Political Marxism Research Articles

Capitalism, Procreation, and Gender: Towards a Gender Liberated Politics of Procreation

Capitalism, Procreation, and Gender: Towards a Gender Liberated Politics of Procreation

Capitalism, Competition and Class Conflicts: A Pedagogical Introduction to Marxist Political Economy

This article offers an introduction to Marxian economics for the uninitiated student or instructor. It first places Marxian economics within the surplus approach and ties Marx’s economic analysis with his theory of history, that is, historical materialism. The concepts of class, mode of production and antagonism are introduced. The article then discusses Marx’s analysis of capitalism. This is performed by first introducing the reader to the labour theory of value and then to the circuit of capital. The conflict between capital and labour and the conflict between capital and capital are explored around the question of technological change and innovation. This is followed by a brief discussion of the capitalist crises in the Marxian framework, after which the article concludes by presenting two strands of debate within Marxian economics.

Beyond Postpositivism: Dialectics, Epistemology, and Critical Sociology with Adorno and Horkheimer

A broad “postpositivism” characterizes the epistemological basis of contemporary sociology. Nevertheless, sociology remains a multiparadigmatic discipline, home to approaches that differ greatly from each other in method. In this article, I examine questions of epistemology in sociological research by revisiting Adorno and Horkheimer’s critiques of positivism in German sociology. I argue that Adorno and Horkheimer’s articulation of an alternative critical theory provides four central features that remain novel in sociology today: (1) the refusal of a priori methodological or data protocol, (2) a strongly interpretive approach to theorization, (3) a necessarily totalizing approach to theorization, and (4) an active and overt political Marxism. I conclude by comparing implications of Adorno and Horkheimer’s critical sociology with Burawoy’s extended case method, with which it shares many features yet remains distinct.

Exploring the nexus between Nigeria waterways, national and international security

The existence and sustainability of humanity on earth have been linked to numerous human economic activities which have precipitated the movement of people, goods, and services across various geographical climes. These economic activities over time have impacted the maritime ecosystem and have been identified as one of the most influential means of interactions in trade and commercial activities as it accounts for over 90% of the global movement of goods and services as against other means and forms of transportation. It is in light that this study looked at the impact of waterways on Nigeria’s economy, the nexus between waterways, national and international security and maritime threats to Nigeria waterways. The study adopted the secondary method of data collection through content analysis of online publications, journals, news items, government gazettes, unpublished theses, etc. Using the Marxist political economic theory popularized by Adam Smith and David Ricardo in the 18th century, this study found out that the Nigeria maritime sector is a vital component of the country's economy, contributing significantly to its GDP and employing thousands of workers. However, the industry is plagued by severe maritime threats, including piracy, sea robbery, and maritime terrorism, which are attributed to various factors such as socio-economic, political, and infrastructural deficits. This study concluded by recommending that the Nigerian government should enhance Indigenous participation and domination in the maritime sector, strengthen maritime security and surveillance, and implement international frameworks and guidelines.

Jurisdiction, Legal Form, and the Transition to Capitalism Debate: Recovering Agency and Discontinuity

Abstract The increased interest in law and capitalism has not translated into an engagement in legal scholarship with the transition-to-capitalism debate. This article contributes a critique of commercialisation approaches to the history of capitalism and law from a Political Marxist perspective. It argues that combining jurisdiction and legal form provides a more flexible conceptual architecture to account for early-modern juridical practices. Conceptually, this enables an encounter between the structural and subject-centred commodity-form theory of law (cftl) and the more granular, agentic, and class-centred Political Marxist approach. Empirically, exploring two key institutions – property and sovereignty – provides an opportunity to focus on their jurisdictional dimensions driven by specific class struggles and agencies. These reflect, through the concept of jurisdiction, the ruptures and discontinuities of the transition, while form analysis accounts for the more continuous and structural processes of key institutions shaping the apparent linearity of law.

‘Drawing the Line’: Market Rule and Liberal Planning in the Governance of Capitalism

This article critically engages with the ‘death of neoliberalism’ debate. Its purpose is not to determine whether neoliberalism is dying or not but to highlight the limitations of the question, ‘is neoliberalism dead?’ The question invites answers that cannot satisfactorily account for both continuities and transformations in capitalist governance. Existing sides of the debate miss the fact that market discipline is a shared commitment of all iterations of liberal governance, not only neoliberalism. Liberal governance, I argue, is a balancing act between market discipline and planning measures to manage the social costs of accumulation. The argument develops in two steps. First, it presents a brief intellectual history of social liberalism – the most explicitly pro-planning voice in the liberal canon – highlighting its similarities with neoliberalism. Second, it theoretically engages with the Open and Political Marxist traditions to discern the drivers behind the state’s concurrent impulse to expand and self-limit the scope of planning.

