The chapter tackles the interplay between Marxism and international relations (IR). It then discusses how Marxism grew relevant in line with the emergence of the Third World as an international political force. Unlike realism, Marxism is a progressive political philosophy, but it radically parts company with liberalism on how significant change might come about and the extent of the change needed. The chapter mentions that Marxist and Marxist-influenced scholarship became more visible during the aftermath of the Cold War era. The chapter also looks into the key concepts of capitalism, imperialism, dependency theory, world systems theory (WST), neo-Gramscianism, and critical theory.
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5. Marxism And International Relations
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1. Changing Analytical Approaches to the Study of Politics in the Developing World
Vicky Randall
This chapter discusses the main broad analytical approaches or frameworks of interpretation that have been used in studying politics in the developing world. It first considers two contrasting broad approaches that long dominated political analysis of developing countries. The first was a politics of modernization that gave rise to political development theory, then to revised versions of that approach. The second was a Marxist-inspired approach that gave rise to dependency theory and, subsequently, to neo-Marxist analysis. The chapter also examines globalization theory and critical responses to globalization as neoliberal ideology, which have been associated with the ‘anti-globalization movement’ and have included arguments about orientalism and ‘post-development’ theory. Finally, it explores the strategies, categories, and more specific methods of analysis that have been typically deployed to assess the politics of developing countries.
