A Century of Marxist Debates Concerning Capitalism, Imperialism and Imperialist Competition

Omer Moussaly Omer Moussaly

doi:10.13169/worlrevipoliecon.6.4.0482

Abstract

The mechanicist association of capitalism to western imperialism has paved the way for current “globalisation” and “empire” discourses while minimising the importance of the nation-state. Conversely only a small number of neo-Marxists think otherwise, and our paper, by returning to classical Marxist theorists of imperialism, tends to valorise their minority position.

Highlights

Rejecting such trends of thought, albeit widely shared in Marxist literature, Radhika Desai, in her article “Marx, List, and the Materiality of Nations” (2012), counterclaims that Marx and Engels envisaged the necessity of the state in capitalist development
We established the relevance of various statements concerning imperialism
Even in the age of globalisation, the nation-state is still playing a major role, albeit underestimated by many political theorists

Summary

Introduction

Rejecting such trends of thought, albeit widely shared in Marxist literature, Radhika Desai, in her article “Marx, List, and the Materiality of Nations” (2012), counterclaims that Marx and Engels envisaged the necessity of the state in capitalist development. Our paper has two main parts: in the first one, we give a review of the classical Marxist writings on imperialism in order to explain the unequal economic and political relations between developed capitalist countries and the rest of the world in a historical perspective that includes the centrality of the state.

Results

Conclusion