Politicisation, de-politicisation, re-politicisation: French poetry after May 1968

This article grapples with the changing relationships between politics and aesthetics in post‐1968 French poetic production. With reference to some of the salient socio-economic shifts that have occurred since the 1970s ‐ from the neoliberal disciplining of the working classes initiated in the late 1970s and the ideological and critical ‘paralysis’ that followed, to the proto-fascist mutations of capital in the current period ‐ it distinguishes three moments. First, it focuses on the TXT review as an example of the way in which ‘poetry’ and ‘politics’ could be articulated by ‘neo-avant-gardist’ poets, in the period that ended at the same time as the Keynesian compromise settlement, in the mid-1970s ‐ a time when Marxist politics were widespread. By the 1980s, however, following the neoliberal onslaught and the acute de-politicisation to which it contributed, the avant-gardist pledge to ‘change life’ by acting on its forms had become inconceivable, as exemplified in Prigent’s trajectory (the second moment considered here). Lastly, in the context of the resurgence of visible forms of social struggle since the 1990s ‐ and in contrast to the then-dominant neo-lyrical poetics ‐ a new generation of poets is discussed, a generation which offered interesting if inconsistent ways of tackling the prospect of political action, both within literature and outside of it.

Research on Mixed Ownership Reform of State-Owned Enterprises from the Perspective of Marxist Political Economy

Under China’s socialist system, state-owned enterprises are key forces driving the economic trajectory and providing strong momentum. These enterprises not only bear the crucial responsibility of advancing the process of national modernization but also serve as the core of the national economic lifeline through their irreplaceable status and function amidst changing times. In the new era, with the advent of the technological revolution and the wave of globalization, state-owned enterprises face unprecedented opportunities and challenges. As a significant aspect of state-owned enterprise reform, the mixed ownership reform is not only a transformation in the structure of enterprise ownership but also a reflection of China’s broader, comprehensive reform efforts. By deeply advancing this reform, it will help optimize the allocation of state-owned assets and significantly boost technological and management innovation within state-owned enterprises, ensuring their competitiveness in the intense market environment. Therefore, this paper will conduct an in-depth analysis of the mixed ownership reform of state-owned enterprises from the perspective of Marxist political economy.

Competition and Distribution of Profit Rates in Colombia: A Marxist Political Economy Analysis

ABSTRACT The firm-level rate of profit and the average rates of profit by industry play a central role in the study of intra-and-inter industry real competition. There has been a relatively lack of empirical research about competition and distribution of profit rates, especially for peripheral countries. This article estimates the distribution of profit rates among and within industries in Colombia and interprets those results in light of the Marxist economic theory. The econometrical methodology relies on non-parametric techniques (kernel density estimations) employing firm-level data from the 4963 biggest firms in the country in 2018. The main results are: first, a significant dispersion in the firm-level profit rates as well as in the average profit rates across industries; second, a non-normal uni-modal tent-shape distribution for the general firm-level rates of profit as well as for the distribution of profit rates in the majority of industries; third, negative profit rates as a structural feature of profit rate distribution at both: general and sectoral levels; fourth, in comparison with interest rates, the firms exhibit low profitability: 60.5% of the firms yielded profit rates below the average deposit interest rate. Grosso modo, those findings are congruent with Marxist economic theory but not with other economic paradigms.

Supply Chain Sustainability: Influencing Factors and Empirical Study from a Marxist Political Economy Perspective

Marxist political economy provides a theoretical framework for sustainable supply chains, while the implementation of sustainable supply chains embodies and deepens the practical application of Marxist principles. This paper studies supply chain sustainability from the perspective of Marxist political economy, proposing a novel analytical framework to address sustainability challenges. The primary research focuses on (1) Identifying Influencing Factors: Influencing factors of Marxist political economy and supply chain sustainability are categorized into four main areas: society and government, environment, economy, and the supply chain itself. Through classification analysis, 16 key factors influencing sustainable supply chain implementation are identified. (2) DEMATEL Analysis (Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory Method): Data are gathered through investigations and questionnaires to construct a direct influence matrix. Subsequently, a decision test method quantitatively analyzes the interactions among these factors, resulting in a comprehensive influence matrix and a cause–effect diagram. To enhance the overall benefits of supply chain sustainability and foster sustainable development.

