Globalist Theory of IR
Marxist Perspective
Imperialist Perspective
Dependency Theory
World System Theory
Neo-Gramscian Theory
Focus on the Third World

Realists dealt with how can stability be maintained in
an anarchic world?

Pluralists ask how peaceful change can be promoted
in an interdependent world.


Globalism tends to focus on why so many third world
states in Latin America, Africa, and Asia have been
unable to develop.
Emerged as theory to find answers to development
problems, but ended up more as an explanation of
underdevelopment in the Third World.
What to focus on ?



Focus on the structure of the international
capitalist system; division of labour; mode of
production, international trade
Capitalist world system is their starting point. They
focus on dependency relations within a global
political economy.
Globalists focus on the capitalist mode of
production, while realists on the distribution of
power.
4 Key Assumptions


It is necessary to understand the global context
within which states and other entities interact.
(particularly the world system theory)
To understand the behavior of individuals,
societies or states, one must first understand
the global context. Like some realists, the
starting point is the international system. The
behavior of actors is explained by a system
that provides constraints and opportunities.
Second Assumption of
Globalism

Importance of historical analysis: only by
tracing the historical evolution of the
international system it is possible to
understand its current structure. The key
historical factor and defining
characteristic of the international
system is capitalism. This particular
economic system works to the benefit
of some individuals, states but at the
expense of others.
Third Assumption of Globalism

Globalists
assume
that
particular
mechanisms of domination exist that
keep third world countries from
developing and that contribute to
worldwide uneven development. This
requires an examination of dependency
relations
between
northern
industrialized countries (Europe and
North America) and poorer countries in
Africa, Latin America and Asia.
Fourth Assumption of
Globalism

It is also assumed that economic
factors are absolutely critical in
explaining the evolution and functioning
of the world capitalist system and
putting Third World states to a
subordinate position.
Common Points Between
Globalists and Pluralists



both focus on political economy. The distinction of high
politics and low politics is rejected. For the globalists,
politics depend on economics.
realist assumption “state as a unitary and rational actor” is
rejected by both perspectives. Both focus on a greater
variety of actors, but globalists put more emphasis on the
context within which these actors operate than do pluralists.
both globalists and pluralists writing in the transnational
tradition emphasize socioeconomic or welfare issues.
Different points between
globalists and pluralists

Globalists are not optimistic about
peaceful change like pluralists.
South subordinated to North and the
economic dictates of the world
capitalist system make it unlikely
that North will make concessions
to the South.
Critique to the liberal argument
on the benefits of free trade


Globalists critize David Ricardo’s Comparative
Advantage theory: ‘each country is endowed with
local resources, material, cultural and geographical
conditions. Thus, international trade promotes
specialization and mutual benefits’.
Globalists argue that British and the later-comers like
the US, Russia, Germany and Japan all favored
industrialization behind protective tariff barriers.
These countries achieved industrialization not under
global specialization, but under protection.
Focus on inequality


How and why capitalism developed in Western
Europe? How did it expand to other countries, how
has capitalism changed over the centuries, what is
the relationship between wealthy center and elites of
the poor periphery.
The global system is not a uniform marketplace (free
market) with actors freely making mutually beneficial
contracts, rather, it is divided into powerful central
and relatively weak peripheral economies with the
former playing an active role and the latter a passive
role.
Indicators of World Inequality







One-fifth of the world’s population are living in extreme poverty
Average income in the richest 20 countries are 37 times higher
than in the poorest 20
70% of the world’s poor and two-thirds of the world’s illiterates
are women.
More than 30.000 children die every day from easily preventable
diseas.
In africa only one child in three completes primary education.
One billion people lack acess to clean water
African countries pay out $40 million every day on debt
repayment.
Karl Marx (1818-1883):



All globalists have been influenced by Marx. Marx retains his
popularity despite the collapse of the Communist Party rule in
the former Soviet union. Marx influenced contemporary scholars
by his emphasis on exploitation, historical patterns of capitalist
development and expansion
Marx’s analysis of international relations aim to reveal the
hidden workings of global capitalism. These hidden workings
provide the context in which international events occur.
Marx’s perception of international relations is based on the
mode of production and classes in a particular country.
Marx’s Materialist Conception
of History



