Feudalism - a system where powerful economic factors on political relations

states exert significant influence over between states.

smaller, weaker states, often through a
network of alliances and dependencies, Dialectic of capitalism" refers to the
resembling the lord-vassal relationship inherent contradictions and tensions
seen in medieval European feudalism, within the global capitalist system,
where a lesser lord would pledge loyalty where the pursuit of profit by individual
and service to a more powerful lord in states and corporations creates conflicts
exchange for protection and and uneven development across the
land; essentially creating a hierarchical world, leading to a dynamic of both
power structure within the international cooperation and competition, ultimately
system driving change and potential crisis
through these interactions; essentially,
Socialism - social and economic it's the idea that capitalism's internal
doctrine that calls for public rather than dynamics, like the exploitation of labor
private ownership or control of property and the concentration of wealth,
and natural resources. According to the inevitably produce societal conflicts that
socialist view, individuals do not live or play out on an international stage,
work in isolation but live in cooperation pushing for transformations in the global
with one another. Furthermore, political landscape.
everything that people produce is in
some sense a social product, and Communism - political and economic
everyone who contributes to the doctrine that aims to replace private
production of a good is entitled to a property and a profit-based economy
share in it. Society as a whole, with public ownership and communal
therefore, should own or at least control control of at least the major means of
property for the benefit of all its production (e.g., mines, mills, and
members. factories) and the natural resources of a
> The origins of socialism as a political society. Communism is thus a form of
movement lie in the Industrial socialism—a higher and more advanced
Revolution. form, according to its advocates. Exactly
how communism differs from socialism
Capitalism - the global economic has long been a matter of debate, but
system where countries interact through the distinction rests largely on the
market forces, with private entities communists’ adherence to the
owning and controlling the means of revolutionary socialism of Karl Marx.
production, driving international trade
and investment, often leading to Industrial Revolution - in modern
competition between nations to history, the process of change from an
maximize their economic interests on a agrarian and handicraft economy to one
global scale; this system is dominated by industry and machine
characterized by the movement of manufacturing. These technological
capital across borders, multinational changes introduced novel ways of
corporations, and the influence of working and living and fundamentally
transformed society. last vestiges of feudalism so as to
> In the period 1760 to 1830 the acquire the full rights of landowners and
Industrial Revolution was largely to be free to increase their holdings.
confined to Britain. Aware of their head Furthermore, from about 1730, higher
start, the British forbade the export of standards of living had reduced the
machinery, skilled workers, and mortality rate among adults
manufacturing techniques. The British considerably. This, together with other
monopoly could not last forever, factors, had led to an increase in the
especially since some Britons saw population of Europe unprecedented for
profitable industrial opportunities several centuries: it doubled between
abroad, while continental European 1715 and 1800. For France, which with
businessmen sought to lure British 26 million inhabitants in 1789 was the
know-how to their countries. most populated country of Europe, the
problem was most acute.
French Revolution - revolutionary
movement that shook France between Das Kapital - one of the major works of
1787 and 1799 and reached its first the 19th-century economist and
climax there in 1789—hence the philosopher Karl Marx (1818–83), in
conventional term “Revolution of 1789,” which he expounded his theory of the
denoting the end of the ancien régime in capitalist system, its dynamism, and its
France and serving also to distinguish tendencies toward self-destruction. He
that event from the later French described his purpose as to lay bare
revolutions of 1830 and 1848. “the economic law of motion of modern
> The French Revolution had general society.” The first volume was published
causes common to all the revolutions of in Berlin in 1867; the second and third
the West at the end of the 18th century volumes, edited by his collaborator
and particular causes that explain why it Friedrich Engels (1820–95), were
was by far the most violent and the most published posthumously in 1885 and
universally significant of these 1894, respectively.
revolutions. The first of the general Much of Das Kapital spells out Marx’s
causes was the social structure of the concept of the “surplus value” of labour
West. The feudal regime had been and its consequences for capitalism.
