Marxist Theories of I.

Lecture 10
 Gramscianism
• Italian School of International Political Economy
(IPE)
• Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937) was founding member
of Italian Communist party
• Jailed in 1926 & spent remaining life there
• Prison Notebooks
 Key Question
• “Why had it proven to be so difficult to promote
revolution in Western Europe?”
• History of early 20th century suggest that there was
flaw in classical Marxist analysis
• Concept of Hegemony (broader conceptualization of
Power)
• Develops Machiavelli’s view of Power as a centaur
• In less developed countries coercion kept revolution
dormant
• In developed countries system was maintained by
consent
• Consent is created by Hegemony of the ruling class
via civil society networks
• Hegemony allows the values of dominant group to be
accepted by subordinate classes
 Implications
• Marxist theory needs to take super structural
phenomenon seriously
• Nature of relations in superstructure determines how
susceptible that society to change & transformation
• “Historic Bloc”
• Relationship b/w socioeconomic relations (base) &
political and cultural practices (superstructure)
• For revolution there is need for counter hegemonic
struggle or alternative historical Bloc
 The Analysis of World Order
• Robert Cox (Canadian Scholar)
• Introduced Gramscianism to World Politics
• Social Forces, States and World Orders: Beyond
International Relations theory (1981)
• Important Sentence
• “Theory is always for some one and for some
purpose”
 Main Argument
• All knowledge of social world reflects a certain
context, time and space
• Knowledge can not be objective or timeless
• No separation between values and facts
• Need to look closely at each theory that claims to be
value free & ask what purpose does it serve
Critical Examination of Theories
• Critical examination of Realism
• These theories serve the interests of statuesque ruling
elites (Reinforcement of ruling hegemony)
• These are problem solving theories that accept the
present order and legitimize unjust system
• Need for critical theory that challenges the prevailing
order by analyzing and assisting social processes for
emancipation
 Global Hegemony
• Global hegemony maintains stability and continuity
at international levels
• Successive dominant powers have shaped world
orders that suit their interests by both coercion and
consent (Analysis of UK & USA hegemony)
• Hegemonic idea of Free Trade
• Free trade has attained common sense status
• In reality it hinders social and economic development
of peripheral States
 Critical Theory
• Overlaps b/w Critical Theory and Gramscianism
• Both have their roots in W. Europe in 1920’s and
1930’s (Marxism was forced to come to terms with
failure of revolutionary uprisings and rise of Fascism
• Differences
• Gramscianism is concerned with issues relating to
IPE
• Critical theory concerned with questions relating to
International society, International ethics & Security
• Critical theory developed out of the work of Frankfurt
School
• Left-wing German Jews, forced into exile by Hitler
• Leading lights
• Max Horkheimer, Theodor Adorno, Herbert Marcuse
• Subsequent generation
• Jurgen Habermas & Andrew Linklater
 Main Features
• Not much interested in further analysis of economic
base of society
• Focus on Superstructure
• Concentrate on questions relating to culture,
bureaucracy, social base, nature of authoritarianism,
structure of family, reason, rationality, theories of
knowledge, analysis of role of media (Culture
Industry)
• With the rise of mass culture & increasing
commodification of every element of social life
working class has been absorbed by the system and
no longer represents a threat to it
• Explorations of the meanings of Emancipation
• Historically, emancipation is linked to Imperialism
• Marxist have equated emancipation with human
mastery over nature through the development of
sophisticated technology
• Humanity’s increased domination over nature had
been bought at too high a price
• Emancipation had to be conceived in terms of
reconciliation with nature
 Habermas Argument
• Emancipation is concerned with communication than
with our relationship with the natural world
• Route to emancipation lies through radical democracy
• System in which the widest possible participation is
encouraged not only in word but also in deed, by
actively identifying barriers to participation and
overcoming them
• Participation is not to be confined within the borders
of a particular sovereign State. Rights & obligations
extend beyond state frontiers
 Andrew Linklater
• Emancipation ( in I.R) should be understood in terms
of the expansion of moral boundaries of a political
community
• Equates emancipation with a process in which the
borders of the sovereign State lose ethical and moral
significance
• To move towards a situation in which citizens share
the same duties and obligations towards non-citizens
as they do towards their fellow citizens
• Need for wholesale transformation of the present
institutions of governance
• To identify and if possible nurture tendencies that
exist within the present conjuncture that point in the
direction of emancipation
• Development of EU represents emancipatory
tendency in contemporary world politics
• International system is entering an era in which
sovereign State is losing some of its preeminence
 Rise and Fall of Hegemony
• The degree to which State can successfully produce
and maintain hegemony is an indication of the extent
of its power
• US world-wide acceptance for neo-liberalism
• Present order will not remain unchallenged
• Emergence of counter-hegemonic movement through
economic crises
• Success depends upon
• “Pessimism of the intellect” with “Optimism of the
will”