Chapter 4

Marxism/Neo-Marxism
and Socialism
Contents

 What is Marxism
 Marxist theories of development
 Structuralism and dependency theories
 Socialism and the Soviet model
 Maoism and development in China
 African socialism and Afro-Marxism
 What is Marxism

 The communist experiment in the Soviet Union had become a

major embarrassment. The disappearance of the Soviet Union
has encouraged an appreciation of Marx’s work less
encumbered( 妨碍 ) by the baggage of Marxism-Leninism as a
state ideology.
 Marx’s social theory retains formidable analytical purchase on
the world we inhabit. Of particular importance is Marx’s
analysis of capitalism, which has yet to be bettered. Any
attempt to understand world politics must be based on a
broader understanding of the processes operating in global
capitalism. The relative prosperity of the few is dependent on
the destitution of the many.– unfamiliar/discomforting view of
world politics.

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 The essential elements of Marxism
 The social world should be analyzed as a totality .

 Historical materialism: economic development is effectively

the motor of history; the tension between the means of
production and relations of production forms the economic
base of a given society. The change in the economic base
ultimately leads to change in the ‘legal and political
superstructure’.

 Society is systematically prone to class conflict (the

bourgeoisie vs. the proletariat)

 Committed to the cause of emancipation-communist society.

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Marxism internationalized: from imperialism to world-
systems theory

 Lenin: Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism(1917),

Core-Periphery: the capitalists of the core could pacify their
own working class through the further exploitation of the
periphery.
 Latin American Dependency School: Raul Prebisch-’the
declining terms of trade’
 World-systems theory: Immanuel Wallerstein: Core--Semi-
periphery—Periphery--- A more equitable and just world
system will emerge.—life cycle of the world system.
 Feminist writers have contributed to the analysis of
international capitalism by focusing on the specific role of
women.– Women were the ‘last colony’-Mies (1998)
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 葛兰西主义 Gramscianism
 Gramsci’s legacy: Prison Notebooks
 There was a flaw in classical Marxist analysis, but where?
 State as a centaur( 半人半马 ), half beast, half man: a mixture of
coercion and consent.
 Consent is created and recreated by the hegemony of the ruling
class in society. It is this hegemony that allows the moral, political
and cultural values of the dominant group to become widely
dispersed throughout society and to be accepted by subordinated
groups and classes as their own. --Institutions of civil society
 Mutually reinforcing and reciprocal relationships between socio-
economic relations (base) and political and cultural
practice(superstructure)

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Robert Cox: internationalize Gramsci’s thought
 Robert Cox: ‘Theory is always for some one, and for some
purpose’. All knowledge must reflect a certain context, a
certain time, a certain space.
 Hegemony is as important for maintaining stability and
continuity here as it is at the domestic level.
 Successive dominant powers in the international system have
shaped a world order that suits their interests, and have done
so not only as a coercive capability, but also because they
have managed to generate broad consent for that order, even
among those who are disadvantaged by it.

 Counter-hegemonic movements: ‘pessimism of the intellect’

with ‘optimism of the will’.