For Marx, the processes of historical change are
reflection of the economic development of society.
For Marx, history was the story of class conflict
generated by economic modernization, not the
story of the rise and fall of city states, empires and
nation states. Capitalism prospered in the 19th
century Europe.
Marx argued that capitalism which involves
market exchanges, labor as a commodity, and
the factors of production held in private hands
produced particular social, political results.
Unit of analysis


Unit of analysis: Marxists are interested in
capacity of humanbeings for production.
Focus on factors of production and relations
of production, thus classes not on states.
Conflict between states are replaced with
conflicts between classes.
Normative aims of Marxists: create a
universal classless society in which
humanbeings can realize its potential.
Economic Base


Means of production and relations of
production form the economic base of
a given society.
Developments in the economic base act
as a catalyst for the transformation of
the society as a whole.
Superstructure


Political system, legal system and
culture form the superstructure.
The legal,political and cultural
institutions reflect the pattern of power
and control in the economy.
Base-Structure Model

The change in the economic base leads to
change in the supertructure: As the means of
production develop due to technological
progress, previous production relations
become outmoded. This in turn leads to a
process of social change whereby relations of
production are transformed.
Marx’s focus on class analysis


Class plays a key role in Marx’s analysis. In
contrast to liberals who beleive that there
is essentially a harmony of interest
between various social groups, Marxists
hold that society is prone to class
conflict. The main axis of conflict is between
the capitalist class and the working
class.
Marx was firstly concerned with the
exploitation of the many (working
class) by the few (capitalists).
Marx’s focus on class analysis


He considered capitalism as an economic system
full of contradictions or internal tensions. These
tensions can be resolved only by transformation
into a socialist mode of production.
For Marx, capitalism is full of such contradictions that
working class will overtake capitalist class. In
this way, classless communist society will be
created. Thus, capitalism includes a mechanism
which will create universal peace and
contradictions and tensions at the same time.
Marx’s focus on class analysis



Marx argued that rates of profit would decline
because of overproduction and
underconsumption. The misery of the working
class would increase.
Marx focused on emancipation: The conscious of
the proletariat would rise leading ultimately to
revolution in all capitalist countries.
Capitalist order would be replaced with a
communist society, a society in which wage
labor and private property were abolished.
Main characteristics of
capitalism


For Marx everything involved in production
(raw materials, machines, labor and the
commodities themselves) is given an exchange
value, and all can be exchanged, one for the
other. Under capitalism, everything has its
price, including people’ working time.
factors of production is owned by one class:
capitalists. As the capitalist class owns the
factors of production, they control the profit
that results from the labor of the workers.
Karl Marx’s Perception of the
State


The state is not viewed in terms of a
sovereign entity preoccupied with
security concerns.
Rather, state plays role in actively
aiding or hindering capitalist
accumulation process.
John A. Hobson (1858-1940)
and Imperialism


Marx’s observations on capitalism in the 19th
century have since been modified and
generalized to cover the entire globe under
various theories of imperialism.
Imperialist theories assume an
international, hierarchical division of
labor between rich and poor regions of
the world, but the relation is not one of
mutually beneficial comparative
advantage. Rather, it is one of
exploitation.
John A. Hobson (1858-1940)
and Imperialism



Non-Marxist English economist Hobson was
a critic of imperialism.
For him, imperialism was the direct result
of the expanding forces of capitalism.
He explored the links between imperialism
and international conflict. For him,
imperial expansion is driven by a search
for new markets and investment
opportunities overseas.
John A. Hobson (1858-1940)
and Imperialism


Hobson noted that capitalist societies
were faced with 3 interrelated problems:
overproduction, under consumption by
workers and other classes, and
oversavings of capitalists.
Capitalists, owners of industries
exploited workers, paid lowest possible
wages, increased its profits and goods
piled up.. who will purchase the excess
goods? Given the low wages, working class
did not have sufficient purchasing power.
John A. Hobson (1858-1940)
and Imperialism


