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
Steve Weber UC Berkeley
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?
Steve Weber UC Berkeley
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.
Steve Weber UC Berkeley
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.
Steve Weber UC Berkeley
What role do states play? • Instrumental Marxism
• Structural Marxism
Steve Weber UC Berkeley
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?
Steve Weber UC Berkeley
German Imports by Region, 1999
Developing World 14%
other 2%
Central & Estern Europe 11% Japan 5% US & Canada 9% EFTA 6% EU 53%
Steve Weber UC Berkeley
Steve Weber UC Berkeley
Share of total FDI 1985-1995 (%)
1.8
27.4
developing world developed world other
70.8
Steve Weber UC Berkeley
Foreign ownership of economy in developing world (% of GDP)
100%
90%
80%
70%
60% 90.9 50% 89.5 86.6
80 rest of economy FDI stock
40%
30%
20%
10% 9.1 0% 1985-1995 (annual average) 1996 1997 10.5 13.4
20
1998
Steve Weber UC Berkeley
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
Steve Weber UC Berkeley
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
Steve Weber UC Berkeley