Marxism Flashcards
Marxism + COVID vaccines
the unequal distribution of vaccines isn’t a bug in the global capitalist system, it’s a feature:
international economic order rests on deep inequality and on the infringement of the sovereignty of the weak
when was the first worldwide financial crisis?
1857
One bank collapsed -> banks all over the world failed
Marx saw it as a new phenomenon/feature of the global capitalist system
new factors: global, interconnected system, market, uneven and combined development, inequalities
Intellectual sources of Marxism
Marx and Engels (geopolitical deficiency, mainly talk about the domestic level, respond to commercial liberalism)
Early applications to IR: reactions to liberalism, theorizing imperialism (Hobson, Lenin)
Later additional insights: Gramsci and Critical Theory (focus on social, ideological aspects)
Key assumptions Marxism
Historical materialism
social classes
international capitalist system
historical materialism
5
historical analysis is crucial
dialectical materialism
changes explained as reflection of te eoncomic development of society
base-superstructure model
primacy of economic forces to explain IR
the legal, political and cultural institutions (i.e. the superstructure) and practices reflect and reinforce the pattern of power and control in the economy
social classes
7
social classes are the main actors in IR: economic factors explain IR
action is driven by economic interest
the state is the executing agent of capitalist elites
society is prone to conflict
class struggle is the driving motor of IR
economic processes ignore state borders
transnational actors: most important actors/classes aren’t limited to states
International Capitalist system
domestic economic circumstances influence the structure of the global system
global system is hierarchical
the international system is the by-product of imperialism
global distribution of means of production drives state behavior
the role of imperialism
! in order to survive, capitalism constantly needs to expand into non-capitalist areas -> colonialism
capitalism had problems: markets weren’t sufficient: overproduction, underconsumption, oversavings -> expansion markets, investments and wage competition + state intervention
- Hobson 1902
to resolve these tensions capitalism had to be expanded -> imperialism brought new markets, investments and wage competition
Lenin 1917: processes of capitalist accumulation led to colonial expansion: international expansion for monopoly of industrial-financial capital
imperialistic rivaling = next stage of capitalism, the revolution that Marx talked about hasn’t happened yet, because this has to happen first
base-superstructure model
change in productive means -> change in relations of production
= change of economic base
change of the economic base -> broader transformation of society as a whole (superstructure): legal, political and cultural institutions and practices change
globalization + Marxism
4
scramble for Africa = beginning of globalization
Globalization should be looked at via the contours of global capitalism itself: it’s not novel, it’s a product of capitalism
note the danger of adopting an ahistoric and uncritical attitude to globalization: overlooks that globalization is part of the ideological armory of elites
there is nothing natural or inevitable about a world order based on a global market
Latin American Dependency School
development of Periphery depending on core
sees states as main actors, not classes
World System Theory
Wallerstein
IR takes place within the world capitalist system
transnational division of labor: core, semi-periphery, periphery
- this division shapes their relations and policies
exploitation of periphery by the core
! addition of semi-periphery shows that complex, gradual, structural change is possible
Gramscianism
! historic bloc: mutually reinforcing and reciprocal relationships between the base and superstructure
Gramsci doesn’t talk about IR specifically
examines the failure of workers’ revolution in the west -> breaks with economic determinism
greater emphasis on subjectivity, culture and ideology
new theory of hegemony:
hegemony rests upon coercion, but also on consent (people consent with the system, they go along with it)
- consent because of elites’ discourse that diverses interests, coopts and divides opponents
- e.g. ideologies/nationalism that oppose solidarity to transnational working class (e.g. nationalism above feeling of international class -> no revolution)
the nature of relations in the superstructure is important to understand how suspectible the society is to change
Cox
calls himself a ‘‘neogramscianist’’
uses gramscianism to understand the emergence of the world order
ruling hegemonic ides are accepted/socialized
e.g. Washington Consensus, Neoliberalism
ideas and values are a reflection of a particular set of social relations
'’theory is always for some one, and for some purpose’’
concepts 80s, 90s seem to legitimate existence of the unequal economic system (e.g. Bretton Woods, behavior US)
- there is some consent to the unequal system due to these concepts, norms that are naturalized
- hegemonic discourse to justify unequal system
relevance of IR today
marxism focuses on transnational arguments, this fits in the modern world that is less and less state centric
e.g. transnational civil society + transnational defence-industrial class
marxism can explain why global tensions keep growing :
growing inequalities -> growing tensions
Marxism criticism
economic determinism: is the political sphere always shaped by economic forces? are classes really the main actors in IR?
marxism ignores important factors:
- politics and ideology
- nationalism v. transnationalism
- resilience of the state as a major actor in IR
- military power
parallels between now and Marx’ time
huge technological, socio-economic and political turmoil
does marxism offer solutions?
no, it shows us what ails us and how so many different crises and instances link together
effects of the global capitalist system
ensure that the powerful/wealthy prosper, which is at the cost of the powerless and the poor
principle of totality
the social world should be analysed as a totality: academic division of the social world in different disciplines is unhelpful: none can be understood without knowledge of others
communist society
marxism is commited to the cause of emancipation
wage labor and private property abolished
social relations transformed
marxism + feminism
some feminist marxist argue that women were the last colony, that women have/had a crucial role for the reproduction of capitalism:
women support either the workers as housewives or are a source of cheap labour
monopoly capitalism
two-tier structure of a dominant core exploiting a less-developed periphery
-> no longer an automatic harmony of interest between all workers: capitalists of the core could pacify their own working class through further exploitation of the periphery
Wallerstein about global history
global history has been marked by the rise and demise of a series of world systems
every system is historically bounded: has a beginning, middle and an end
end cold war = start end phase world capitalism
critical marxist theories
want to move towards a situation in which the borders of the sovereign state lose their ethical and moral significance
less concerned with issues relating international political economy
question if the proletariat has the potential for emancipatory transformation
- Frankfurt school thinkers: working class has been absorbed by the system and no longer represents a threat to it (it can’t begin to conceive an alternative
new marxism
fundamental approach: return to the fundamental tenets of Marxist thought + looks if ideas have been misinterpreted
uneven and combined development: capitalism isn’t a single road with countries joining the process at different times: there are learning effects
privilege of historic backwardness: countries joining the capitalist road have access to investment and technology that hasn’t been previously available
- potential cost: distorted political structure
Marxism is the early stage of?
- International Political Economy (IPE)
- historical sociology (e.g. world systems theory)
