Explain the relevance of the Marxist approach in the context of globalization. (UPSC CSE Mains 2019 - Political Science and International Relations, Paper 2).
- Marxism is a relatively new approach to IR. In terms of basic assumptions, methodology and dealing with the issues, the Marxist approach presents a different and fascinating picture of world politics. Imperialism has been a keen area of interest for Marxists.
- Earlier Marxists have linked the origin and development of imperialism with the advancement of capitalism. However, based on the analysis of imperialism presented by Marxists after Lenin, it can be said that to have a proper understanding of the Marxist theory of imperialism, we necessarily need to go beyond Hobson and Lenin and include neo-Marxist and globalisation era Marxist account of imperialism.
- Taking inspiration from Marxism, three variants of neo-Marxism have significantly enhanced our understanding of world politics. The dependency theory explains how unfair terms of trade between developed and newly independent states lead to exploitation of post-colonial states by the developed capitalist states.
- The neo-Gramscian approach has splendidly shown how the powerful state establishes and maintain their hegemony and suggested the way to end it. Going a step further, the critical theory has underscored the need and way to end the exploitation of human being and realise their emancipation.
- Despite its retreat after the economic crisis of 2008, there is no denying that globalization continues to be one of the central tendencies of capitalism’s law of motion. Indeed, exactly 150 years ago, Marx recognized the phenomenon now understood as globalization as the world market, although he did not use the former term, because it was coined about a century after his death. However, what Marx meant by ‘intercourse with foreign nations … the expeditions of adventurers, colonization … the extension of markets into a world market … a new phase of historical development’ in The German Ideology, co-authored with Friedrick Engels (1820–95), was nothing else than today’s globalization.
- According to the economist Joseph Stiglitz, “Countries find themselves in situations where they are having policies imposed on them”. He finds it similar to the 19th-century opium wars when the countries were told to open the economy by using military power.
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