How to solve the problem of underconsumption.
Redistribute wealth? Highly unlikely.
Due to overproduction and underconsumption,
investment opportunities in the developed
world remained limited. The solution was to
invest in third world countries. The result was
imperialism: channel for the flow of their surplus
wealth by seeking foreign markets and foreign
investments to take off the goods and capital they
cannot sell or use at home.
John A. Hobson (1858-1940)
and Imperialism


For Hobson, imperialism did not benefit the
home country as a whole. Instead,
industrialists and financiers profited.
The drive for capitalist profits by
securing overseas territories led to
competition and rivalry among
European powers. For him, imperialism
was a major cause of war.
Vladimir Ilych Lenin
(1870-1924)



Lenin accepted Marx’s thesis that economic mode of
production determines social and political relations
(base-structure model).
Lenin also accepted Marx’s argument that history
can only be understood in terms of class conflict.
Lenin was interested in developing a theory that
explained the necessity for capitalist
exploitation of lesser developed countries and
the causes of war among advanced capitalist
states.
Vladimir Ilych Lenin
(1870-1924)


Lenin accepted Hobson’s argument that
underconsumption and
overproduction caused capitalists
to find foreign markets beyond
Europe and engage in imperialism.
Lenin stressed the notion that
imperialist policies reflected the
existence of monopoly and finance
capital or the existence of the
highest stage of capitalism.
Highest stage of capitalism




Lenin argued that the character of capitalism defined
by Marx had changed.
Capitalism entered into a new stage, which is
the highest stage of capitalism.
Capitalism developed such that oligopolies and
monopolies controlled the key sectors of the
economy, taking over smaller firms, thus need
for overseas markets.
As markets expanded they needed more
economic inputs such as raw materials, which
encouraged the further spread of imperialism
to secure such inputs.
Highest stage of capitalism


As a result, a two-tier structure developed within
the world economy with a dominant core
exploiting the periphery. Thus, there is no
harmony of interests between all workers as
Marx suggested.
The capitalist class in the core countries could
use profits derived from exploiting periphery.
Thus, the structural division between core and
periphery detemines the relation between
capitalist and working classes of each country.
Vladimir Ilych Lenin(18701924)


For Lenin, imperalism explained why Marx’s
prediction of proletarian revolution in Europe
had failed to come about. Economic
contradictions inherent in the capitalist mode of
production still existed, but imperialism allowed
capitalists a breathing space.
Imperialism also benefited working class,
buying off the working class in the short term,
imperialism delayed the inevitable revolution.
But domestic stability was achieved at the cost
of wars among capitalist powers that resulted
from the continual struggle for overseas markets.
Vladimir Ilych Lenin(18701924)



For Lenin, imperialism was driven by economic
forces and it was inevitable that such exploitation
and eventual conflict would occur.
He disagreed with Hobson who argued that
enjoyment of struggle and conquest also played
a role in explaining imperialist policies. Lenin also
rejected that imperialism was the choice of
capitalists.
For him, imperialism was not a matter of choice
but inevitable. Imperialism was the direct result
of the attainment of monopoly capital.
Vladimir Ilych Lenin(18701924)


Lenin particularly influenced the globalist
literature with his emphasis on the
nature of the global nature of capitalism
and its inherent exploitativeness that
benefits bourgeoisie in advanced
capitalist states at the expense of poorer
countries.
For him, all politics, domestic and
international take place within the
capitalist world economy.
Dependency Theory



Lenin’s ideas were developed by the Latin American
Dependency School in the late 1950s under the
guidance of the Director of the United Nations
Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLA).
It was developed out of the fact that economic
growth in the advanced industrialized
countries did not lead to growth and
development in poorer countries.
A group of Latin American intellectuals
(especially economists and sociologists) in the early
1960s, began an overall critique to
modernization theory. ECLA's scholars started a
set of theoretical approaches that was going to be
known generically as Dependency Theory.
Dependency Theory



Dependency is a situation in which the
economy of a certain group of countries
is conditioned by the development and
expansion of another economy.
Dependency is the source of
underdevelopment.
Dependency is the result of the imposition
of a set of external conditions on Third
World development.
Dependency Theory


