The current economic and social crisis has brought Marxian theories of crisis to the forefront of Marxian debate. Traditionally, Marxian crisis theories have sought the origin of capitalist crises within the abstract economic laws of motion of capitalism. These theories were developed and refined in the context of the capitalist crises of the late nineteenth century and the 1930s, which appeared to portend the end of capitalism and to demand the transition to socialism as their only solution. The subsequent capitalist recoveries at the turn of the century and after World War II have informed current discussions of Marxian crisis theory. It is more widely recognized today that theories of capitalist development over time must account for recurrent periods of relatively healthy growth as well as periods of chronic stagnation. This realization revived interest within the Marxist tradition in the Kondratieff long cycle.

It is the purpose of this chapter to discuss the current state of this revival of Marxian long cycle theory. I will examine in detail one strand of this tradition, the Gordon, Edwards, and Reich social structure of accumulation (SSA) approach. I will identify several theoretical problems within the SSA approach. I will then analyze the implications of these problems for the future of the SSA approach as a theory of long waves, concluding that the SSA framework is more adequate as a theory of stages of capitalism than of specifically long waves.