Structuralism

GFPP3114
International Political Economy
Unit Coverage
• Theory and Questions
• Structuralism – the three questions Variants of
Structuralism and Policy Implications
• Strengths
• Weaknesses
Theory and Questions
• What is Structuralism?

• What characterizes Structuralism?

Structuralism: the THREE Questions
• What is the interest of state in IPE from the
perspective of Structuralism?
• What is the interest of market in IPE from
the perspective of Structuralism?
• What is the interest of society in IPE from
the perspective of Structuralism?
 Structuralism
• Structural Approach of International Political Economy
• Emphasis: Inequality & Exploitation that Resulted from
Capitalist Production within and between Countries
• View International Political Economy rom the ‘Below’
(Oppressed Classes, the Poor & the Developing/Least
Developed Countries).
  Marx placed
attention on unequal
and exploitative
relations in
capitalist economy.
 His works were
based on his
analysis and
observations of the
Industrial
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA
Revolution.
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

Karl Marx (1818-1883)

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8gT7HN_fyM
 Marxist Thoughts
• Marx was concerned with exploitation of the many by
the few, in particular the patterns and mechanisms of
exploitation in different modes of economic production
– the asymmetrical relations between proletariats
(workers) and bourgeoisie (owners).
• The key claim of Marxist is that changes in technology
determine changes in the social system.
• For Marx, agents of change are human beings
organized into social classes.
 • First, the law of the falling rate of profit
asserts that over time as investment causes
machines to replace workers, profits must
Marx’s Three decline & ultimately disappear.
Objective • Second, the law of disproportionality (also
Laws that called the problem of underconsumption)
suggests the capitalism, because of its
would anarchic, unplanned nature, is prone to
Destroy instability such that workers cannot afford to
Capitalism buy what they make.
from the • Third, the law of concentration (or
Within: accumulation of capital) holds that
capitalism tends to create increasing
inequality in the distribution of income
and wealth.
 The Definition of Class

Some Class Conflict & the Exploitation

Specific of Workers
Contributions
of Marx to
Structuralism Capitalist Control over the State

Ideological Manipulation
The Definition of Class
• Class is Determined by the Ownership of Capital
• Marx’s Definition of Capital: The Means of Production (the
Privately Owned Assets used to Produce the Commodities in
an Economy)
• Why? Marx argues: The Original Distribution of Assets as
Unjust, Noting that Historically a Small Number of People
Confiscated Large Amounts of Land and Other Resources by
Means of Violence & Coercion
Class Conflict & the Exploitation of Workers

• The Relationship between Capitalists and Workers is Built

Upon an Objective Division of the Economic Output of a
Society into Wages & Profits
• The Actions of Individual Workers and Capitalists will
Depend on Many Concrete Historical Variables, Leading to
Civil War or Revolution, to Class Compromise, or to
Passivity due to Subjective Ignorance.
 Capitalist Control over the State
• State: Governance of the Nation
• In the Struggle to Control the State, Capitalists & Workers
have very Different Resources.
• Capitalist – Abundance of Capitals, Small in Number
• Workers – No/Little Capital(s), Large Number
• The Structuralist Argument: A State Will Act to Advance the
Narrower Interests of the Class that Dominates it –
Typically the Wealthy Capitalists.
 Ideological Manipulation
• The Structuralists Accept that Power is Exercised
through the Deployment of Ideology.
• Marxist Perception:
(a) Ideology is used to Provide/Support the Legitimacy of
the Capitalist Economy.
(b) Workers are Persuaded to Accept Capitalist Economy &
Continuously Being Exploited.
 Lenin’s Imperialism and World Capitalist System
Lenin accepts the key argument of under-consumption and over-production caused capitalists
to scramble for foreign markets beyond Europe and to engage in colonialism.

Lenin takes the notion that imperialist policies reflect the existence of monopoly and finance capital,
or the highest stage of capitalism. This is exemplified by attaining economic inputs of raw materials
from abroad and reselling the final products to overseas market.

Lenin’s works as a revolutionary reflects considerable voluntarism in practice. Agency matters

to Lenin as apparent in his call for a “vanguard of the proletariat” led by a communist party to
push history down its revolutionary path.
The actions of revolutionaries are at the very least to serve as catalysts to the worldwide
proletarian revolution whenever the objective conditions of working-class exploitation are ripe
or have reached their revolutionary stage.
Dependency Theory

• The Relationship between the Core

& the Periphery Nations

• Basis Argument: The Structure of

Global Economy Essentially
Enslaves the Least Developed
South (PERIPHERY) to Rely on
the Rich Developed North (CORE)
Theotonio Dos Santos

• Colonial Dependence (18 th-19th Centuries)

• Financial-Industrial Dependence (19 th – early 20 th
Centuries)
• Post-War Multinational Corporation
(Contemporary)
 Andre Gunder Frank
• Argument: ‘The Development of Underdevelopment’
• The Structure – Dependence of the South Goods through the
North Market
• Import-Substitution Industrialization: Strategy Pursued by
Less Developed Economies to Promote Industrialization by
Domestic Production of Goods previously imported (usually
undertaken high levels of tariff protection).
Some Flaws of the Dependency Theory
1. The ‘core’ and ‘periphery’ are overly broad categories.
2. The Notion of ‘Exploitation in the North-South are
resulted from capitalism’ neglects other contributing
factor of Unequal Power among the States
3. Cutting linkages with the Core as argued by the
Dependency theories does not ensure the issues of
social injustice and inequality of the state(s) are resolved
 Raul Prebisch

• Founded the United Nations Conference on Trade

and Development (UNCTAD)
• Aim of UNCTAD: To Monitor & Recommend
Policies that Help to Redistribute Power & Income
between the North and South
Modern World System Theory
• Pioneered by Immanuel Wallenstein
• Emphasis: The entire World System, a Single
Division of Labour & Multiple Cultural Systems
• Core, Semi-Periphery, Periphery
• Argument: Semi-Periphery stabilizes the world
economy by balancing the relations between the
Core & the Periphery.
Modern World System Theory
Some Flaws of the World-Systems Theory
• The Realists: The World Systems Theorists
underestimate the Role of State.
• The Liberals: The World Systems Theorists do not take
into consideration about the variations in capitalism
during the different historical periods
• Marxists: It is the relations of production between
capitalists and workers matters, not the relations of
exchange among the Core, Semi-Periphery, Periphery
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XT6rcN0O3as
CONCLUSION