The Politics of Ideologie-Kritik: Socialism in the Age of Neo/Post-Marxism

Abstract

In significant ways globalization theory derives from and is dependent on ideas originating with Marx, Engels, and Marxism. However, there are important puzzles within the Marxist heritage that need resolving, before current assessments of the global economic situation post-2007 can proceed. This is because these puzzles—about the nature of critique, the appropriate understanding of ideology, and the political power of neo/post Marxism—are part of the situation itself. Only after this clarification do Neo-Marxism and Post-Marxism make contrasting, but consistent sense. In a new era of global depression, credit crunch, and overt class struggle the multi-polar realities of the G20 nations now openly challenge the traditional dichotomies that divided democratic from one-party states, “free market” from planned (socialist) economies, and developed from developing (capitalist) economies. Globalization theory will thus require revision, and international political economy will necessarily rely on Ideologie-Kritik.