The writers of dependency theory developed
Lenin’s notion of core and periphery in
greater depth.
Focus on how elites in industrialized
countries (center) interact with their
counterparts in the South (periphery).
This class analysis emphasizes how
transnational ties within the capitalist
class work to the disadvantage of
workers and peasants in the periphery.
Dependency theory and the
role of non-state actors




The transnational corporations (TNCs) and
international banks are viewed from a much
different perspective than realists or pluralists.
For pluralists, TNCs and international banks
appear as beneficial.
For realists, they are of secondary importance.
For globalists, they are the agents of
bourgeoisie. By them, third world is maintained and
put in their subordinate position within the world
capitalist economy.
Basic arguments




Historical dimensions of relations of dependence
are rooted in the internationalization of
capitalism.
The international system comprises two sets of
states metropolitan centre vs. peripheral states.
Underdevelopment are maintained through patterns
of interaction or relationships, and inequality and
exploitation are intrinsic parts of those
interactions.
It is the colonialism and foreign domination that
have handicapped the development of the third
world.
Basic arguments



Poor countries export primary commodities to the
rich countries who then manufacture products out of
those commodities and sell them back to the poorer
countries (unequal exchange)
The "Value Added" by manufacturing to a usable
product is much higher than that to the primary
products used to create those products. (raw
material vs finished products; agriculture vs
industry)
Domestic elite is in an alliance with
international capital because they share the same
interests.
Domestic factors:


Dependency theorists deal not only with external
factors (foreign states, TNCs, international banks,
multilateral lending institutions, foreign control of
technology, and an international bourgeoisie).
They also deal with internal constraints on
development such as class alliances and the role
of the state. These internal factors facilitate
foreign domination. Some parts of society is
favored at the expense of others. Social and
economic inequality, ever-widening rural-urban gap.
Underdevelopment formula




The colonial history planted the seed in
political, economic, cultural and
administrative dependence
Foreign capital and surplus penetrating
in the national economy keeping the
unequal exchange
Loss of economic control, wealth,
distribution to foreign powers
Underdevelopment and economic
stagnation
Leading Figures of
Dependency Theory




Raul Prebisch argued that countries in the
periphery was suffering as a result of the “declining
terms of trade”.
He suggested that the price of manufactured goods
increased more rapidly than that of raw materials.
Thus, it requires more tons of coffee to pay for
a refrigerator for instance.
As a result of their reliance on primary goods, each
year countries of the periphery are becoming poorer
relative to the core.
These arguments were developed further by writers
such as Andre Gunder Frank and Henrique
Fernando Cardoso.
Samir Amin (1931-)
The five monopolies of the Center:
 1) Science and Technology (product and millitary)
 2) Financial control (rule-setting)
 3) Access to natural resource (extract and utilize
resources in the periphery)
 4) Media and communication (opinion-making and
value-sharing)
 5) Weapons of mass destruction

Samir Amin’s theses:


Underdevelopment is caused by the
trade with the center which destroys
local crafts without promoting local
industrialization.
Unequal international specialization:
Centre producer of finished products
while periphery supplies raw material.
Suggestions of solution



Poor countries should embark on programs of import
substitution so that they need not purchase the
manufactured products from the richer countries.
The poorer countries would still sell their primary
products on the world market, but their foreign
exchange reserves should not be used to purchase
their manufactures from abroad.
The only possibility of avoiding dependency is
creating an alternative system of production, a noncapitalist system of production. Here, the majority of
dependentist intellectuals were in one way or another
proposing "socialism" as alternative.
World System Theory:



Differs from dependency theory in two ways:
they are concerned not only with the lack of third world
development but also wish to understand the economic,
political and social development of regions throughout the
entire world. Developed and underdeveloped states, winners
and losers are all examined to explain the global existence of
uneven development.
aim is to understand the fate of the various parts of the world
political economy. Latin America is not unique. Third
world underdevelopment and exploitation are central to
maintaining the present structure of dominance in the
capitalist world system. so, the first priority is to understand
this system from a historical perspective.
World System Theory
The world systems approach, argues that
the present inequality and poverty is a direct
consequence of the evolution of the
international political economy into a fairly
rigid division of labor which favored the rich and
penalized the poor.
The modern world-system is a capitalist world
economy, which means that it is governed by
the drive for the endless accumulation of capital

