1. Marxist and neo-Marxist international relations theories view the international system through a Marxist lens, emphasizing the centrality of economic factors and class struggle. 2. Key thinkers include Lenin, who analyzed imperialism as the highest stage of capitalism, and Gramsci, who developed the concept of cultural and ideological hegemony. 3. More recent theorists like Wallerstein propose a world-systems analysis, seeing the global economy as a single capitalist world-system with core, semi-periphery, and periphery states.

1. Theme “Major International Relations Theories”
DG 3.
Marxist and Neo-Marxist
International Relations
Theories
February 5th, 2015
Anna A. Dekalchuk,
Lecturer at the Department of Applied Politics,
Higher School of Economics – St. Petersburg

2. DG outline
1. 8-minute test
1. Marxist thought: legacy
1. Marxist thought: why renaissance?
1. Marxist thought on IR: outset
1. Dependency school
1. Gramsci
1. Gramsci & Robert Cox
1. Critical theory & Frankfurt School
1. New Marxism

3. 1. Multiple Choice Test
8 minutes, 10 questions, only
one correct answer per question

4. 2. Marxist thought: legacy
1. social world should be analysed as a totality;
2. materialist conception of history and economic
determinism (tension between the means of
production and relations of production that together
form the economic base of a given society) =>
3. base-superstructure model (legal, political, & cultural
institutions and practices of a given society reflect and
reinforce the patter of power and control in the
economy);
4. history of all existing societies is the history of class
struggle (axis of conflict is between the bourgeoisie
and the proletariat);
5. idea of emancipation (communist society).
(1818-1883)

5. 2. Marxist thought: legacy
Social world has to be studied as a whole
“Мы знаем, откуда произошли все эти разделения предмета. Они
интеллектуально вытекают из господствующей либеральной идеологии
девятнадцатого века, которая утверждала, что государство и рынок, политика
и экономика являются отдельными для анализа сферами, каждая со своими
особенными правилами ("логикой"). Общество было обязано содержать их
раздельно. Поскольку, казалось, было много реалий, явно не относившихся
ни к сфере рынка, ни к сфере государства, эти реалии были помещены в
ящик для отходов, который обрел в качестве компенсации величественное
название социологии. Существовало мнение, по которому считалось, что
социология объясняет (по-видимому) внешне "иррациональные" феномены,
которые экономика и политическая наука были не в состоянии объяснить.
Наконец, поскольку были народы, находящиеся вне господства
цивилизованного мира – отдаленные и с которыми было трудно общаться, –
изучение таких народов включало специальные требования и специальное
образование, которые получили спорное название антропологии.”
(Immanuel Wallerstein, “World-Systems Analysis,” in Social Theory Today, ed. Anthony Giddens and
Jonathan H. Turner (Stanford University Press, 1987), 312.)

6. 2. Marxist thought: legacy
Base-superstructure model

7. 3. Marxist thought: why renaissance?
1. Disappearance of the USSR has encouraged an
appreciation of Marx’s work less laden with the
baggage of Marxism-Leninism as a state ideology
(USSR was plainly not the dreamt communist utopia);
1. Marx’s social theory retains formidable analytical
purchase on the world we inhabit (especially his
analysis of crisis).

8. 4. Marxist thought on IR: outset
Rosa Luxemburg
(1871-1919)
“The Accumulation of
Capital” (1913)
Leon Trotsky
(1879-1940)
Combined and uneven
development thesis
Vladimir Lenin
(1870-1924)
“Imperialism, the Highest
Stage of Capitalism” (1917)
According to Lenin, what is a two-tier structure and why is there no
longer an automatic harmony of interests between all workers?

9. 5. Dependency school
Andre Gunder Frank
(1929-2005)
Raúl Prebisch
(1901-1986)
“The Economic
Development of Latin
America and its
Principal Problems”
(1950)
Fernando Henrique
Cardoso
(born 1931)

10. 6. World-system theory
Immanuel Wallerstein
(born 1930)

11. 6. World-system theory
1. World systems can be
either world empires or
world economies;
2. Current WS is the world
economy that emerged in
Europe in 16th centaury;
3. It is a capitalist world
economy;
4. Its institutions are
created and recreated;
5. But it has a beginning, a
middle and an end;
6. According to Wallerstein,
it is now at the end of its
existence (crisis);
7. Three-tier model ->
What role does the
semi-periphery play?

12. 7. Gramscianism
Antonio Gramsci
(1891-1937)
“Prison Notebooks” (1971)
R
E
S
E
A
R
C
H
Q
U
E
S
T
I
O
N
?

13. 7. Gramscianism
1. Marx: revolution and the transition to
socialism would occur in the most
advanced capitalist societies, but there
is no empirical proof;
2. Gramsci: concept of hegemony and the
Machiavelli’s view of power as a centaur
(a mix of coercion and consent);
3. Consent is created and recreated by the
hegemony of the ruling class in society
and this takes place through the
institutions of civil society (false
consciousness).
1. Thus, more attention to be paid to the
superstructural phenomena (concept of
historical bloc);
2. Idea of counter-hegemonic struggle in
civil society to allow an alternative
historic bloc to develop.

14. Robert W. Cox
(born 1926)
“Social Forces, States and World
Order: Beyond IR Theory”
(1981)
“Theory is always for
some one, and for some
purpose”
(1981: 128)
Knowledge cannot be
objective and timeless as it
is a reflection of a certain
context, time and space.
7. Gramscianism & Robert Cox
What is the difference between
problem-solving and critical theory?
And what about hegemony?

15. 8. Critical theory & Frankfurt School
Theodor Adorno
(1903-1969)
Max Horkheimer
(1895-1973)
Herbert Marcuse
(1898-1979)
One-dimensional society
What is one-dimensional society?

16. 8. Critical theory & Frankfurt School
Jurgen Habermas
(born 1929)
1. Meaning of emancipation and
the role of communication.
2. Radical democracy and
participation.
Andrew Linklater
(born 1949)
1. Emancipation as a process
in which borders of the
sovereign state lose their
ethic and moral
significance.
2. The goal is a situation in
which citizens share the
same duties and
obligations towards non-
citizens as they do to their
fellow citizens

17. 9. New Marxism
Justin Rosenberg Benno Teschke
(born 1967)