Why I Say Marxian Instead of Marxist
A Marxist is understood as a follower of Marx’s political thought or later variants of it. A Marxian, however, could refer to anyone substantially influenced by Marx, but not necessarily a “Marxist” strictly speaking. One loses credibility by inaccurately labeling people as “Marxists” with reckless disregard for what that word specifically means. However, it’s not out of line to label an establishment social-democrat a “Marxian” if you are prepared to make the following point — that they subscribe to the same particular key error that Marx made in economics. That error is the supposition that oppressive capitalism, best understoood as state driven monopolization of capital, derives from market exchange rather than state granted privilege, forcible transfer of wealth by the state and assorted other statist market distortions.
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