The Question of Economic Law in a Socialist Economy

The concept of a socialist economy has from time to time been employed by economists as an abstract term of comparison by which to throw into relief the specific features of an individualist economy, or else to illustrate the alleged universality of economic laws. "In place of the economy of the &s;anarchic&s; method of production, recourse will be hard to the sense- less output of an absurd apparatus. The pattern of investment in these various types, however, sketched through time, would be sub- stantially different from that in a capitalist economy. In an economy where every detail in the allocation of resources including labour-power was planned, the way in which costs were calculated for purposes of accounting would, therefore, seem to be of no importance. For instance, it is the class character of capitalist economy which determines that its leitmotif should be profit-the augmentation of surplus-value.