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Marxism on today’s global capitalism
 Three critical processes for the success and the functioning
of today’s global capitalism:
 Accumulation by dispossession: predatory system relying
on seizure, thievery, fraud and even violence.
 Responsibilization: force individuals to become for their
own self-governance and risk management, state no longer
willing to bear as much of the cost of nurturing citizens’
human capabilities or sustaining households.
 The rise of precariat: a large social class that has insecure
work without benefits. 4As (anger, anomie ( 反常状态 ),
anxiety and alienation).
 To summarize:
 The globe has long been dominated by a single
integrated economic and political entity-a global
capitalist system—that has gradually incorporated all
of humanity within its grasp.
 The only way to discover how significant contemporary
developments really are is to view them in the context
of the deeper structural processes at work.
 Adopting an ahistoric and uncritical attitude to
globalization can blind us to the way in which reference
to globalization is increasingly becoming part of the
ideological armory of elites in the contemporary world.
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Marxist theories of development
 The central feature of Marx’s analysis was the relationship between
capital and labor.
 Different ‘modes of production’, at each stage (eg. Feudalism, capitalism,
socialism) there was a different combination of ‘forces of production’ and
‘relations of production’
 Mode of production: The system of social relations organizing
production. This includes the relations of production, as well as the state
apparatus and the legal system. It also includes cultural norms and
ideologies about the way society should work.
 Relations of production: The division of labor, i.e. who does what in the
production process. Also includes who decides what is produced and
how it is produced, so includes the possibility of unequal decision-
making and power based on who owns the means of production.
Marxist theories of development (cont)
 capitalism is characterized by two major divisions within society; the
‘bourgeoisie’ who own the means of production, and the ‘proletariat’ who
do not.
 The proletariat sell their labor—wage (basics for families) + ‘surplus’ (for
bourgeoisie to creates profit for wealth-generation).
 Capitalism as being inherently unstable and vulnerable to crises.
Imperialism is the ‘highest stage of capitalism’ and Colonies provided
excellent possibilities for further profit generation, through the creation of
new markets, new sources of raw materials, and cheap labor. Eventually,
capitalism would be overthrown and replaced by socialist forms of
organization and production.
 Under a socialist or communist regime, there would be communal
ownership rather than private property and individuals would work
according to their abilities and would be provided with according to their
needs.
Marxist stages of development
Neo-Marxism
 Despite de-colonization, capitalism had not collapsed.
 Paul Baran, along with Paul Sweezy, argued that capitalism was
now in a period of ‘monopoly capitalism’.
 Large companies dominated the world economy and were able to
exploit poorer parts of the world. the
 governments of poorer economies should intervene and prevent
funds to escape.
 Unfortunately, these governments were either corrupt, or lacked the
power to prevent this exploitation.
 The only solution to this problem was for countries to leave the
world capitalist system in favor of a state-socialist system.
Structuralists
 Paul Prebisch:
 the global trading system based on principles of free trade acted
as an obstacle for Latin American development.
 national development strategies should involve greater state
intervention to protect national industries so allowing them to
establish themselves without competition from foreign firms.
 Land reform involved redistributing land so that these small-
scale farmers would have larger plots.
 Import-Substitution Industrialization (ISI) and the Alliance for
Progress (AfP)
 ISI was interpreted as fostering inefficiencies in the operation of
the economy and stifling growth and development.
Dependency theories
 André Gunder Frank (1967): ‘development of
underdevelopment’
 the core industrialized countries were experiencing growth
and economic development through the exploitation of the
non-industrialized peripheral countries.
 Solutions: 1) ‘reformists’ : reform of the capitalist trade
system, perhaps with greater state intervention; 2) ‘Marxists’:
the overthrow of the capitalist system.
 Criticisms: 1) Asian tigers; 2) overly concerned economic
factors, no consideration of the social, cultural or political
contexts; 3) definition of ‘capitalism’ (‘autonomous industrial
growth’ ) used causes circular arguments.
World-systems theory
 Immanuel Wallerstein (1974): identified three
groupings of countries: ‘core’, ‘semi-periphery’ and
‘periphery’.
 The members of these categories were not fixed,
could move in and out of categories depending on
their economic situation.
 Exclude local-level processes
Socialist approaches to development
Soviet model of development
 From a society dominated by peasant agriculture to a
highly-industrialized economy, the Soviet experiment
provided some examples of how central planning
could be used to promote such economic changes,
rather than relying on the market.
 a centrally-planned economy, especially within a
territory of approximately 22 million km2, led to a
range of inefficiencies and problems. Agriculture was
neglected with serious consequences for food supply.
very serious environmental damage and limitations on
human freedom during Stalinist period
Chinese approach of development
 Central state planning was key to the system and a series of five-
year plans were implemented.
 widespread collectivization of agriculture took place, with peasants
grouped into agricultural settlements for communal production.
 State investment into heavy industry: ‘great leap forward’ and
‘walking on two legs’.– poor quality and low production
 Socialist Market economy: move towards market mechanisms in
some sectors by opening up parts of the economy to foreign
investment.
 Special Economic Zones (SEZs): tax concessions and preferable
land rents, Cheap and educated cheap labor, complete ownership of
Foreign factories and partnership with SOEs.
African socialism or socialism in Africa
 Young (1982: 11) identifies three main ideologies that were adopted by the
newly-independent African states:
1 ） capitalist development
2 ） Marxist-Leninism (‘Afro-Marxism’) ： Rather than trying to build development
solutions based on the peculiarly African context, the Soviet model of economic
development and social welfare was applicable in all geographical locations. the
importance of central state planning and state ownership of key units of production was
at the heart of the policies. In reality, the state bureaucracy was too weak to implement
planning systems.
3 ） ‘ populist socialism’ (‘African socialism’) ： communal ownership of land and
natural resources, and the traditional importance of collective working on the land ；
adapt these models to African realities. Tanzania, Algeria, Ghana, Mali and Guinea.
 Increasing debt and economic problems forced many countries to accept
restructuring packages associated with IMF loans. This shift to market-oriented
economies with multi-party democracies has been evident throughout the South.
Summary
 Marxist definitions of ‘development’ are based on ideas of
‘modernity’.
 Structuralist and dependency theories stress the importance of
looking at the global economic system.
 Dependency theories argue that ‘underdevelopment’ is caused by
unequal global power relations.
 State-socialist development models involve the primary role of the
state as decision-maker.
 There have been attempts to introduce ‘African socialism’ with
limited success.
 State-led socialist models of development in Africa were replaced
by Western liberal-democratic, capitalist models.
Discussion
 Share the history of African countries and
discuss how the continent was influenced by
neo-liberalism and Marxism? What kind of
legacy can we still see today?