weakened step-by-step and had already According to Marx, it was not the
disappeared in parts of Europe. The pressure of population that drove wages
increasingly numerous and prosperous to the subsistence level but rather the
elite of wealthy commoners— existence of a large army of
merchants, manufacturers, and unemployed, which he blamed on the
professionals, often called the capitalists. He maintained that within the
bourgeoisie—aspired to political power capitalist system, labour was a mere
in those countries where it did not commodity that could gain only
already possess it. The peasants, many subsistence wages. Capitalists,
of whom owned land, had attained an however, could force workers to spend
improved standard of living and more time on the job than was
education and wanted to get rid of the necessary to earn their subsistence and
then appropriate the excess product, or labourers) by the ruling bourgeoisie,
surplus value, created by the workers. which is "constantly revolutionising the
instruments [and] relations of
production, and with them the whole
The Communist Manifesto (German: relations of society". They argue that
Das Kommunistische Manifest), capital's need for a flexible labour force
originally the Manifesto of the dissolves the old relations, and that its
Communist Party (Manifest der global expansion in search of new
Kommunistischen Partei), is a political markets creates "a world after its own
pamphlet written by Karl Marx and image".
Friedrich Engels, commissioned by the
Communist League and originally The Manifesto concludes that capitalism
published in London in 1848. The text is does not offer humanity the possibility of
the first and most systematic attempt by self-realization, instead ensuring that
Marx and Engels to codify for wide humans are perpetually stunted and
consumption the historical materialist alienated. It theorizes that capitalism will
idea that "the history of all hitherto bring about its own destruction by
existing society is the history of class polarizing and unifying the proletariat,
struggles", in which social classes are and predicts that a revolution will lead to
defined by the relationship of people to the emergence of communism, a
the means of production. Published classless society in which "the free
amid the Revolutions of 1848 in Europe, development of each is the condition for
the manifesto remains one of the the free development of all". Marx and
world's most influential political Engels propose the following transitional
documents. policies: the abolition of private property
in land and inheritance; introduction of a
Marx and Engels combine philosophical progressive income tax; confiscation of
materialism with the Hegelian dialectical rebels' property; nationalisation of
method in order to analyze the credit, communication, and transport;
development of European society expansion and integration of industry
through its modes of production, and agriculture; enforcement of
including primitive communism, universal obligation of labour; and
antiquity, feudalism, and capitalism, provision of universal education and
noting the emergence of a new, abolition of child labour. The text ends
dominant class at each stage. The text with three decisive sentences, reworked
outlines the relationship between the and popularized into the famous call for
means of production, relations of solidarity, the slogan "Workers of the
production, forces of production, and the world, unite! You have nothing to lose
mode of production, and posits that but your chains".
changes in society's economic "base"
affect changes in its "superstructure". The usefulness of a commodity vs. the
Marx and Engels assert that capitalism exchange equivalent by which the
is marked by the exploitation of the commodity is compared to other objects
proletariat (working class of wage on the market. Marx distinguishes
between the use-value and the the price of a commodity as a reflection
exchange value of the commodity. Use- of how much labour it can "save" the
value is inextricably tied to "the physical purchaser. The LTV is central to Marxist
properties of the commodity" (126); that theory, which holds that capitalists'
is, the material uses to which the object expropriation of the surplus value
can actually be put, the human needs it produced by the working class is
fulfills. In the exchange of goods on the exploitative. Modern mainstream
capitalist market, however, exchange- economics rejects the LTV and uses a
value dominates: two commodities can theory of value based on subjective
be exchanged on the open market preferences.
because they are always being
compared to a third term that functions "Necessary labor" refers to the amount
as their "universal equivalent," a of time a worker needs to spend
function that is eventually taken over by producing goods or services equivalent
money. Exchange-value must always to their own wages, essentially the labor
be distinguished from use-value, needed to sustain their basic needs,
because "the exchange relation of while "Surplus labor" is the additional
commodities is characterized precisely time worked beyond that necessary
by its abstraction from their use-values" labor, which generates profit for the
(127). In capital, money takes the form capitalist as it is unpaid labor extracted
of that equivalence; however, money in from the worker; essentially, the extra
fact hides the real equivalent behind the work done beyond what is required to
exchange: labor. The more labor it takes cover the cost of the worker's own labor
to produce a product, the greater its power.
