Year 12 IB Extended Essays 2017

Marx & Proudhon in the Digital Age

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internet, 17 and is used by over two thirds of web servers. 18 Before this software was developed,

developers would have to implement these protocols independently, which was a costly and

difficult process. The centralised implementation, in OpenSSL was able to be maintained effectively by one full-time employee from 1998 to 2014. 19 During this time, it is fair to say that

this employee stood in for doing the work of hundreds of individuals. This capacity for one

individual to have such an outsize generation of value is a key element of digital infrastructure.

The capacity of one individual to cover such a large section of the production process, and to

achieve a good product, suggests that we may be seeing a return to Proudhon’s understanding of

a single craftsman who is effectively able to manage many large areas of the production process.

Proudhon decried the loss of this capability within society as a result of the division of labour.

OpenSSL and other successes suggests that computerisation serves effectively as his antithesis

to the division of labour.

Case Study 3 - Structural Weaknesses in China and Japan

China is a country which has heavily digitised and centralised, partly as a legacy of the communist revolution. 20 However, in the words of Theodor Tudoroiu the ‘neo-communist’ regime has

allowed market forces to influence large areas of the Chinese economy, albeit under heavy

government oversight. This government-controlled free market has led to several examples of

17 OpenSSL Foundation, “OpenSSL Project,” http://www.openssl.org/. 18 “Half a million widely trusted websites vulnerable to Heartbleed bug — Netcraft,” accessed July 4, 2017, https://news.netcraft.com/archives/2014/04/08/ halfamillion widely-trusted-websites-vulnerable-to-heartbleed- bug.html. 19 Ibid. 20 Theodor Tudoroiu, “The Neo-Communist Regime of Present-Day China,” Journal of Chinese Political Science. 16, no. 4 (December 1, 2011): 407, ISSN: 1080-6954, 1874-6357, accessed June 15, 2017, https : / / link . springer . com / article/10.1007/s11366-011-9163-1.

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