Marxism Flashcards
What is meant by Gramsci’s hegemony? How does this differ from Marxist theory.
Hegemony applied to the apparatus of the ruling class where the bourgeoisie had gained dominance.
How did Gramsci describe the state?
the notion of the state would also have to include
the underpinnings of the political structure in civil society. Gramsci
thought of these in concrete historical terms - the church, the
educational system, the press, all the institutions which helped to
create in people certain modes of behaviour and expectations consistent with the hegemonic social order.
What does Gramsci mean by a war of movement or war of position?
War of position long range - working within the current hegemony to create change?
What is meant by the Gramsic term of passive revolution - reference caesarism and trasformismo?
Exists whether there is no ruling hegemony.
What is meant by a “historic bloc”?
This bloc forms the basis of consent to a certain social order, which produces and re-produces the hegemony of the dominant class through a nexus of institutions, social relations, and ideas.
Sociology of knowledge
- context of thinking
- geopolitics
- power play in the IR field
What was the context of return of Marxism?
- IR was US centric - theorists on the side of USSR were viewed as unworthy of attention or dangerous (McArthyism of 40’s and 50’s)Cold War blinkers and geopolitics of the discipline - excluding some ef EH
- End of Cold War - failed communism and triumph of liberal ideas (Francis Fukuyama and democratisation literature)
- Late 1990’s decentring- post positive turn - critical turn in the discipline
- Renewed questioningof capitalist order - eg occupied movement- global financial crisis questions system - Thomas Piketty
What are the core tenents of Classical Marxism
Das Kapital - the study of political economy has been replaced to relation between things /supply and demand- efficient allocation of resources - obscuring that it is a relationship also between people - constantly organises and reorganises relations between people and peoples - economy expressions of social relations - fundamentally a social theory
-critique of classical political economy - Adam Smith
- Relations in the economy are relations between people - praxis
Waltz separated economic, social and political to focus on the political - (neo liberal institutions included economic, but not social)
Marx influences - 1818 to 1883
- classical education in continental philosophy - influenced by Hegel
- strong empirical influences: studied changes to British Economy and French Revolution
- strong teleological and normative pull - moving to an arrival point
- theory is aimed at change (praxis) while being theoretical -
- critique is an obligation to improve the way of the world
Marxist view of capitalism - used beyond Marxists
- Capitalism historically specific mode of production ie not forever - can change
- Capitalism distinct from other forms of production ie where the main economic actor is the craftsman (full ownership of raw material from start to finish eg chair) or serfdom (feudalism where the serf owns nothing)
- Under capitalism better than serfdom but less than artisan as labour is commoditised - hope that better than serfdom, but labour is all that is owned - labour is disconnected from the ownership of means of production - capital is anything that enables production
- Labour can be sold on the market but ownership of means of production concentrated in the hands of fewer people - workers compelled to sell their services- free labour must work -
- Capitalism produces a type of good known as commodities - purpose is to be exchanged ie made for a market vs satisfying natural needs. Use value - satisfy needs. Exchange value - value a good acquires in the process of being exchanged - a commodity has a use and exchange value
What is the use and exchange value in Marx theory: disconnect between use value (fixed) and exchange value (ever inflatable)
Under capitalism exchange value becomes unparamount - disconnected to use value
Historic Materialist Ontology - as case study/lens
Mode of production is also an ordering principle for all social life - nationally and internationally
- generates particular distribution and modes of domination: of wealth/inequality
- far from Harmony of interests - class struggle - bouregoisie vs proletariat
- war and conflict - internationally
- the state far from being a neutral form it is an enableor of capitalist accummulation not neutral
Discuss role of state
state in Marx - not a black box - state and wider social relations
Marxism
Superstructure (institutions and ideology) vs material base or structure
Marx does not start with anarchy - concern is one of hierarchy
Marxism
Superstructure (institutions and ideology) vs material base or structure - focus of various schools
