifically wrong with capitalism.