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Plan for Today: Neo-Marxist Approaches and Postcolonial Theory. Neo-Marxist explanations for Third World underdevelopment. Dependency theory. World Systems theory. Postcolonial theory: Said on Orientalism. Marxist IR Approaches: Dependency Theory. Andre Gunder Frank Hypotheses:
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Plan for Today: Neo-Marxist Approaches and Postcolonial Theory • Neo-Marxist explanations for Third World underdevelopment. • Dependency theory. • World Systems theory. • Postcolonial theory: Said on Orientalism.
Marxist IR Approaches:Dependency Theory • Andre Gunder Frank • Hypotheses: • Metropoles develop; satellites underdevelop. • Satellites develop when ties with metropoles weakest. • Most underdeveloped regions today had closest ties to metropole in past.
Marxist IR Approaches:Dependency Theory • How metropoles subjugate satellites: • Foreign investment in poor countries limited to extractive industries. • Westernizing domestic elites in poor countries.
Marxist IR Approaches:Critiques of Dependency Theory • No direct relationship between states’ reliance on extractive industries and poverty/ underdevelopment. • Why do some satellite states escape (NICs)?
Neo-Marxist IR Approaches:World Systems Theory • Immanuel Wallerstein. • Accepts dependency theory’s division of world into regions with development uneven and benefiting rich. • But rejects idea of feasible alternative to integration with world capitalist system.
Neo-Marxist IR Approaches:World Systems Theory • Combines elements of realism with Marxism. • International system has division of labor with three regions: • Core: powerful industrialized states. • Periphery: weak states providing raw materials to core. • Semiperiphery: mixture of core and periphery (NICs).
Neo-Marxist IR Approaches:World Systems Theory • Adds idea that states important: • Help capitalism to maximize production. • Somewhat autonomous from bourgeoisie. • Not only under capitalism; also earlier. • Less emphasis on class struggle than standard Marxism. • Criticized for sense of inevitability – no room for escape.
Neo-Marxism vs. Modernization Theory • Modernization theory: “traditional” vs. “modern” societies. • 3rd world problem is bad traditional cultures. • 3rd world inferior to West; needs to “catch up.” • Development = Westernization. • Neo-Marxism: West has systematically exploited 3rd world to destroy development capabilities.
Postcolonial Theory • Used in many disciplines. • Tends toward postmodernism. • Cultures/ groups define selves by defining “other” – opposite of what they are. • Edward Said, Orientalism (1978). • Western depictions of Arab world and Islam as dark, frightening, full of terrorists.