From Territorial to Nonterritorial Capitalist Imperialism: Lenin and the Possibility of a Marxist Theory of Imperialism

Abstract

The concept of imperialism has returned to political and theoretical debates. But there are open theoretical questions. In opposition to treating imperialism in terms of a territorial logic, we insist on the nonterritorial character of capitalist imperialism. We go back to Lenin's theoretical contribution to a possible Marxist theory of imperialism in order to distance it from theories of empire building and territorial expansion. We attempt to combine such a reading of Lenin's writings on imperialism with a conception of political power and hegemony on the international plane, stressing the relative autonomy of the state and political power. We highlight Lenin's discussion of imperialism's class character, in terms of condensed class strategies. Consequently, the aim of this paper is to offer elements of a theory of the specifically capitalist form of nonterritorial imperialism, stressing the importance of articulating Lenin's concept of the imperialist chain with Gramsci's concept of hegemony.