“No One Is Who They Say They Are”: The Political Aesthetics of David Peace, Waste Land Poetry, and Extreme Music

Abstract This article constructs a genealogy of anti-imperialist cultural practice, connecting novels and spoken word projects of David Peace to post–World War II Japanese poetry and to the extreme music practice of the powerviolence band Column of Heaven. By placing Peace's novels in conversation with these different cultural forms, it aims to show how the modernist mystification can augment the radical political effects of popular art during the era of imperialism. The article proposes an alternative route to Marxist cultural criticism via Althusser's understanding of ideological interpellation and his critique of Lenin's classic analysis of imperialism. In this sense, it proposes to link contemporary experimental musical and literary practice to a Marxist politics of anti-imperialism, in contradistinction to the potentially depoliticizing effects of the popular critique of neoliberalism.

Reconciling Tensions in the Analysis of Bourgeois Revolutions: A Critical Realist Approach

When and how do agents consciously reproduce or unconsciously transform social structures? This inquiry is pivotal for advancing a theory of socio-historical development, particularly in addressing a key debate within International Historical Sociology (IHS) surrounding modern revolutions. This debate revolves around the tension between the “consequentialist” interpretation of bourgeois revolutions and the “revisionist” critiques, notably from the “historicist” wing of Political Marxism (PM). This article contends that the tension arises from an inadequate conceptualization of the agent-structure relationship. Drawing on Roy Bhaskar’s transformational model of social activity (TMSA) and critical realist philosophy of science, the article proposes a conceptual framework reconciling PM’s focus on class struggle to understand the historical specificity of capitalism with the role bourgeois revolutions historically and structurally played for the development of capitalism. Integrating Bhaskar’s framework with historical materialism-inspired debates on bourgeois revolutions, the paper suggests that agents’ unconscious actions can transform social structures amid social disintegration (“classic bourgeois revolutions”). Conversely, agents consciously seek to preserve and reproduce social structures, as seen in “passive revolutions”. This occurs when social structures, marked by inequality and hierarchies, are viewed as historical constructs rather than natural phenomena, particularly in the context of uneven and combined development of capitalism. This analysis contributes to ongoing IHS debates, enriches our comprehension of modern revolutions, and extends TMSA by empirically delineating circumstances wherein agents consciously uphold or unwittingly trigger the transformation of social structures.

Quo Vadis, Historical International Relations? Geopolitical Marxism and the Promise of Radical Historicism

John Maclean’s 1988 call “Marxism and IR: A Strange Case of Mutual Neglect” has generated a rich bounty of Marxist studies and paradigms in International Relations (IR). This cross-pollination merged in the 1990s with the “historical turn” and shaped the sub-fields of International Historical Sociology and International Political Economy. But has it left its mark on how IR is practised today? We argue that while Marxism has spoken significantly to the discipline, mainstream IR, even Historical IR, has been largely impervious to Marxist arguments, drawing the standard charge of economism and structuralism. Rectifying these critiques, we suggest that conventional historical studies of “the international” remain methodologically and substantively impoverished. We exemplify this by showing how leading Historical IR studies of “systems change” fail to explain the inside/outside and public/private differentiations constitutive of the modern international order and to integrate the “levels of analysis” they presuppose. We further argue that this rejection has been facilitated by influential Marxist IR paradigms, which ultimately privilege structuralism over historicism: While Neo-Gramscians initially mobilised “historicism” to dissolve claims about the “sameness” of international relations across time and space, the approach became identified with the reified master-category of “hegemony”. Uneven and Combined Development, in turn, has gravitated towards matching Neo-realism’s claim to theoretical universality by insisting on transhistorical model-building and nomological “grand theory”. Both approaches remain over-sociologised and fail to address international politics. Drawing on radically historicist Political Marxism, this article shows how its substantive socio-political premises explain the historical formation of the contemporary international order and re-unite the “levels of analysis” theoretically to provide a framework for non-reductionist and non-economistic accounts of historical international relations. This requires an answer to the agentic challenge of Neo-Classical Realism by reincorporating grand strategy, diplomacy, and international politics into a reformulated perspective of Geopolitical Marxism to track the full historicity of the making of international orders.

