In this dissertation, I try to understand processes of dispossession and exclusion within a class-focused Marxian framework grounded in the epistemological position of overdetermination. The Marxian concept of primitive accumulation has become increasingly prominent in contemporary discussions on these issues. The dominant reading of "primitive accumulation" in the Marxian tradition is historicist, and consequently the notion itself remains outside the field of Marxian political economy. The contemporary literature has de-historicized the concept, but at the same time missed Marx's unique class-perspective. Based on a non-historicist reading of Marx, I argue that primitive accumulation--i.e. separation of direct producers from means of production in non-capitalist class processes--is constitutive of capitalism and not a historical process confined to the period of transition from pre-capitalism to capitalism. I understand primitive accumulation as one aspect of a more complex (contradictory) relation between capitalist and non-capitalist class structure which is subject to uneven development and which admit no teleological universalization of any one class structure. Thus, this dissertation claims to present a notion of primitive accumulation theoretically grounded in the Marxian political economy. In particular, the dissertation problematizes the dominance of capital over a heterogeneous social formation and understands primitive accumulation as a process which simultaneously supports and undermines such dominance. At a more concrete level, I apply this new understanding of primitive accumulation to a social formation--consisting of "ancient" and capitalist enterprises--and consider a particular conjuncture where capitalist accumulation is accompanied by emergence and even expansion of a "surplus population" primarily located in the "ancient" economy. Using these theoretical arguments, I offer an account of postcolonial capitalism in India, distinguishing between two different regimes--1) the dirigiste planning regime and 2) the laissez-faire regime. I argue that both regimes had to grapple with the problem of surplus population, as the capitalist expansion under both regimes involved primitive accumulation. I show how small peasant agriculture, traditional non-capitalist industry and informal "ancient" enterprises (both rural and urban) have acted as "sinks" for surplus population throughout the period of postcolonial capitalist development in India.

This thesis begins by revisiting and building on themes of labour market segmentation, with particular reference given to Marx's seminal account of segmentation in Capital, Vol.1 (Chapter 25). Marx distinguishes between an active army - the stable full-time employed - and the relative surplus population - the precariously employed reserve army and the residual surplus - and suggests further fragmentation of these main groups into sub-strata. Marx's perspective of segmentation is grounded in fragments of a general theory of employment that, as a long-term tendency, identifies continual advances in constant capital that abolish work and proliferate the reserve army. This thesis builds on these themes by formulating a concept, the 'transference dynamic', which underpins a general theory of employment segmentation. A short history of segmentation under capitalism traces recent phases of development in both developed and lesser-developed nations. Stress is placed on the role of political configurations that regulate capitalism in ways that can either counter the general tendency, such is the case under the Fordist model of capitalism, or strengthen its logic. The theory of employment segmentation and the lessons drawn from the historical account are spliced together with an analysis of the contemporary phase of capitalism, labelled here as the neoliberal model of development. It is demonstrated that the coercive international regulatory dynamic of the neoliberal model reasserts and extends the competitive principle of the capitalist mode of production. Through this extension, nations are transformed into competition-states vying for scarce and globally mobile capital to operate on their shores - the primary source of national prosperity and employment - by implementing capital-friendly neoliberalized policy. This analysis of neoliberal global capitalism reveals an expanding surplus population within a context of deepening international segmentation. This employment crisis is expressed as a hierarchy of nations that is determined in part by their uneven development. Those at the bottom of the hierarchy, comprising a majority portion of the world's population, contain a massive reserve army and residual surplus population unincorporated into wage-based capitalism, without any obvious support of means of life and with little hope for the future. Finally, mainstream solutions are criticized for failing to address either long-run or contemporary drivers of the employment crisis. In response, this thesis pitches a project of multi-faceted radical reform that counter-regulates capitalism by adopting a combination of local, national, regional and global forms of democratic socialist governance.

自1980年代起新自由主義的崛起，主張自由市場、自由貿易、和不受限制的資本流動，認為這樣將能創造出最大的社會、政治、和經濟的利益，並以全球化來運用全世界的資源，但卻反而使失業成為全球性的普遍趨勢。在歷經了幾次的全球性金融危機，尤其是近年2008年由美國次貸危機引起的全球金融海嘯，更是令各國的失業率皆明顯上升。隨著新自由主義全球化的擴張，主流經濟學對於日漸嚴重的失業問題顯然已不足以提供充分的解釋，因而社會上開始對失業現象尋求另一種解釋。 本研究希望對於現今的失業現象，找出一個較為合理的解釋。首先分別闡述了主流經濟學和馬克思《資本論》中對於失業問題的解釋，再就馬克思在《資本論》中對相對過剩人口的定義，將台灣產業後備軍分為四種類型，並以時間序列對台灣勞動力市場中，產業後備軍的定量及流動量做分析，觀察其整體走勢及在景氣衰退期的變化。由第三章中的統計表以及趨勢圖，我們觀察出數種現象，有力的直接支持了《資本論》中所指出的，資本主義的內在規律對勞動階級影響的看法。 從本篇研究和Deepankar Basu（2013）在“The Reserve Army of Labor in the Postwar U. S. Economy”文中對美國失業現象作的分析，均得出一致性的結論，即馬克思對於失業的解釋是較為科學且周全的，認為《資本論》對於資本主義中的失業現象的觀點，是相較於主流經濟學學說，更具有科學性和合理性的論述。 / Neoliberalism, which claims that free markets and trade, globalization of world resources, and unrestricted capital flow will maximally benefit the interests of society, politics, and the economy, rose to prominence in the 1980s. However, the outcome was far from the perceived ideal, resulting in an increase in worldwide unemployment. After several global financial crises, in particular the subprime mortgage crisis in 2008, the unemployment rate dramatically increased in every country. With the expansion of neoliberal globalization, the worldwide unemployment problem has become increasingly unmanageable with mainstream economic policies, prompting economists everywhere to seek alternative solutions to this issue. The purpose of this study is to find a more accurate explanation of the current worldwide unemployment problem. First, we will frame the unemployment problem from the perspective of mainstream economics and contrast it with that of “Das Kapital”. Next, we will classify Taiwan’s reserve army of labor into four categories, according to the definition provided in “Das Kapital”. Thirdly, we will analyze the stocks and flows of Taiwan’s reserve army of labor via time series, and observe the trends and changes during economic recessions. Finally, after analysis of the statistical tables and run charts in chapter 3, we validate the perspective taken by “Das Kapital” - that the inherent law of capitalism has negatively influenced the working class. From the analysis of unemployment in America performed by Deepankar Basu（2013）along with this study, we can conclude “Das Kapital” explains the unemployment problem of capitalism in a more scientific and comprehensive manner when compared to the explanations provided by mainstream economic theory.