Leo Panitch

Leo Panitch
FRSC
Panitch in 2012
Born
Leo Victor Panitch

(1945-05-03)3 May 1945
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Died19 December 2020(2020-12-19) (aged 75)
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Known forThe Socialist Register (co-editor)
Spouse
Melanie Panitch
​
(m. 1967)​
Children2
Academic background
Alma mater
ThesisThe Labour Party and the Trade Unions (1973)
Doctoral advisorRalph Miliband[1][2]
InfluencesKarl Marx, Ralph Miliband, Nicos Poulantzas
Academic work
DisciplinePolitical science
Sub-discipline
School or traditionMarxism
Institutions
Main interests
Notable worksThe Making of Global Capitalism (2012)[3]
InfluencedBhaskar Sunkara[4]

Leo Victor Panitch FRSC (3 May 1945 – 19 December 2020) was a Canadian research professor of political science and a Canada Research Chair in comparative political economy at York University. From 1985 until the 2021 edition, he served as co-editor of the Socialist Register, which describes itself as "an annual survey of movements and ideas from the standpoint of the independent new left". Panitch himself saw the Register as playing a major role in developing Marxism's conceptual framework for advancing a democratic, co-operative and egalitarian socialist alternative to capitalist competition, exploitation, and insecurity.[5][6][7][page needed][8]

Since his appointment as a Canada Research Chair in 2002, Panitch focused his academic research and writing on the spread of global capitalism. He argued that this process of globalization is being led by the American state through agencies such as the US Department of the Treasury and the Federal Reserve. Panitch saw globalization as a form of imperialism but argued that the American Empire is an informal one in which the US sets rules for trade and investment in partnership with other sovereign but less powerful capitalist states. His book The Making of Global Capitalism: The Political Economy of American Empire (2012), written with his close friend and university colleague Sam Gindin, traces the development of American-led globalization over more than a century.[5][9] In 2013, the book was awarded the Deutscher Memorial Prize in the United Kingdom for best and most creative work in or about the Marxist tradition and in 2014 it won the Rik Davidson/SPE Book Prize for the best book in political economy by a Canadian.[10][11]

Panitch was the author of more than 100 scholarly articles and nine books including Working-Class Politics in Crisis: Essays on Labour and the State (1986), The End of Parliamentary Socialism: From New Left to New Labour (2001), and Renewing Socialism: Transforming Democracy, Strategy and Imagination (2008) in which he argued that capitalism is inherently unjust and undemocratic.[12]

  1. ^ Hurl & Christensen 2016, p. 183.
  2. ^ Panitch, Leo (7 August 2014). "Interview – Leo Panitch". E-International Relations. Interviewed by Fletcher, Louis. Archived from the original on 22 December 2020. Retrieved 15 July 2020.
  3. ^ Palmer 2017, p. 326.
  4. ^ "Friday March 8, 2019 Full Transcript". The Current. CBC Radio. 8 March 2019. Archived from the original on 18 July 2019. Retrieved 22 December 2020.
  5. ^ a b "Canada Research Chairs: Leo V. Panitch". Government of Canada. 29 November 2012. Archived from the original on 23 January 2015. Retrieved 23 January 2015.
  6. ^ "Socialist Register". Socialist Register. Archived from the original on 9 February 2015. Retrieved 10 February 2015.
  7. ^ Panitch 2013.
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference Who was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Panitch & Gindin 2012.
  10. ^ "Past Recipients". Deutscher Memorial Prize. 10 June 2014. Archived from the original on 27 February 2015. Retrieved 6 February 2015.
  11. ^ "Book Prize in Political Economy". Studies in Political Economy. Archived from the original on 31 March 2015. Retrieved 20 March 2015.
  12. ^ Panitch 2008; Panitch & Gindin 2012.