The Concept of Surplus in the Marxist Theory : Debates, Ruptures, and Perspectives

The concept of surplus is central in the analysis of capitalism. From the Marxian literature we can identify two main approaches: on the one hand, the concept of surplus developed by Marx based on the distribution of time worked between workers and capitalists; while on the other, the concept of economic surplus developed by Baran and followed by most of the Marxian literature. In this context, the aim of this paper is to revise the theoretical discussions regarding the concept of surplus and to identify not only ruptures and continuities between Marx and Baran's explanations, but also to analyze the implications that each definition has when it is applied to the study of the capitalist system