Marxism and Neo-Marxism

• Marxism and Neo-Marxism are theories of international relations.

Marxism

• Society's problems relate to capitalism and private ownership of property.
• Mode of production is the methods and conditions in which goods are produced.
• The labor theory of value proposes that the true value of a good corresponds to the human labor used to produce it.
• Capitalists are thought to pay workers less than they are worth.
• Surplus value/profits are the difference between what workers produce and what they are paid.
• Surplus value is accumulated through searching for new markets, wage reduction, and replacing workers with machines.

Economic Determinism

• The economic base/infrastructure supports political and social institutions/superstructure.
• Economic forces determine social and political changes.
• This change occurs through historical materialism inspired by Hegel's dialectical materialism.
• The economy changes as knowledge and modes of production change, thereby altering socioeconomic structures.
• Capitalism is a progression of feudalism.
• Feudalism is a progression of slave societies.

Neo-Marxism

• Antonio Negri & Michael Hardt state globalization expresses a transnational elite's business interests.
• It emerged from past empires and could trigger a global socialist revolution.
• Globalization processes should be reoriented toward liberation/anti-empire.
• Key international political players are classes.
• Classes' rivalries drive conflict.

Lenin

• Transition from analyzing industrialized societies to studying international capitalist interstate conflict and expansion.
• Capitalism was interpreted internationally.
• He perceived that Marx underestimated Capitalism's capacity to survive crises.
• Colonial expansion was the center of attention.
• He adapted Marx's ideas to develop a sustained analysis of imperialism as the highest stage of capitalism.
• He predicted Capitalism's failure from competition over resources and markets between imperialist powers.
• WWI resulted from competition between imperial powers and poor conditions for workers.
• His ideas became popular in the 1960s and 1970s in third-world countries due to economic instability.

Assumptions of Neo-Marxism

• Tony Thorndika, Vendulka Kubalkova, and Andrew Cruickshank are important people.
• Due to commercial and financial flow growth, economic structuralism is an important way to understand international relations.
• Human nature is irrelevant; economic structuralism is central to international relations.
• The key determinant of economic events is the economic structure and not the agency.
• Transnational classes are key actors in IR.
• The global order is a capitalist political, economic, and social system expanding from local to national, regional, and global levels.
• The global system is structured on a vertical axis (rich-vs-poor countries) and a horizontal axis (elites across rich and poor countries).
• Trade and capital flows show asymmetry between core and peripheral countries.
• Economic surplus shifts from the peripheries to the core.
• The division of labor and the degree of specialization is contrary to the interest of the periphery, perpetuating inequalities due to its reliance on the core for supply chain purposes, technology, and investment.
• Periphery states have little chance of developing because their ruling class has economic interests in the international economy.
• International organizations and Multi National Organizations adopt neoliberalism as a belief system, and hegemonic states and elite groups perpetuate inequalities, acting as dependency agents.
• Imperialism is an inevitable feature of capitalism.

Imperialism

• History determined by cultural and dialectical clashes.
• Industrial-military complex.
• A global revolution for peace and justice is necessary.
• The capitalist system should be replaced by a local/transnational democratic social movement.
• Localisation should replace globalization.
• States and local entities should be re-empowered with protectionist measures.

Dependency Theory

• Conventional thinking on Rostow's theory of development and economic growth faced challenges.
• Import Substitution Industrialisation, and protectionism is the path to development by cutting imports and subsidizing national industries.
• The experience reflects Latin American countries; poor countries would be better off if they cut ties with the north and focused on using their resources.
• Liberals have defied this theory with the Asian Tigers example.

World System Analysis

• Wallerstein theorized the core of haves and periphery of have-nots in global politics within a zero-sum game setup.
• It is not rich countries exploiting poor ones, but the transnational wealthy class exploits a transnational poor class.
• The theory contends that a global division of labor existed since the 15th century.
• Modern and urban European societies controlled worldwide empires which enabled the shifting of industrial production from the core to the periphery.
• Capitalism's expansion toward semi-peripheral countries includes a second tier of European powers, including Spain, Italy, and Germany, between the core and the periphery.

Eco-Socialism

• Neo-Marxism is applied to environmental politics.
• Eco-anarchism views the aggressiveness of capitalism through global consumption and overproduction as the source of environmental problems.
• Solving global environment issues involves radical economic change and political decentralization, excluding business and elite interests.
• Wasteful industries such as weapons and arms are heavily taxed.
• There should be nationalisation of utilities over a certain size.