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Marxist perspectives on international politics

Marxist perspectives on international politics. Social organization is driven by economics not security Technology is the driving force “Social relations” (aka politics) is the outcome. Capitalist society yields class conflict.

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Marxist perspectives on international politics

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  1. Marxist perspectives on international politics • Social organization is driven by economics not security • Technology is the driving force • “Social relations” (aka politics) is the outcome

  2. Capitalist society yields class conflict • Between the owners of capital and the workers… not between states • A deep conflict of interests that is the fundamental contradiction of capitalist society…. • Why can’t it be reconciled?

  3. The Labor Theory of Value • Forget about exchange value or use value. Labor is the source of value-added. • Relative prices reflect the quantity of labor that is embodied in a good. • Capitalism homogenizes labor and then extracts surplus value from the proletariat.

  4. Labor theory of value predicts capitalism’s collapse • Workers learn to resist exploitation. • Capitalists suffer a falling rate of profit. Increased productivity is actually the way in which capitalists undermine that which makes the system work. • Underconsumption drives prices down and accelerates the fall in the rate of profit.

  5. What role do states play? • Instrumental Marxism • Structural Marxism

  6. The Capitalist State in the International System • The end of the colonial era should be the end… but it isn’t. • Dependencia -- neo-colonial logic?

  7. The Socialist State in the International System • Lenin’s dilemma • Lenin’s non-solution • The Comintern • The Red Army • The rise of fascism forces Stalin to make a real choice

  8. The Soviet Union as a ‘state’ • Military power yields détente and peaceful coexistence. • A hard case for realists to explain? • A good test of where and how ideology may matter… • But probably not at the level of individuals

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