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https://blogs.mediapart.fr/benjamin-coriat/blog/020525/hommage-michel-agliet
ta-trois-choses-que-nous-lui-devons

 

Here’s a machine translation, quite adequate in transmitting the author’s
thought…  Richard

 

Three times in a single lifetime, economist Michel Aglietta, who died on
April 24, 2025, was at the origin of breakthroughs, each of which marked a
moment and paved the way for researchers of his generation. Three times, he
ensured a shift in thinking. Three milestones, one of which, the last, has
only just been laid and illuminates the path forward.

 

Benjamin Coriat

Professor Emeritus - Sorbonne Paris Nord University (USPN)

Mediapart subscriber

 

[This blog is personal, the editorial staff is not the source of its
content.]

 

As Michel Aglietta leaves us, there would be so much to say...

 

Each of his books has marked the moment in which it was written, and beyond
its immediate effects, each has produced a long tail in the world of
research.

 

I say it in the simplest possible terms: I have not always agreed with what
Michel put forward in this or that of his writings, but when it comes to
taking stock, I have no hesitation in saying that of his generation, which
is also mine, he was, without a doubt, the most innovative, the most
important, the most decisive. The one, above all, who will be remembered.
The reason is simple. It lies in the fact that beyond his countless
individual contributions, particularly in monetary or financial theory, to
focus on this area only, he was at the origin of three ruptures, each of
which marked the moment and opened the way for researchers of his
generation.

 

The first, best known and most indisputable is the publication of his 1976
work “Crises and Regulation of Capitalism” (Calmann Levy). By reformulating
the theses already stated in his doctoral thesis (defended in 1974) around
the “  corporation  ” (the large listed company), to develop the
macroeconomic concept of Fordism, by associating it with the principles of
collective bargaining (collective bargaining between unions and employers)
which, after the Second World War, accompanied its diffusion, finally and
more generally by showing how Keynesianism was on the side of the State,
both the midwife and the extension of this new accumulation regime, Michel
Aglietta laid the foundations of what would become, with the theory of
regulation , a new theory of capitalism. A true school of thought would be
born from it, which, extremely rare for a French school, would have a real
international audience. From Japan to Latin America, the regulationist
method will find imitators and revitalize economic research.

 

The second break came from a short text published in a booklet under the
title "The Capitalism of Tomorrow" by the Saint-Simon Foundation in 1998.
This was the time when Fordism was steadily decomposing and was dying under
the combined weight of its own exhaustion and the repeated blows dealt by
the triumphant liberalism that, coming from Thatcher and Reagan, was
spreading throughout the world. The big topic of the moment was to know who
would be the successor to Fordism, then moribund. Locked in what had
constituted its heart and its driving force, all of us among the
regulationists were looking for this successor in the new forms of the wage
relationship being recomposed. What "flexibility from above" could succeed
Fordism? What revolution in the organization of work and production
comparable to what Fordism had been could live up to what was sought? Did
Toyota and its production methods (which, it was proclaimed, had designed a
system that would "change the world"), or Germany, whose triumphant
industrial model was being elevated to the "Rhineland model," carry, at
least in embryo, the elements of the desired successor? Publications on this
point were multiplying. Wrong paths, Michel Aglietta tells us. In his note
for the Saint-Simon Foundation, before taking up the thesis put forward in a
work co-authored with Antoine Rebeyrioux (Dérives du Capitalisme financier,
Albin Michel, 2004), he calmly announces that the successor to Fordism as
the dominant regime of accumulation must be described as "patrimonial
capitalism."

 

The driver of the change is not to be found primarily in labor and its
reorganization, but rather in this new major player, the pension fund.
Inflated with power and resources thanks to the transformation in the United
States that transformed pensions based on "defined benefit" funds into
"defined contribution" funds, the pension fund, freed in its movement by the
financial deregulation brought about by triumphant neoliberalism, has
changed the very nature of capitalism. Exit Fordism. Birth of a set of
accumulation regimes driven by finance. A second time, the theory is
overturned. The approach through the theory of regulation first way (ATR 1)
becomes with the new role of finance ATR 2. One of my disagreements with
Michel is that he stubbornly maintained that under certain conditions
finance, through those of its "patient" and long investors (certain pension
funds) could allow this regime driven by finance, duly regulated, to acquire
a certain stability. On this, I had more than doubts. But the essential was
not there. The essential was that Michel, once again, had shifted, and for a
long time, the center of gravity of research by indicating once again where
everything was at stake. 

