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Value and Value Orientation: A Dialectics of Social Progress

Abstract This article reconceptualises value and value orientation within a dialectical political economy framework, arguing that values are historically produced, materially grounded, and constitutive of social relations rather than merely normative ideals. Drawing on classical sociological theory and Marxist analysis, it demonstrates how value orientation mediates between structural conditions and individual practice, translating relations of production into lived dispositions. The paper advances this argument through an empirical engagement with out-migration from West Bengal, situating labour mobility within processes of surplus labour formation, informalisation, and uneven development. It shows how migration is embedded in regimes of accumulation that rely on informal power networks, patronage structures, and mediated access to labour markets. These transformations reconfigure value orientations from collective security and political mobilisation to instrumental rationality, ada...
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Political Contestation and Narrative Formation in West Bengal: A Marxist Reading of Federal Tensions, Institutional Power, and Hegemonic Reconfiguration

  The transformation of West Bengal’s political landscape over the past decade and a half provides a critical empirical site for analysing the changing nature of the Indian state, particularly when examined through a Marxist lens. The rise of Mamata Banerjee and the consolidation of the All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) marked not merely a regime shift from the long-standing Left Front rule, but a deeper restructuring of political hegemony, class alliances, and ideological apparatuses. This transition reflects the movement from a relatively programmatic, class-oriented politics to a form of populist managerialism embedded within neoliberal capitalism. At the core of this transformation lies the emergence of a complex and seemingly contradictory political narrative involving the TMC, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and the institutional machinery of the Indian central state. From a Marxist perspective, this contradiction is not accidental but structurally produced. It reflects ...
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Economic Policy, Governance, and the Political Economy of Redistribution: Evidence from West Bengal

Abstract Economic policy is conventionally understood as a technical instrument for managing resources, stabilizing macroeconomic conditions, and promoting development. However, in practice, it is deeply embedded in political processes and institutional structures. This article examines the relationship between economic policy and governance through the case of West Bengal. It argues that the state’s fiscal trajectory reveals a structural shift from a developmental framework toward a distributive, welfare-driven model shaped by electoral incentives. Drawing on budgetary data, debt indicators, and employment trends, the article demonstrates how the predominance of revenue expenditure, rising debt burden, and limited capital formation constrain long-term growth. It further contends that the expansion of welfare schemes, in the absence of corresponding productive investment, may generate a politically mediated redistributive regime associated with institutional pressures and weak employ...
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