Long Waves in Economic Life: an Image Without a Method

The potential of long wave theory is examined, as a possible basis for theoretising the history of industrial capitalist development. A brief review of the various forms of the long-wave account is given; recent versions are dealt with in 3categories—Neo-Schumpeterian, Marxist and Financial. It is concluded that no long-wave scheme meets the minimal requirements of a genuine theory. The most successful attempts are those which develop the idea of a ‘social structure of accumulation’. A theory of capitalist development must be one of social action, in the context of the relative persistence of certain structural features. But such a theory would not require the image of the wave.