value. Marx therefore concludes that
"As exchange-values, all commodities Modernization theory claimed that
are merely definite quantities of once developing societies came into
congealed labour-time" contact with western European and
North American societies, they would be
The labor theory of value (LTV) is a impelled toward modernization and,
theory of value that argues that the eventually, would achieve the economic,
exchange value of a good or service is political, and social features
determined by the total amount of characteristic of the nations of western
"socially necessary labor" required to Europe and the United States. However,
produce it. The contrasting system is by the 1960s it was apparent that the
typically known as the subjective theory Third World was not passing through a
of value. stage of underdevelopment, as
envisioned by modernization theory, but
The LTV is usually associated with remaining underdeveloped. Thus, a
Marxian economics, although it counterclaim was advanced—that
originally appeared in the theories of developing countries today are
earlier classical economists such as structurally different from the advanced
Adam Smith and David Ricardo, and countries and so will have to develop
later in anarchist economics. Smith saw along different lines. This claim became
the core of the structuralist thesis in a framework of uneven relations
developed by intellectuals from Chile, between developed and
Argentina, Brazil, and Peru brought underdeveloped countries and work to
together by the United Nations reinforce and reproduce these relations.
Economic Commission for Latin
America (ECLA; today known as This perspective formed the basis of
Economic Commission for Latin what came to be known as dependency
America and the Caribbean, ECLAC). theory. Dependency theory rejects the
limited national focus of modernization
The main theoretical tenet of ECLA’s theory and emphasizes the importance
approach was that former colonies and of understanding the complexity of
nonindustrialized nations were imperialism and its role in shaping
structurally different from industrialized postcolonial states. Its main tenet is that
countries and, therefore, needed the periphery of the international
different recipes for modernization. economy is being economically
ECLA argued that colonization exploited (drained) by the centre.
restructured former colonies’ economies Building on ECLA’s perspective,
so that they specialized in producing dependency theorists argued that
raw materials, cash crops, and foodstuff colonialism recast economies in the
for export at low prices to the colonizers’ Third World in a highly specialized
home countries. These structures export-producing mold, creating
created a dynamic that was continuing fundamental and interrelated structural
to impoverish former colonies and to distortions that have continued to thwart
thwart their modernization. According to development. Once this reshaping was
ECLA, the international division of accomplished, market forces worked to
labour created by colonization had perpetuate the relationship of
separated the international economy dominance and exploitation between
into a centre, consisting of the centre and periphery.
industrialized countries, and a periphery,
which included all the rest of the During the 1970s there also emerged a
countries around the world outside of perspective that elaborated an account
the socialist camp. Because the prices of capitalist exploitation of the periphery
of manufactured goods bought by the from the perspective of the system’s
periphery were rising faster than those core. This theoretical enterprise became
of raw materials, cash crops, and known as world systems theory. It
foodstuffs sold by the periphery to the typically treats the entire world, at least
centre, international trade ensured the since the 16th century, as a single
persistence of an unbalanced process capitalist world economy based on an
of development. Thus, in contrast to international division of labour among a
modernization theory, which core that developed originally in
emphasized the benefits of free trade, northwestern Europe (England, France,
foreign investment, and foreign aid, Holland), a periphery, and a
these theorists argued that free trade semiperiphery consisting of core regions
and international market relations occur in decline (e.g., Portugal and Spain) or
peripheries attempting to improve their with their family group, their ancestral
relative position in the world economy village, and their community.
(e.g., Italy, southern Germany, and
southern France). The division of labour Collectivism - refers to a political
among these regions determined their philosophy where the interests of a
relationship to each other as well as group, such as a nation or community,
their type of labour conditions and are prioritized over the interests of
political system. individual states, emphasizing
cooperation and collaboration on a
Ascription - refers to the act of global scale to achieve shared goals,
assigning a particular characteristic, often contrasting with a more
status, or identity to a state or actor individualistic approach where countries
based on factors like their historical primarily pursue their own self-interests;
background, geographical location, or it often manifests in policies that
perceived cultural traits, rather than their promote multilateralism, international
current actions or capabilities, institutions, and collective action to
essentially judging a nation based on address global challenges like climate
pre-existing assumptions rather than change or pandemics.
meritocratic assessment.

refers
Particularism to the exclusive
connection to a group. Group members
treat insiders quite differently than
outsiders of the group. Within the Thai
society, insiders are devoted to assist
members of the group. At the same
time, they are more likely to reject
people who are outside of the group.
Insiders are provided with information
and opportunities that encourage
business relationships to develop.
Ongoing particularistic behaviour
supports and strengthens business
relationships within that group.
Outsiders, however, are unable to
receive this same level of support,
hindering any likelihood of establishing
a business venture. This behaviour thus
creates a stark difference in the
treatment of people depending on their
position within a group, such as the
level of wealth or education. For Thai
people to gain an advantage of being
part of a group, they form close bonds