lecture 9 - marxism Flashcards
3 moments in marxist theory
- classical marxism
- gramscian/cultural
- vanguardism (bolshevik)
normativity of marxism
Marx is an ideolog, he has normative statements, a political program
but, Marx is also a political scientists with a specific view of how the world is
ontology and epistemology marxism
foundational ontology (there is an objective truth, it isn’t always observable)
mixed epistemology: critical realism (social/political phenomena and structures can be directly observed/measured)
different methodology based on the specific question
economic materialism
idea that the way the economy is structures determines what happens in history
economy drives history
the economic base (mode of production: technologies, instruments or forces of production) determines the political, legal and cultural superstructure
false consciousness
idea that the proletariat is brainwashed by the
people are made to believe something is in their interest, while it isn’t
requires there to be something like a real interest, an objective interest
discinents of what a worker beliefs is in their interest and what is objectively in their interest
- they are made to believe that it is in their interest to work hard, to go to church
capitalism as rising exploitation
exploitation is seen as bad (normative)
exploitation is also neutrally examined as being necessary and in some way productive part of capitalism
capitalism: leading to ever greater total wealth and at the same time ever more extreme exploitation
capitalism: one class of people exploits another
capitalism = rising alienation
this is an element of exploitation that makes the proletariat active
working class is oppressed into a working class relationship
workers are alienated from the product of their labour + from workers to each other + from workers to their species-being (human potential)
historical materialism
- history of all existing society is the history of class struggles
changes in society are outcomes of particular economic developments/organisations (new economic organisation->tensions (antithesis vs thesis))
every economic organisations is the result of tensions in the last economic organisations
capitalism -> socialism -> marxism (Marx thinks this has no tensions and thus will lead to no further change)
rising wealth + rising exploitation -> rising alienation + socialist revolution
if this is true:
1. tension to marx’ normative project: if socialism/marxism naturally arrives, why would he have to defend it so much ideologically? it is weird to say that something is good/bad or that it has to be done if it will naturally happen
2. we can’t have a socialist revolution when we don’t have the final stage of capitalism (alienation, totalized surplus)
classical Marxism recap + challenges
- foundational ontology + critical realist epistemology (takes seriously the causal power of some superstructural ideas, even if they’re not directly measurable/visible)
challenged by:
- Russian Revolution (1917-1923)
- later ‘cultural’ Marxists like Gramsci
Russian Revolution 1917-1923
- communist: Mensheviks (minority) and Bolsheviks (Lenin, Trotsky) were divided on the question of the vanguard (professional revolutionaries organizing the revo is enough to start a revolution OR that there was a mass organisation neccesary): whether or not they should cooperate with the anti-Tsarist liberal movement
- Mensheviks think Russia is not ready for a socialist revolution (not enough wealth e.g.): we can’t skip steps
- Bolsheviks: Russia has a division of classes, it has exploitation and alienation and the kind of workforce that can be drawn on, that the size of Russia is enough to create enough wealth post-revolution
Gramsci and Hegemony
emphasized the role of ideology
marxism: ideology is the result of economic organisation
the bourgeoisie rules not only by controlling the means of production, but by hegemonic ideology (dominant ideas, ideals, religion)
move back towards the importance of ideas
gives more scope for (revolutionary) agency and contingency: spread ideas
marxism and (inter)nationalism
- Marx and Engels thought that capitalism would gradually erode nationalism
implies: they aren’t explicit in their condemnation of colonialist imperialism: they think the exploitation of the workers in the colonies is simply another form of capitalist exploitation, just like exploitation in e.g. a country
roles of exploitation
- greater wealth for bourgeoisie + basis for revolution
- alienate
imperialism and globalization
- Marx calls imperialism the latest phase of capitalism
- Lenin/Bolsheviks starts to push for national self-determination in the post-Colonial context (he seeks for allies +
there is a clearer distribution between states: we can’t have one big revolution if there are some countries already communist
exploitation and core-periphery
idea that colonized people should unite against colonizers
marxism and post-colonialism
- alienation, false-consciousness, ideology, and hegemony can be used to analyze colonial relations
- some post-colonial actors were Marxist or neo-Marxist
intersectional thesis: to be anti-colonial, you need to be anti-capitalist as well (and vice-versa)
but: tension between Marxist historical materialism/universalism and intersectional perspectives : lose determinism of classical marxism
