Why and How Do Capitalists Divide Labour? From Marglin and Back again through Babbage and Marx

Nearly four decades ago, Stephen Marglin explored the origins of hierarchy in capitalist production with a divide and conquer hypothesis based on the idea that the monopolisation of knowledge about production technology plays a major role in explaining how workers are deprived of control over the labour process. Nevertheless, this explanation has some shortcomings that Marx and Babbage had avoided. Those two authors provided a highly accurate and convincing interpretation of the division of labour that remains relevant. The present paper proposes a general synthesis of their analysis. Two points are emphasised: (1) the division of labour plays a major role in wage determination; and (2) the division of labour largely determines the form of subjection of labour to capital.