Marxism: A Global Perspective

A chapter on Marxism may seem odd in a book on contemporary politics. The former Communist world has collapsed and, some would argue, good riddance to a body of thought which provided an apology for the existence of highly repressive governments. This point might be applied to other political ideologies, not least in terms of the West’s treatment of the colonial world, and ignores the important Marxist critiques of, and opposition to, these regimes. More important, Marxist analyses of capitalism remain relevant, as they highlight the exploitation and hierarchy that exists within global capitalism, the focus of this chapter. The chapter aims: (1) to show the utility of some of Marx’s analysis of the expansion of capitalism for understanding contemporary globalisation, with particular reference to political economy; and (2) to assess the contemporary political economy of globalisation, with particular attention paid to the question of whether the world is becoming ‘flatter’ and therefore converging, or actually becoming more uneven and therefore diverging. The two questions will be linked because it will be suggested that Marx and the Marxist tradition contains arguments supportive of both positions, and this is linked to how Marx understood both capitalism and its expansion beyond national borders. The chapter will outline its contentions in three main sections. First, it will introduce the reader to Marx’s arguments concerning capitalism and show how Marx saw it as both exploitative and progressive. The second section’s focus is on ‘globalisation’ and how Marx and later Marxists attempted to understand the expansion of capitalism beyond its ‘heartlands’ in Europe.