Alternative Theoretical Perspectives: Marxism and Leninism

1
Alternative Theoretical Perspectives Marxism and
Leninism

• PO 325 International Politics

2
Marxism

• Originally put forth by Germans Karl Marx and
  Friedrich Engels denies many of the basic
  concepts of the major paradigms
• Economic Theory of Domestic and International
  Relations (i.e., all issues reducible to
  questions of economic gain, not political power)
• Main Contention The system of economic
  production determines the institutional and
  ideological structures of a society

3
Marxism Basic Tenets

• All history is the history of economic class
  struggle between groups within society
• The result of this struggle is, inevitably, the
  victory of opposing groups over the ruling group
  and the subsequent changing of economic systems
• Like all systems before it (hunter-gatherer,
  feudalism, etc.), capitalism contains the seeds
  of its own destruction

4
The Marxist View of Capitalism

• Proletariat (industrial working class) is
  producer of goods in society bourgeoisie, though
  contributing nothing, owns the modes of
  production, and takes the vast majority of the
  capital (proletariat paid subsistence wages)
• Bourgeoisie takes more and more of the profit,
  widening the economic gap between proletariat and
  bourgeoisie
• Proletariat grows in size, and starts a
  protracted struggle with bourgeoisie, eventually
  culminating in revolution
• The unfair capitalist system is replaced by one
  in which distribution of goods is based on need
  and contribution of work is based on ability

5
Marxism and IR Theory

• The economic forces central to Marxism are much
  more important than concepts such as state
  sovereignty
• Indeed, sovereignty and nationalism are viewed by
  many Marxists as tools of the bourgeoisie
  leadership to obscure class tensions
• Thus, the very basis of traditional IR the
  nation or state is not the at the heart of
  international interaction or the root of
  meaningful conflict

6
Leninism and Imperialism

• Lenin, the Russian Revolutionary, developed a
  refined theory of how the forces of capitalism
  culminate in conflict between states (WWI in
  particular)
• Reflecting Hobsons views on finance
  capitalism, Lenin saw imperialism as being the
  inevitable result of the need for capitalists to
  invest excess capital (both through the
  acquisition of materials and the economic
  development of colonial societies)

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Leninism and Imperialism

• Capitalists from different countries seek to
  invest as much excess capital in as many colonies
  as possible, inevitably bringing them into
  contact with one another
• The jostling for spheres of economic influence
  in the Third World will lead to major power war,
  as it did in 1914

8
How Has Marxism Fared?

• Was at the heart of ideological conflict and
  competition since the Bolshevik Revolution of
  1917 in Russia
• However, no Communist state has be governed by
  Marxist theory, or came about as the result of a
  Marxist revolution
• Centralized economies and strict
  authoritarianism, imposed by vanguard of the
  proletariat, have largely been total failures