 

The third shift, which has only recently been fully realized, had been
maturing in his writings for many years. Michel Aglietta was once again one
of the very first (and one of the few) among the regulation theorists to
grasp the importance and scope of the change of era that the entry into the
Anthropocene signified. He long fought to introduce the "green" dimension
into his work and in the search for a way out of the crisis. Until his
latest work "For a Political Ecology - Beyond the Capitalocene" (co-written
with Etienne Espagne, Odile Jacob, 2024) which again marks a break. Not only
is the Anthropocene placed at the center of attention but also from the
outset, taking a position on a long debate on this subject, the authors
choose to designate the new era by its real name. The Anthropocene is a
Capitalocene, it is argued, in that it is the product of social and
production relations that have been formed around the capital/labor
relationship and that have given rise to this very particular historical
mode of production called capitalism. Extractivism, the unreasonable and
limitless destruction of resources of all kinds, is its central product. A
specific definition of the Capitalocene is proposed, opening the discussion
to a set of new questions.

 

In this, his latest work, Michel Aglietta, in a way, comes full circle,
reconnecting with his most fundamental initial intuitions and contributions.
It is no longer simple modes of regulation (of the capital/labor
relationship, of money, of property, etc.) that are necessary to face the
crisis. The times demand a break; we must now speak, rather than modes of
regulation, of "viability regimes." The bulk of the work is then devoted to
exploring its different possible modes of existence. The birth certificate
of what can be transformed into an ATR3 (centered on ecology and the
analysis of the contradictions between capital, land, and biodiversity) is
thus established.

 

In any case, the fact remains that Michel has shifted the research a third
time. A third time, he has opened up new and vast fields of thought in which
to conduct the investigation. And above all, because this is what mattered
to him, he provides a number of elements that allow us to turn towards
solutions to explore in a world where the search for equity and the common
good are the compass and from which, under penalty of bringing about the
worst, we cannot deviate.

 

Three times in a single lifetime, Michael has ensured the shift in thought.
Three white stones, one of which, the last, has only just been laid and
illuminates the path to follow.

 

Few researchers will have done as much.

 

Benjamin Coriat

May 1 , 2025

 

Other tributes: https://www.beta-economics.fr/en/tribute-to-michel-aglietta/

 

 



