In the work of Marx, a general theory of economic crises cannot be fou
nd. This fact contributed to the formulation of different and generall
y contradicting Marxist crisis theories. Critical presentation of the
dispute among the three major historic Marxist approaches to economic
crises - the underconsumptionist approach, the theory of capital overa
ccumulation and the tendentially falling profit rate - leads us to adv
ocate a version of the overaccumulation approach, which can be describ
ed as capital overaccumulation under the action of ''absent causes.''
This approach conceives economic crisis as capital overaccumulation, w
hich is not the result of a single, systematically acting cause; crisi
s is seen instead as the (periodically outbreaking) outcome of capital
ist development - of the total contradictions that characterize capita
lism.