Editorial Note, Jul-Aug, 2015

The lead article by Prabhat Patnaik in the current issue of Social Scientist distinguishes between two opposed concepts of commodity production,  one espoused by Adam Smith which constitutes the theoretical basis of liberalism, and the other by Karl Marx which constitutes the theoretical basis of socialism. (This antinomy incidentally underscores the erroneousness of seeing Marx as merely carrying forward the legacy of classical political economy as opposed to essaying a fundamental break from it.)