PSCI 3601 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Wage Labour, Dependency Theory, Class Conflict
10 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Marxism and Critical Theory
Lecture 5
Marxist IR theory is not related to communism nor the Soviet Union
But: critical analysis of international politics focusing on social relations and processes of
production especially capitalism
Origins: writings of K. Marx and F. Engles
Current relevance: globalization, global crisis of capitalism.
Capitalism:
• means of production = privately owned
• labor = a commodity (“free” wage labor as compulsion)
• surplus value of labor = private property of capitalists
Two key ideas of (orthodox) Marxism:
Materialism (material base determines
political, legal, etc. superstructure)
Dialectic dynamic of society in contradiction/crisis
(esp. coop. production vs. private appropriation of capital)
• crisis = “danger and opportunity” (Gill)
Classes and States
• Actors in international relations are defined by class relations
• Conceptions of the states and by extension, IGOs, and NGOs
- instrument of capitalists
(“executive committee of the bourgeoisie”)
- structure guaranteeing the stability of capitalism
(relative autonomy of the state)
- Premise: civil society prior to the state (cf. liberalism)
✓ Challenge to realist and liberal assumptions of the
autonomy of actors
Human nature: labor and variability
• Human beings are producers and (good?)
• Human nature is variable (i.e. subject to conditions of production/ historical “relations in
process,” Rupert, p. 129)
• Human nature is not explanatory; but practical stance: human emancipation
• Freedom as social self determination, Rupert, p. 130).
Marxism and the (not so) inter-national system (anarchy and interdependence)
• Capitalism global from its inception
• Capitalist Markets: anarchy (competition, struggle) and interdependence (divison of
labor).
- International relations
= class struggle+ universal interdependence of nations (Marx and Engles).
Class hierarchy not anarchy: dependency theory and world system theory
• Class structure (capitalists vs. proletariat) in the int’l system:
• dominant “core” states vs. dependent “peripheries”
Dependency theory
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Marxist ir theory is not related to communism nor the soviet union. But: critical analysis of international politics focusing on social relations and processes of production especially capitalism. Origins: writings of k. marx and f. engles. Capitalism: means of production = privately owned labor = a commodity ( free wage labor as compulsion) surplus value of labor = private property of capitalists. Dialectic dynamic of society in contradiction/crisis (esp. coop. production vs. private appropriation of capital) political, legal, etc. superstructure: crisis = danger and opportunity (gill) Classes and states: actors in international relations are defined by class relations, conceptions of the states and by extension, igos, and ngos instrument of capitalists ( executive committee of the bourgeoisie ) structure guaranteeing the stability of capitalism. Premise: civil society prior to the state (cf. liberalism) Challenge to realist and liberal assumptions of the (relative autonomy of the state) autonomy of actors.
