Industrial reserve army

Japanese: 産業予備軍 - さんぎょうよびぐん（英語表記）industrial reserve army

A Marxist economics concept that regards the relative surplus population formed with capital accumulation as a labor supply source that capital can use at will. The process of capital accumulation has a tendency to constantly upgrade the organic composition of capital, and in this process, a relative surplus population that is unemployed or semi-employed, independent of the limitations of natural population growth, is constantly formed, and on the other hand, it functions as an industrial reserve army that replenishes the active labor army and can respond to any sudden increase in labor demand by capital. Competition between these reserve armies constantly puts pressure on employed persons, strengthening their subservience to capital (low wages and excessive work), while excessive work by employed persons leads to a further increase in the reserve army, creating a vicious cycle. The industrial reserve army corresponds to the business cycle, shrinking in response to increased labor demand during booms and expanding in recessions, but on average a certain amount is secured at the bottom of society, providing a mechanism for the sale of labor-power commodities at the minimum cost of reproduction (subsistence wages), and ensuring the reproduction of the capital-wage labor relationship.

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica Concise Encyclopedia About Encyclopaedia Britannica Concise Encyclopedia Information

Japanese:

資本蓄積に伴い形成される相対的過剰人口を，資本が任意に利用できる労働供給源とみなすことにより成立するマルクス経済学の概念。資本の蓄積過程は不断に資本の有機的構成を高度化する傾向をもち，この過程で，自然的人口増加の制限から独立した失業または半失業状態にある相対的過剰人口が絶えず形成され，他面でそれが産業予備軍として現役労働者軍を補充し，また資本による労働需要のどのような急増にも応じうる機能をもつ。この予備軍間の競争は絶えず就業者に圧迫を与え，就業者の資本への隷属 (低賃金と過度労働) を強めるとともに，就業者の過度労働は逆に予備軍の一層の増大へとつながる，という悪循環が生ずる。産業予備軍は，好況期には労働需要増に応じて収縮し不況期には膨張するという景気循環に照応しつつも，平均的にはその一定量が社会の底辺に確保されることによって，労働力商品がその最低限の再生産費 (生存費賃金) で販売される機構を用意し，資本＝賃労働関係の再生産を確たるものとする。

出典　ブリタニカ国際大百科事典小項目事典ブリタニカ国際大百科事典小項目事典について　情報

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