World System Theory


This world-system came into existence in the
course of the sixteenth century, and its
original division of labor included much of
Europe (but not the Russian or Ottoman
Empires) and parts of the Americas.
This world-system has been expanding over
the centuries, successively incorporating
other parts of the world into its division of
labor.
Cyclical rhythms of capitalism
The fundamental contradictions of the
capitalist system have been expressed
within the systemic process by a series of
cyclical rhythms: capitalist world economy
go through recurrent periods of
expansion and subsequent contraction
(boom and bust)

Immanuel Wallerstein


Immanuel Wallerstein tries to understand the
origins and dynamics of modern world
economy and worldwide uneven development.
He begins by analyzing the emergence of
capitalism in Europe, tracing its development
into a capitalist world system that contains a
core, periphery and a semi-periphery.
Wallerstein examines the entire global economy from
a Marxian perspective. Applying the Marxist approach
on the global level. The globe also could be arranged
not on the basis of geography but on the Marxian
basis of the mode of production and division of labor.
Key Features of Wallerstein’s
World System Theory

For Wallerstein, the dominant form of social organization has been
world systems. History witnessed two types of world system:worldempires and world-economies.

The main distinction between world-empire and world-economy is
about how decisions on ‘who gets what’ are made.

In a world empire, a centralized political system uses its power
to redistribute resources from periphery to center.

In a world economy, there is no single centre of political
authority, but rather competing centres of power. Resources
are nor distributed by a central authority but by the “market“.
Nevertheless, the situation is the same: transfer of resources
from the periphery to core
Immanuel Wallerstein



Contrary to the liberal economic notion of specialization
based on comparative advantage, this division of labour
requires and increases inequality between regions.
The basic function of the state is to ensure the
continuation of the capitalist mode of production.
Wallerstein and other globalists insist that to understand the
development of economic and political processes, we must
focus on the development of capitalism. Capitalism is a system
wide phenomenon. Wallerstein defines capitalism as “a
system of production for sale in a market for profit and
appropriation of this profit on the basis of individual or
collective ownership”.
Global divisions of world
economy



Core: countries engaged in banking, manufacturing,
technologically advanced agriculture and shipbuilding.
Democratic governments, high wages, import raw materials and
export manufactures, high investment, welfare services
Periphery: provided raw materials such as minerals and timber
to fuel the core’s economic expansion. Unskilled labor is
repressed and the peripheral countries are denied advanced
technology that might make them more competitive.
Non,democratic governments, export raw materials, import
manufactures, very low wages, no welfare services
Semi-periphery: involved in a mix of production activities
some associated with core areas and others with peripheral
areas. Authoritarian governments, export raw materilas and
manufactures, import manufactures and raw materials, low
wages and low welfare services
Wallerstein and Anarchy

Wallerstein recognizes the importance of
anarchy. For the realist, it enables one to
examine international political stability, war,
and balance of power politics. For the
globalists, anarchy facilitates the development
and expansion of world capitalism because no
single state can control the entire world
economy. The result is an economic division
of labor involving a core, periphery and semiperiphery.
Wallerstein and Distribution of
Power


Like realists, Wallerstein also emphasizes
international distribution of power. The
distribution of power cannot be explained
without reference to economic order. Key
aspect of the system is capitalist, existence of
global class relations, and the various functions
states and societies perform in the world economy
since the 16th century. Under capitalism some
states and classes are rewarded, while others
are exploited.
Wallerstein is criticized for reducing the system to
economics.
Globalist Perspective on the
Issue of Change:


for globalists, changes within the world
system fall into three categories.
- First, there are changes in the actors’
positions within the world capitalist economy.
Wallerstein emphasizes constant movement
of various actors in the hierarchy of
production, profit and consumption. The
Dutch empire of 17th century gave way to
British domination, and to the US. Despite
different core powers, the hierarchical nature
of the system remains the same.
Globalist Perspective on the
Issue of Change:





some scholars indicate phases and cycles of capitalist
development. A period of stability and economic
stagnation precedes 20 or 30 years of economic growth.
This is then followed by 2 or 3 decades of economic
decline, followed again by expansion.
world system is dynamic due to structural transformation of
the system: expansion of capitalism to new areas of the
globe and nonintegrated sectors of the world economy.
What about the changes of the capitalist system? world
system theorists point to one major historical occurrence:
transformation of feudalism into capitalism in 16th century
Europe.
Beyond capitalism, globalists are ambivalent on the
issue of change.
Some of these critics call for revolutions to end capitalist
exploitation.
Globalists and Their Critics:

the question of causality: Some critics
question whether dependency creates
economic and social backwardness as
globalists claim or whether it is
economic and social backwardness that
leads to dependency. No agreement on
causality- whether dependency is the cause
of backwardness or whether it is the effect of
this condition.
Globalists and Their Critics:



reliance on economics: critics argued that some
globalists reduced the operation of the
international system down to the process of
capital accumulation and related dynamics.
What about non economic explanations of
imperialism.
How to explain 19 the century European
powers’ struggle for low economic value
places like Chad or the behavior of political
units before 16th century.
Thucydides time: validity for anarchy and security
dilemma. Competition among sovereign units well
before the emergence of the world system. Realists
argue that politics-security system largely determine
international economic system.
Globalists and Their Critics:


system dominance: despite stressing internal factors,
there is excessive reliance on international
factors in explaining poverty and dependence
in the periphery and domestic variables are
downplayed. Lack of economic growth, social
unrest and repressive governments are all
explained through capitalist system.
globalists are unable to account for anamolies,
like third world countries that have been
relatively successful economically like
Venezuela, Singapore, South Korea, Japan.
Critics comment that globalists like Wallerstein and
dependency theorists simply group anamolies under
the concept of semi-periphery.
Neo-Gramscian perspective


Neo-gramscian perspective is based on the
work of the Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci
(1891-1937).
Gramsci was one of the founding members of
the Italian Communist Party. He was
porisoned in 1926 for his political activities
and spent the rest of his time in the prison
and wrote “Prison Notebooks (1971)”
Why there was no communist
revolution in Western Europe?


The key question Gramsci dealt with was why
it was so difficult to promote revolution in
Western Europe. Because, Marx had
predicted that revolution and transition to
socialism would occur first in the advanced
capitalist countries. However, it was not
Europe but comparatively backward Russia
that realized revolution.
What went wrong in Europe? Gramsci’s
answer to this question revolves around his
use of the concept of hegemony.
Concept of Hegemony

Hegemony is most frequently used to
describe the most powerful state in the
international system. But, Gramsci’s use
of hegemony is related to his
understanding of power, which is
broader and richer than realists: a
mixture of coercion and consent.
Marxist Approach to
Hegemony

In understanding how the prevailing order
was maintained, Marxists concentrated
almost exclusively on the coercive practices
and capabilities of the state. State was seen
as a means of opressing one class by another.
Based on this understanding, it was coercion
that prevented the exploited society
from rising up and changing the system
that makes them suffer.
Gramsci’s Reinterpreting
Hegemony



Gramsci recognized that while this was true in less developed
countries like Russia, it was not the case in the Western
Europe. Here the system was maintained not merely by
coercion, but also through consent. Consent is created
and recreated by the hegemony of the ruling elite in
society.
It is hegemony that makes the political, cultural, and
moral values of the dominant group to become widely
dispersed throughout society and to be accepted by
subordinate groups and classes as their own.
For Gramsci, dominant ideologies are institutionalized in society
as they become the “common sense”.
Gramsci’s emphasis on civil
society

Civil society is the network of
institutions and practices in society that
enjoy some autonomy from the state,
and through which groups and
individuals organize, represent and
express themselves to each other and
to the state. These include media,
education system, churches,
voluntary organizations, etc.
Gramsci’s focus on the
Superstructure

