.png)
🌐 Core Themes +
- IR analysed from class perspective, not state-centric.
- States act to protect interests of dominant class.
- Global politics reflects global mode of production.
- International system is capitalist; favors dominant class.
- Colonialism, imperialism, and globalization represent capitalist expansion.
- Dominant class/state uses force & hegemony to make their worldview mainstream (soft power, cultural hegemony).
⚙️ Features / Strands +
- Critical theory: Offers 3rd way beyond Realism and Liberalism.
- Multiple strands: World System & Dependency Theory, Gramscian Hegemony, Neo-Marxism, Frankfurt School.
🌍 World System & Dependency Theory +
- World System Theory (Immanuel Wallerstein): Core, Periphery, Semi-periphery structure.
- Core: Developed capitalist states; Periphery: Exploited poor states.
- Dominant classes in core & periphery exploit masses/labor in periphery.
- Dependency Theory (Raúl Prebisch, F.H. Cardoso, A.G. Frank): Satellites in underdeveloped nations are dependent on core; leads to "development underdevelopment".
👑 Hegemony (Gramsci) +
- Hegemony: 3rd dimension of power; manufactured consent via moral, political, cultural values of dominant class.
- Maintained by civil society & institutions: media, education, NGOs (superstructure).
- Base dominance achieved without coercion/violence.
- In IR: Dominant capitalist states control global superstructure (internet, finance, trade), shaping worldview, culture, consumption patterns.
⚖️ Great Debate: Miliband vs Poulantzas +
- Miliband (Instrumental view): State serves capitalist class interests.
- Poulantzas (Structural view): State reproduces social structures that perpetuate capitalism.
🎓 Main Thinkers +
- Classical Marxism: Lenin, Stalin, Mao Zedong, Louis Althusser, Karl Kautsky
- World System & Dependency: Immanuel Wallerstein, Raúl Prebisch, F.H. Cardoso, A.G. Frank
- Gramscianism: Antonio Gramsci, Robert Cox
- Neo-Marxism: Justin Rosenberg, Wallerstein, Samir Amin, A.G. Frank
- Analytical Marxism: G.A. Cohen, Jon Elster, John Roemer, Erik Olin Wright, Adam Przeworski
- Frankfurt School: Herbert Marcuse, Jurgen Habermas, Andrew Linklater
- Marxist Feminism: Rosa Luxemburg, Alexandra Kollontai