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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-CA link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72" style='word-wrap:break-word'><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US><a href="https://blogs.mediapart.fr/benjamin-coriat/blog/020525/hommage-michel-aglietta-trois-choses-que-nous-lui-devons">https://blogs.mediapart.fr/benjamin-coriat/blog/020525/hommage-michel-aglietta-trois-choses-que-nous-lui-devons</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US>Here’s a machine translation, quite adequate in transmitting the author’s thought…  Richard<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US>Three times in a single lifetime, economist Michel Aglietta, who died on April 24, 2025, was at the origin of breakthroughs, each of which marked a moment and paved the way for researchers of his generation. Three times, he ensured a shift in thinking. Three milestones, one of which, the last, has only just been laid and illuminates the path forward.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=FR-CA>Benjamin Coriat<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=FR-CA>Professor Emeritus - Sorbonne Paris Nord University (USPN)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US>Mediapart subscriber<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US>[This blog is personal, the editorial staff is not the source of its content.]<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US>As Michel Aglietta leaves us, there would be so much to say...<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US>Each of his books has marked the moment in which it was written, and beyond its immediate effects, each has produced a long tail in the world of research.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US>I say it in the simplest possible terms: I have not always agreed with what Michel put forward in this or that of his writings, but when it comes to taking stock, I have no hesitation in saying that of his generation, which is also mine, he was, without a doubt, the most innovative, the most important, the most decisive. The one, above all, who will be remembered. The reason is simple. It lies in the fact that beyond his countless individual contributions, particularly in monetary or financial theory, to focus on this area only, he was at the origin of three ruptures, each of which marked the moment and opened the way for researchers of his generation.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US>The first, best known and most indisputable is the publication of his 1976 work “Crises and Regulation of Capitalism” (Calmann Levy). By reformulating the theses already stated in his doctoral thesis (defended in 1974) around the “  corporation  ” (the large listed company), to develop the macroeconomic concept of Fordism, by associating it with the principles of collective bargaining (collective bargaining between unions and employers) which, after the Second World War, accompanied its diffusion, finally and more generally by showing how Keynesianism was on the side of the State, both the midwife and the extension of this new accumulation regime, Michel Aglietta laid the foundations of what would become, with the theory of regulation , a new theory of capitalism. A true school of thought would be born from it, which, extremely rare for a French school, would have a real international audience. From Japan to Latin America, the regulationist method will find imitators and revitalize economic research.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US>The second break came from a short text published in a booklet under the title "The Capitalism of Tomorrow" by the Saint-Simon Foundation in 1998. This was the time when Fordism was steadily decomposing and was dying under the combined weight of its own exhaustion and the repeated blows dealt by the triumphant liberalism that, coming from Thatcher and Reagan, was spreading throughout the world. The big topic of the moment was to know who would be the successor to Fordism, then moribund. Locked in what had constituted its heart and its driving force, all of us among the regulationists were looking for this successor in the new forms of the wage relationship being recomposed. What "flexibility from above" could succeed Fordism? What revolution in the organization of work and production comparable to what Fordism had been could live up to what was sought? Did Toyota and its production methods (which, it was proclaimed, had designed a system that would "change the world"), or Germany, whose triumphant industrial model was being elevated to the "Rhineland model," carry, at least in embryo, the elements of the desired successor? Publications on this point were multiplying. Wrong paths, Michel Aglietta tells us. In his note for the Saint-Simon Foundation, before taking up the thesis put forward in a work co-authored with Antoine Rebeyrioux (Dérives du Capitalisme financier, Albin Michel, 2004), he calmly announces that the successor to Fordism as the dominant regime of accumulation must be described as "patrimonial capitalism."<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US>The driver of the change is not to be found primarily in labor and its reorganization, but rather in this new major player, the pension fund. Inflated with power and resources thanks to the transformation in the United States that transformed pensions based on "defined benefit" funds into "defined contribution" funds, the pension fund, freed in its movement by the financial deregulation brought about by triumphant neoliberalism, has changed the very nature of capitalism. Exit Fordism. Birth of a set of accumulation regimes driven by finance. A second time, the theory is overturned. The approach through the theory of regulation first way (ATR 1) becomes with the new role of finance ATR 2. One of my disagreements with Michel is that he stubbornly maintained that under certain conditions finance, through those of its "patient" and long investors (certain pension funds) could allow this regime driven by finance, duly regulated, to acquire a certain stability. On this, I had more than doubts. But the essential was not there. The essential was that Michel, once again, had shifted, and for a long time, the center of gravity of research by indicating once again where everything was at stake. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US>The third shift, which has only recently been fully realized, had been maturing in his writings for many years. Michel Aglietta was once again one of the very first (and one of the few) among the regulation theorists to grasp the importance and scope of the change of era that the entry into the Anthropocene signified. He long fought to introduce the "green" dimension into his work and in the search for a way out of the crisis. Until his latest work "For a Political Ecology - Beyond the Capitalocene" (co-written with Etienne Espagne, Odile Jacob, 2024) which again marks a break. Not only is the Anthropocene placed at the center of attention but also from the outset, taking a position on a long debate on this subject, the authors choose to designate the new era by its real name. The Anthropocene is a Capitalocene, it is argued, in that it is the product of social and production relations that have been formed around the capital/labor relationship and that have given rise to this very particular historical mode of production called capitalism. Extractivism, the unreasonable and limitless destruction of resources of all kinds, is its central product. A specific definition of the Capitalocene is proposed, opening the discussion to a set of new questions.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US>In this, his latest work, Michel Aglietta, in a way, comes full circle, reconnecting with his most fundamental initial intuitions and contributions. It is no longer simple modes of regulation (of the capital/labor relationship, of money, of property, etc.) that are necessary to face the crisis. The times demand a break; we must now speak, rather than modes of regulation, of "viability regimes." The bulk of the work is then devoted to exploring its different possible modes of existence. The birth certificate of what can be transformed into an ATR3 (centered on ecology and the analysis of the contradictions between capital, land, and biodiversity) is thus established.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US>In any case, the fact remains that Michel has shifted the research a third time. A third time, he has opened up new and vast fields of thought in which to conduct the investigation. And above all, because this is what mattered to him, he provides a number of elements that allow us to turn towards solutions to explore in a world where the search for equity and the common good are the compass and from which, under penalty of bringing about the worst, we cannot deviate.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US>Three times in a single lifetime, Michael has ensured the shift in thought. Three white stones, one of which, the last, has only just been laid and illuminates the path to follow.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US>Few researchers will have done as much.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US>Benjamin Coriat<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US>May 1 , 2025<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US>Other tributes: <a href="https://www.beta-economics.fr/en/tribute-to-michel-aglietta/">https://www.beta-economics.fr/en/tribute-to-michel-aglietta/</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div></body></html>


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