Superstructure should be emphasized
because although the structure of
society may be a reflection of social
relations of production in the economic
base, superstructure (political and
cultural practices) determines whether
the society is prone to change and
transform itself.
Gramsci’s Historic Bloc



Historic bloc implies a relation between the cultural
and the political and the economic and also requires
an organic link between people and
intellectuals, governors and governed, leaders
and led.
Historic bloc reflects the way in which leading
social forces within a specific national context
establish a relationship over contending social
forces.
Historical bloc is defined as a situation in which
various classes and factions of them are related and
implicitly one mode of production is dominant
Counter Hegemonic Struggle

If the hegemony of the ruling class is a key
element in the perpetuation of its dominance,
then society can only be transformed if that
hegemonic position is successfully challenged.
This entails a counter-hegemonic struggle
in civil society, in which the prevailing
hgegemony is undermined , allowing an
alternative historic bloc to be
constructed.
Robert Cox and the Analysis of
World Order


Robert Cox introduced Gramsci to the study of world politics. He
criticized prevailing theories of international relations and
International Political Economy and tried to develop an
alternative framework for the analysis of world politics.
His article “Social Forces, States, and World
Orders:Beyond International Relations Theory” (1981):
If ideas and values are a reflection of a particular set of social
relations, and are transformed as those relations themselves are
transformed, then this suggests that all knowledge must reflect
a certain context, a certain time and space. In other words,
knowledge cannot be objective and timeless as neo-realists
argue. For Cox, “theory is always for someone and for
some purpose”.
How to transform the world
order



Realists claim to describe the world as it is, and as it
always will be, but in fact they are reinforcing the
ruling hegemony in the current world order.
Cox attempts to develop an emancipatory theoretical
understanding of world order that emphasize both
the sources of stability in a given system and also the
dynamics of processes of transformation.
In this context, Cox benefits from Gramsci’s
concept of hegemony and transfers it to the
international realm, arguing that hegemony is
important for maintaining stability.
How to transform the world
order

Cox argues that sucessive dominant
powers in the international system
have shaped a world order that
suits their interests , and have
done so not only as a result of their
coercive capabilities, but also
because they managed to generate
broad consent for that order even
among the disadvanted groups.
Hegemonic Idea:Free Trade


The hegemons like the United Kingdom and the United
States used the hegemonic idea of free trade. Their
claim that this system benefits everyone has been so
widely accepted that it has attained “common sense”
status. However, free trade benefits the hegemonic power as it
is the most efficient producer in the global economy, and it can
produce goods which are competitive in all markets. The
peripheral countries do not benefit from freee trade as much as
the hegemon does. As Marxists argue free trade prevents the
development of the periphery.
The power of the United States is based on the hegemony of
the neo-liberalism.
The hegemony of Neoliberalism



Neo-liberal policies are accepted as the norm throughout the
world. Set of policies most closely associated with the neoliberal
project is: privatization, reduction of state spending, liberalization of
trade and capital… these policies are also known as “Washington
Consensus”
The adoption of neo-liberal policies by Third world countries: spending
on health and education decreased, they were forced to rely more on
the export of raw materials and import manufactured goods of
developed countries.
Moreover, as third world countries devalued their currency as part of
neo-liberal policies, the price of their exported raw materials decrease.
When third world countries privatize their public enterprises, American
or European companies buy them at relatively cheap prices.
Why?


If neo-liberal policies have such negative results, why
Third world countries adopted it so widely?
Coercion: debt crisis between the Third World and
the West in the 1970s and 1980s. This debt crisis
resulted from excessive and unwise lending by
Western Banks. Third World countries are unable to
pay the interests of these debts and also the debt
itself.They applied to IMF for assistance. In order to
receive money from the IMF, they had to implement
neo-liberal policies.
Key points


Gramsci shifted the focus of Marxist analysis
towards superstructural phenomena.Gramsci
explored the processes by which consent for
a particular social and political system was
produced through the operation of
hegemony. Hegemony allows the ideas of
the ruling elite to become widespread.
Cox attempted to internationalize Gramsci’s
thought by transferring his concepts such as
hegemony to the global context.