Week 3 - Marxism Flashcards
What ideas does Marx explore?
The importance of economic and class development, domination of the state by key economic processes, progressive visions and phases - but in an anti - capitalist direction. war as a production of economic uneven development and competition, anti - colonialism and anti - imperialism.
How did Lenin outline WWI?
He outlined it as a war between advanced capitalist states and these states are dominated by their economic elite, who are fighting against each other for markets and profits. Therefore, once their home states were saturated, these elites looked to extend their influence to other markets. He also assumed that the working class had nothing to do with war and this was because it was run by the Capitalist elites.
Outline examples of the Marxism class struggle
- slaves / owners
- proletariat / bourgeoisie
Briefly, how does Marxism challenge Realism?
Focuses on challenging realism through class exploitation and economic inequalities rather than power maximisation by states.
Briefly, how does Marxism challenge Liberalism?
Challenges claims by noting that free trade and capitalism are not the only roads for development, nor the best.
What is emancipatory politics?
It is politics that ‘creates a new world’ and is an effort to procure economic and social rights, political rights or equality
Outline Positivism
It is an attempt to duplicate the natural sciences. It focuses on the idea that social and political processes can be studied like physical processes, and there is an external world out there which can be studied in a balanced and objective manner. There is the aim of theorising and making generalisations and as a result, scholars can and must leave behind any ideological, beliefs, values or opinions
Outline the Dependency Theory
Emphasises that resources flow from a ‘periphery state’ of poor and underdeveloped states to a ‘core’ of wealthy states, enriching the latter at the expense of the former.
There are cores in both the South and West which detain financial and economic power and the elite in the periphery cooperates with the elite of the core in order to achieve what they want and find common interests whilst leaving the working classes in both classifications of countries behind. The central contention is that poor states are impoverished and rich ones enriched by the way poor states are integrated into the world system.
What is the key concept of Critical Theories?
It is to seek to stimulate change and improve human existence by abolishing injustice instead of simply understanding how the world works. By generating challenges, it makes it known that mainstream theories are not always right and brings on the fact that the prevailing order is not natural, necessary and historically invariable.
What are some of the criticisms of Critical Theories?
(1) They criticise the established system and wish for change, but they do not offer concrete solutions; CT are good at pointing out problems and less efficient when it comes to proposing operational solutions about war and peace. It may be true but theories are lenses and you see one thing better at the expense of others.
(2) Critical theories are ideologically based
(3) Promoting post - positivism puts critical theories outside the true scientific areas; how can CT analysis be objectives if the scholars are influenced by their values and meta theorising, unless when providing explanations to audiences
What are the elements of Mainstream Theories?
They take the world as they find it:
- They do not question the existing world order
- Tendency to legitimise it and its inequalities
Mainstream theories are problem - solving theories:
- Their aim is to make the existing order ‘work smoothly’
- They do not seek to change it
- They do not question its legitimacy
By working within the given system, they have a stabilising effect:
- Tend to preserve and legitimise the existing global structure with its inequalities of power and wealth
- They legitimise the inequalities behind the current system, because they do not provide an alternative situation. An elite would be happy to legitimise as they are not affected by the detrimental effects.
According to Marxism, what is history a reflection of?
History is a reflection of the economic development of society i.e. economic development is the motor of the history.
Legal, political and cultural institutions and practices of a given society reflect and reinforce - in a more or less mediated form- the pattern of power and control within the economy .
Why does Class play a role in a Marxism analysis?
They hold that society is systematically prone to class conflict and therefore, in a capitalist society, the main axis of conflict is between the bourgeoisie (capitalist) and the proletariat (the workers)
With the development of core and periphery - why was there no longer an automatic harmony of interest?
There was no longer an automatic harmony of interest between all of the workers and this is because the bouregoisie in the core countries could use profits derived from exploiting the periphery.
Who is the World - Systems Theory associated with and what is the general outline?
Immanuel Wallerstein
Global history has been marked by the rise and demise of a series of world systems. Institutions of the social world are continually being created and recreated.
