Marxism

Near GPO, Opposite T&T Colony, Circular road Quetta, Baluchistan

Tel:081-2829324 Cell: 0312-9953336
website: www.anfal.com.pk
 Introduction
• The political economy of the nineteenth-century German philosopher and
economist Karl Marx represents in many ways a fundamental critique of
economic liberalism.
• Prophet of socialism.
• Stateless and classless society.
• Everyone according to his/her needs and ability.
• The state is a brutal institution.
• Law is an instrument used by the elite.
• Economic liberals view the economy as a positive-sum game with benefits for all.
• Marx rejected that view. Instead, he saw the economy as a site of human
exploitation and class inequality.
• Marx thus takes the zero-sum argument of mercantilism and applies it to relations
of classes.
• Marxists agree with mercantilists that politics and economics are closely
intertwined
• Both reject the liberal view of an economic sphere operating under its laws.
• Marxists put economics first and politics second.
• For Marxists, the capitalist economy is based on two antagonistic social classes
• One class, the bourgeoisie, owns the means of production; the other class, the
proletariat, owns only its labor power which it must sell to the bourgeoisie.
• labor puts in more work than it gets back in pay; there is a surplus value
appropriated by the bourgeoisie.
• That is capitalist profit and it is derived from labour exploitation.
• Capitalism means progress for Marx in two ways:
• First, capitalism destroys previous relations of production, such as feudalism,
which were even more exploitative, with peasants subsisting under slave-like
conditions.
• Second, capitalism paves the way for a socialist revolution where the
means of production will be placed under social control for the benefit
of the proletariat who are the vast majority.
• Economic production is the basis for all other human activities,
including politics.
• The economic basis consists, on the one hand, of the forces of
production, i.e., the technical level of economic activity (industrial
machinery versus artisan handicraft).
• On the other hand, it consists of the relations of production, i.e., the
system of social ownership which determines actual control over the
productive forces (e.g., private ownership versus collective
ownership).
• The capitalist world system is exploitative.
• Marxist ideology also argues that unequal distribution of wealth will
make the international order unstable, enabling the poor to rise and
overthrow the system that kept them impoverished.
• To relate to this, the contemporary world is divided into North and
South, the former more wealthy than the latter.
• Marxism surfaced during the Industrial Revolution period in the 19th
century.
• The bourgeois class uses the language of nationalism to inspire the
proliferates to defend their bourgeois masters.
• This concept of Marxism analysis that today’s world is transformed
after the evolution of the bourgeois class becoming the elites of the
social structure, which is the most dominant position.
• Marxism even criticizes the democratic form of government,
considered the world’s best form of government in the contemporary
world.
• According to the Marxist international relations theory, democracy
strengthens the bourgeois class, expressing it satirically that the “of the
people, by the people, and for the people” is instead “of the bourgeois,
by the bourgeois, and for the bourgeois”.
• Also, it says that the modern democratic system further strengthens the
capitalist economy.
• In peripheral states, capitalist economies are either neutralized through
coercion, or their loyalties are bought in the shape of goods and
services to curb their nationalism, the proletariat’s rebellious
tendencies.
 Economy vs Politics
• The bourgeoisie, which dominates the capitalist economy through
control of the means of production will also tend to dominate in the political
sphere because according to Marxists economics is the basis of politics.
• This brings us to the Marxist framework for the study of IPE. First, states
are not autonomous.
• They are driven by ruling class interests, and capitalist states are primarily
driven by the interests of their respective bourgeoisies.
• Struggles between states, including wars, should be seen in the economic
context of competition between capitalist classes of different states.
• For Marxists, class conflict is more mental than conflict between states.
• Second, as an economic system, capitalism is expansive: there is a
never-ending search for new markets and more profit.
• Class conflict is not limited to specific states.
• instead, it expands around the world in the wake of capitalism.
• Such expansion first took the form of imperialism and colonization,
but it continued after the colonies had been granted independence.
• It now takes the form of economic globalization led by giant
transnational corporations.
• The history of IPE can thus be seen by Marxists as the history of
capitalist expansion across the globe.
 • Lenin perspective
• Lenin, the Communist leader of the Russian Revolution of 1917, analyzed
this process.
• He argued that the process of capitalist expansion must always be unequal
or uneven, between countries, industries, and firms.
• For example, Britain was ahead of Germany for most of the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries.
• Consequently, Britain had secured for itself a vast colonial empire whereas
Germany had very little.
• At the beginning of the twentieth century, however, Germany was catching
up economically and Britain was declining.
• Therefore, Lenin noted, Germany wanted a redivision of international
spheres of influence, according to the new relative strength of the
countries.
• That demand led to war between Germany and Britain.
• Such disparities and conflicts will always develop under
capitalist conditions, argued Lenin.
• That is the ‘law of uneven development’
• Lenin said that “imperialism is the highest stage of
capitalism.”

Near GPO, Opposite T&T Colony, Circular road Quetta, Baluchistan

Tel:081-2829324 Cell: 0312-9953336
website: www.anfal.com.pk
 World System Theory
• World systems theory (WST) was created by Immanuel Wallerstein in
the 1970s.
• WST claims that rich core capitalist societies succeed by exploiting
poorer peripheral ones.
• Three-Tier Structure.
• The world is divided into three primary regions: the core, the semi-
periphery, and the periphery.

• Core nations are characterized by economic development, showcasing

industrialization, strong economies, and advanced technological
capabilities.
• Core countries tend to control and dominate economic
activities, shaping trade, investment, and production
processes.
• WST emphasizes the concept of unequal exchange, which
suggests that core nations benefit more from global economic
relationships than periphery nations.
• This inequality is manifested in terms of resource extraction,
labor exploitation, and the terms of trade.
• Historical processes of imperialism and colonialism played
an important role in shaping the global system.
• Core nations often established colonies to extract resources
and wealth from peripheral regions.
• Globalization can lead to the homogenization of cultures, as the
cultural products and values of core nations often dominate and
overshadow local cultures in peripheral nations.
• Globalization, particularly in its emphasis on economic growth and
resource exploitation, can have negative environmental consequences.
• World-system theorists argue that peripheral nations often bear a
disproportionate burden in terms of environmental degradation, as
core nations extract resources from these regions.
• The globalization of markets can lead to the outsourcing of labor to
areas with lower labor costs, potentially resulting in exploitation and
poor working conditions in peripheral nations.
Near GPO, Opposite T&T Colony, Circular road Quetta, Baluchistan
Tel:081-2829324 Cell: 0312-9953336
website: www.anfal.com.pk