Dalla teleologia politica alla genealogia delle regressioni. Sul revival di Marx

The essay is aimed at showing that in order to revive some elements of the critique of political economy elaborated by Marx, as is the case in many respects in contemporary discussion, it is necessary to disentangle this critique from the original general political-theoretical framework. In particular, the essay reconstructs some of the stages of development and some of the constituent features of Marx and Engels’ economically based political teleology, including in light of the influence of Hegel’s philosophy of history and logic. The essay then shows how this teleological theoretical approach led to the drafting of economic and political predictions that were blatantly falsified, both in the second half of the nineteenth century and later in the twentieth century. Marx and Engels would in fact have “projected” forward the serious social situation of early industrialism, especially English industrialism, of the 1930s and 1940s. In the final part of the essay, it is made clear how the Marxian critique should be placed within a new alternative theoretical framework, defined in the terms of a genealogical critique of regressive processes. In particular, these processes are addressed on a double plane. First, on the plane of the economic and social regression brought about by the implementation of neoliberal agendas, an issue that invests above all the hold of Marxian economic analysis. Second, on the plane of the politico-economic regression brought about by the rise of populisms, an issue that involves the need to overcome Marx’s traditional political theory.