Can Jacobinism Be Questioned at the Same Level of Abstraction as Capitalism? The Lack of a Theory of State in Political Marxism

Can Jacobinism Be Questioned at the Same Level of Abstraction as Capitalism? The Lack of a Theory of State in Political Marxism

Why Does China Implement the "Dual Reduction Policy" to Restrict Educational Industry? An Explanation Based on Marxist Political Economy

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels proposed in "The Communist Manifesto" the viewpoint of the inevitable demise of capitalism, Marxist political economy serves as an explanation and justification of this viewpoint. Marxist political economy forms a complete logical system, which elucidates the developmental path of capitalist collapse through three stages: surplus value, free competition, and monopoly capitalism. The theory of surplus value explains the intrinsic essence of capitalist society, wherein capitalists profit by exploiting labor, while free market competition and monopoly capitalism are external manifestations of the operational laws of capitalist society. In recent years, the disorderly expansion of educational capital in China has shown clear monopolistic tendencies. At this juncture, China promptly implemented the "dual reduction policy" to restrict the expansion of educational capital, which is a practical application of Marxist political economy. From the perspective of Marxist political economy theory, China's restrictions on educational capital serve three purposes: firstly, to prevent capital from excessively depriving laborers of surplus value; secondly, to avoid cyclical economic crises brought about by unregulated capital competition; thirdly, to prevent monopolies and thereby avert both economic crises and the social crises brought about by monopolies.

Capital is Dead. Long Live Capital! A Political Marxist Analysis of Digital Capitalism and Infrastructure

There is a growing literature suggesting that the digital economy is taking us out of capitalism. While this manifests most notably as a diagnosis of ‘digital feudalism’ or ‘techno-feudalism’, a differing voice is McKenzie Wark, who suggests we have entered an entirely new mode of production altogether: ‘vectoralism’. This paper historicises and theorises our current conjuncture in relation to the potential multiplicity of modes of production, and the materiality and imperialism of telecommunication infrastructures. We approve of Wark's development of new concepts, rather than turning to ahistorical regurgitations like ‘neo-feudalism’. However, we argue that the mode of production lens is not adequate to trace what we consider as more granular changes and that it risks packaging old wine in new bottles. For example, Wark's vectoral claims remain grounded in infrastructures such as undersea cables that are used by corporations and states as strategies of legal and economic imperialism reminiscent of the 19th century world order. Instead of examining this topic through a mode of production lens, we contend that these phenomena are better traced through a processual (rather than functional) and socially determined (rather than economically determined) method of historical materialism. In this regard, we adopt an approach closer to that of E. P. Thompson and Political Marxists, such as Brenner and Wood. To support our argument, we turn to both wider Marxist theory on the mode of production, which we then anchor in empirical works from contemporary critical infrastructure and communication studies.

Before the “fall”: Alan Fox's “intellectual crisis” and early pluralist history and sociology

PurposeThis paper presents an historical reconstruction of the radicalisation of Alan Fox, the industrial sociologist and a detailed analysis of his early historical and sociological writing in the classical pluralist phase.Design/methodology/approachAn intellectual history, including detailed discussion of key Fox texts, supported by interviews with Fox and other Biographical sources.FindingsFox’s radicalisation was incomplete, as he carried over from his industrial relations (IR) pluralist mentors, Allan Flanders and Hugh Clegg, a suspicion of political Marxism, a sense of historical contingency and an awareness of the fragmented nature of industrial conflict.Originality/valueRecent academic attention has centred on Fox’s later radical pluralism with its “structural” approach to the employment relationship. This paper revisits his early, neglected classical pluralist writing. It also illuminates his transition from institutional IR to a broader sociology of work, influenced by AH Halsey, John Goldthorpe and others and the complex nature of his radicalisation.

马克思主义政治经济学视角下我国农村电商经济发展困境及策略探析

马克思主义政治经济学视角下我国农村电商经济发展困境及策略探析

Labor Market and Class Struggle from the Perspective of Marxist Political Economy

Within the viewpoint of Marxist political economy, inequalities in the labor market are regarded as products of class struggle under the capitalist system. These inequalities reflect the relatively disadvantaged position of the working class, who often face low wages, unstable working conditions, and exploitation. These injustices not only reflect economic structures but also deeply influence the construction of social status and power relations. Studying the organizational forms of the working class within this theoretical framework holds significant importance. Labor unions, as organizations representing workers' interests, undertake the responsibility of advocating for better working conditions and wages. Union organizations engage in collective actions, such as strikes and demonstrations, demonstrating the solidarity and strength of the working class, challenging the authority of the capitalist system.

Between Revolution and Repair: How Europe Underdeveloped Africa in a Caribbean Intellectual Tradition

This essay is assembled around four loosely interrelated questions concerning Walter Rodney’s How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (1972). First, Why read this book now? Second, How should we read this book today? Third, What is the politics and poetics of the formal conceptual and argumentative apparatus that shapes How Europe Underdeveloped Africa? And finally, fourth, If How Europe Underdeveloped Africa was not meant to engage an academic protocol but a Marxist politics of revolutionary social transformation, what is the idiom in which we might translate the radical impetus of the critique embodied in it into a contemporary political project?