Political Economy of Growth by Paul A. Baran

 

 

The Political Economy of Growth by Paul A. Baran is a classic and highly influential work in Marxist and development economics.

• Baran introduces the concept of economic surplus, distinguishing between actual surplus, potential surplus, and planned surplus.

• He argues that the generation and usage of surplus must be understood differently in advanced capitalist countries versus underdeveloped or “peripheral” economies.

• The book posits that under capitalist monopoly and imperialist systems, a large portion of the economic surplus is “wasted” or siphoned off — not fully invested in socially productive ways.

• Baran sees economic development not just as a technical or economic process, but as deeply social and political — transformations in society’s economic structure go hand in hand with political change.

• He also connects the underdevelopment of poorer countries to the interests of powerful capitalist states, suggesting that global interdependence and exploitation play major roles.

Some notable praise and impact:

• The book “has bred a whole school of followers … concerned with the generation and use of economic surplus” in both developed and underdeveloped contexts.

• Baran’s analysis has been cited as an important basis for later work on dependency theory and critiques of monopoly capitalism

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