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[The following is a response to the announcement sent by Alan Freeman for a "new pluralist journal", the _Critique of Political Economy_ (COPE)] A "new pluralist journal"? Could we have some truth-in-advertising on this list, please? While the "Mission Statement" claims that they will be "steadfastly committed to pluralism", they clearly *privilege* one theoretical perspective over all others. E.g.: > "We encourage proponents of the temporal-single-system interpretation > (TSSI) of Marx's value theory to become members of the editorial board > and to contribute to _COPE_". and: > We also *PARTICULARLY* (emphasis added, JL) encourage papers > from the global South, papers dealing with the temporal-single-system > interpretation of Marx's value theory, and other TSSI-informed > theoretical and empirical research. Is this what they mean by being "steadfastly committed to pluralism"? They go on to claim in the "Mission Statement" that: > "TSSI research of the last quarter-century has decisively refuted > widespread claims that Marx's own value theory has been proven internally > inconsistent or in error. It thus establishes a basis for a new research > program that, in contrast to mainstream Marxian and radical political > economy, proceeds from Marx's contributions rather than from the > 'corrections' of his alleged errors." Was this written by or agreed to by the members of the Editorial Board who are not advocates of the TSSI? They continue -- remember this is all part of the "Mission Statement": > "An indispensable aim of _COPE_ is to create an institutional basis for > continued research in the TSSI, and TSSI-informed theoretical and > empirical work which, because of limited access to resources, does > not currently exist. We hope that, by working collaboratively on and > contributing to _COPE_, proponents of the TSSI will be able to turn it > into an ongoing, self-sustaining research program. We recognize that > such a research program must include theoretical and empirical > investigations informed by the TSSI, as well as interpretive work > proper." Is this the "mission" of a journal "steadfastly committed to pluralism"? I think not. Indeed, it is a very partisan and non-pluralist perspective. Of course there is nothing wrong with having a journal which is committed to spreading a particular theoretical perspective, in this case, the temporal-single-system interpretation of the quantitative dimension of Marx's value theory. But, to call it "pluralist" and welcoming to other theoretical traditions -- given what the editors themselves have written in the "Mission Statement" -- is absurd. Indeed, it is so absurd that it is comical. As the Editors of _COPE_ recognized in the title of a recent paper presented before the 2005 Annual Conference of the Association for Heterodox Economics, critical and genuine pluralism requires that one move beyond "talking the talk". It also involves consistent and genuine understanding and defense of pluralism, something lacking -- imo -- from both the _COPE_ "Mission Statement" and the AHE paper. It requires praxis. It requires that one reject the one-sided view of pluralism [asserted by A. Freeman] as being "about ideas, not people": _genuine_ pluralism is about ideas _and_ people. Jerry