Journal of Statistical Physics, Vol. 31, No. 3, 1983. p. 485-497.
The relationship between fluctuating irreversible thermodynamics and theories of irreversible processes which include the thermodynamic fluxes as independent variables is explored. It is shown that the usual fluctuating linear theory of irreversible thermodynamics is a contraction of the extended theory. This contraction contains non-Markovian effects dependent upon the relaxation times associated with the thermodynamic fluxes. In the limit that these relaxation times are small, the extended theory is shown to be equivalent to the usual fluctuating thermodynamic theory. A critique of the extended theories is given from the point of view of the mechanistic statistical theory of irreversible processes.