The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics (146 page)

 
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The proposition that goods have their value by virtue of the labour, or labour power, that has gone into producing them. The issue was clearly raised by
Locke
in chapter 5 of his
Second Treatise of Government
(
c.
1681). Here Locke argues that, although God left the earth for mankind to enjoy in common, yet individuals had a title, first, to their own bodies and persons, and in consequence, secondly, to whatever they removed from the common stock by their own labours: ‘Whatsoever then he removes out of the State that Nature hath provided, and left it in, he hath mixed his Labour with, and joyned to it something that is his own, and thereby makes it his Property.’ Locke's theory has been revived by Robert Nozick in
Anarchy, State, and Utopia
(1974) as a theory of just
entitlement
.
However, a labour theory of property rights is not in itself a labour theory of value, although it gives the Marxist version of the latter its ideological underpinnings. The labour theory of value was fully developed by classical economists, especially David Ricardo and
Marx
. Ricardo argued that the price (strictly, the exchange-value) of a good was in ideal conditions determined by the quantity of labour that had gone into producing it (including producing the capital goods that helped to produce it). Marx argued that this was the price the worker deserved to get (thus making an unspoken connection with Locke before him and, paradoxically, with Nozick after him). However, the worker actually tended to get only enough wages to keep him at work and capable of producing children. The difference between the two was the worker's
surplus value
. Under capitalism, surplus value was unjustly appropriated by capitalists; under socialism it would belong to the workers, as in the classically Marxist formula of Clause IV: 4 of the Labour Party constitution (1918–95), which defined its objective as being ‘to secure for the workers … the full fruits of their industry’.
Most commentators now regard the labour theory of value as irreparably damaged by the criticism that it takes no account of the role of demand in setting prices. Two labourers may burn up the identical number of calories in breaking up identical volumes of ore that they have mined on the common. But if one yields iron and the other silver, they will not fetch the same price.

 
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‘Laissez-faire’
means ‘leave to do’; a more colloquial translation might be ‘let them get on with it’. Since the late eighteenth century such phrases as ‘a
laissez-faire
policy’ and ‘
laissez-faire
economics’ have suggested a belief in the virtues of allowing individuals to pursue their interests through market transactions with minimal government interference.
However,
laissez-faire
in a broad sense, as opposed to the use of the phrase in particular contexts with respect to particular sections of production, is vague and its historical location elusive.
Laissez-faire
economics is not normally based on libertarian ethics but rather on the utilitarian calculation that absence of interference functions better than interference. But nearly all market theories are also theories of market failure and it is difficult to identify any leading economic thinker who thought that
laissez-faire
was the best solution to all problems. Adam
Smith
, for example, did not believe that unregulated markets could provide the kind of educational system which a commercial society needed. Alfred Marshall , who developed the ‘classic’ account of the working of perfect competition, did not believe in an unregulated land market, and was recommending a green belt for London some sixty years before a Labour Government adopted a green belt policy.
Victorian England has often been regarded as the natural home of
laissez faire
, but the idea that it was the prevailing ideology of the period has been much exaggerated in some historical accounts. Utilitarians were sharply divided on the question of government interference in the economy. Some, like Edwin Chadwick , were deeply involved in campaigns for the positive government action; others, like the editorial writers of
The Economist
, argued passionately against such action. Faced with the arguments of
laissez-faire
economists, but also the urgent sense of a need to do something about urban conditions, Victorian politicians of both main parties tended to favour intervention.
LA 

 
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Term for all of those evolutionary theories which, however various in detail, ultimately rest upon the inheritance of acquired characteristics, an evolutionary mechanism initially popularized and disseminated by the French thinker Jean Baptiste de Lamarck , notably in the
Philosophie Zoologique
of 1809. This belief is completely discredited. In fact, ‘Lamarckism’ is now generally held to be incompatible with the central doctrine of molecular biology which denies the transmission of information from soma—that is, the body considered generally and as a whole—to the chemical alphabet of DNA. No molecular mechanism exists that would make such transmission possible.
JH 

 
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American term for a person, legislature, or administration that continues to hold office after losing an election.
The practice in the United States of holding presidential elections in November, with the winner taking office only in January (originally in March), means there are often lame duck presidents. Without a
mandate
the power to make decisions is undermined, and it becomes easier for opponents of measures to utilize delaying tactics, knowing that the President will soon be out of office.

 
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