Is Karl Marx Still Relevant - Assignment Example

IS KARL MARX STILL RELEVANT? An ideological paradigm promotes a society in which equality and egalitarianism reign supreme, socialism is an importantpolitical theory which continues to resonate in international affairs. Karl Marx is the most important theorist of socialism and communism in the history of global politics. Socialism has traditionally advocated a strong state-centric approach to control over the means of production and is critical of private property, private ownership and what it views as the inherently exploitative nature of the capitalist economic system. With a strong role for proletariat social class and the state in promoting social change through revolution, the socialist experiment has frequently been associated with revolution and violent social change. Initially seen as the antithesis to capitalism and capitalist modes of production, socialism today represents a variety of ideas which blend modern capitalism and socialist ideas about redistribution and the role of the state in economic affairs. Seeking to explore the history of socialism and thereby analyze its future in international affairs, this essay will chart the history of socialism through an in-depth analysis of the U.S.S.R. and China. Each country represents socialism in practice and will be used to discuss this important political theory. Does Karl Marx, the most famous advocate of socialism, remain relevant in the 21st century? Seeking to address this question and many more, the following aims to provide a holistic analysis of socialism today. Socialism in Context: The U.S.S.R. Early socialists such as Karl Marx advocated proletarian revolution and mass mobilization to correct the social inequality perpetuated by capitalism. Marxist thought inspired socialists around the globe including Fidel Castro in Cuba, Mao in China and Lenin in the Soviet Union. According, in the Soviet Union, Vladimir Lenin established an authoritarian political system, which grew out of mass discontent associated with the First World War. The October Revolution of 1917 – also known as the Bolshevik Revolution – had an enormous impact on Europe’s social, political and economic landscape and accordingly “produced by far the most formidable organized revolutionary movement in modern history” (Hobsbawm 1994, pp. 55). The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, viewed themselves as the shepherds of a new international communist order in necessary conflict with the old order, embodied by bourgeois liberal capitalism. A centrist planning economy necessitated activist governmental intervention in all aspects of the state’s social and economic growth. Additionally, an important component of this state’s ability to mobilize was the 600,000 member-strong, centralized and highly disciplined Communist Party. Because the Soviet Union removed itself from the global capitalist economic world system following the October Revolution, it was effectively immune to the crisis caused by the Great Depression in 1929. Through bureaucratic regulation and heavy governmental economic intervention, the Soviets worked towards the establishment of a modern, communist utopia (Hobsbawm 1994, pp. 60-69). Controlling the means of production and severely curtailing civil liberties, the global Communist community established themselves as “the Second World” during the Cold War. Accordingly, due to an overbearing state apparatus and inefficiency inherent in the socialist mode of production, the global Communist community was severely undermined by economic and political crises which began in the late 1960s. The result was political and economic disorder. Economic crises undermined the political foundations of states like China and the USSR – particularly after the deaths of men such as Mao & Brezhnev – and the centrally planned economic systems of these countries remained under stress and increasingly precarious. The Soviet world was also not immune to global economic crises as evidenced by effects of the OPEC crisis of 1973. These aftershocks paved the way for perestroika and glasnost in the USSR, the implosion of Yugoslavia and popular Chinese dissent expressed in Tiananmen Square and captured live on camera. The political and economic fragilities of the Second World were exposed following 1968 and slowly led to political decay, leading to the eventual implosion of the Soviet Union. The fall of the Berlin Wall signaled the end of socialist experiment in much of Eastern and Central Europe and for many was the death knoll for communism and state-sponsored dogmatic socialist principles (Strayer 1998, pp. 3-33). Socialism Today: China Karl Marx’s theories of a socialist world in which the proletarian masses controlled the state and the means of production were successfully appropriated in the Chinese context. Accordingly, China has been ruled by the Communist Party of China (CCP) since 1949, an avowedly socialist form of government which established the People’s Republic of China, and initially viewed capitalism through a skeptic’s lens. As a socialist party with communist leanings, successive Chinese governments undertook disastrous social and economic initiatives including Five Year Plans, the failed Great Leap Forward and the violent Cultural Revolution. Blending Karl Marx’s theories of class and the need for the state to control the means of production with Maoist thought and confucianism, China today represents and socialism in pratice (Harvey 2007, pp. 49-61). Despite its early years, China has cautiously embraced economic liberalism and a capitalist economic orientation, albeit with strong authoritarian tendencies. China today has the 4th largest economy in the world behind the United States, Japan and Germany, estimated at $2,645 billion per year. With a population of more than 1.3 billion, China remains a largely rural country with 43% of its labor force employed in agriculture with another 25% in industry and 32% in the service sector. Industry, however, has driven the economic growth of this country which represents 49% of the total $2,645 billion GDP. Accordingly, the average annual growth in China over a ten year period was an astonishing 10.5% (1996-2006). Much of this growth is tied to the global economy and China’s role in international economic affairs today (The Economist 2008). China and the Global Economy Globalization is an international phenomenon and the current state of world affairs coincided with the emergence of neo-liberalism as a driving political and economic force in the 1980s. At the forefront of the recent economic overtures were the Asian economic “Tigers”, a group of Asia countries who emerged in the late 1980s and early 1990s, precipitating a global economic shift towards emerging East Asia and its rapidly expanding markets. Chinese development, while embracing market-oriented economic policies, differs substantially from the other Asian Tigers in that it has chosen to gradually liberalize its economy but has resisted pressures to democratize in the face of an opening in the economic sphere. Based upon the principles of economic liberalism but with a strong role for the state, China began with the creation of attractive economic-oriented trade zones to appeal to foreign investors and stimulate national growth. Industrialization and export-oriented development were key to China’s development model which blends socialism with capitalist ideas about economic growth. Accordingly, this model of growth is a modern attempt at harnessing the forces of global economic capitalism through state-led development. China’s form of development focuses on macro-economic concerns (raising the Gross Domestic Product, decreasing the national unemployment rate, etc.) by attracting foreign investors and utilizing the resources already available to stimulate growth. While his form of economic development is currently being practiced around the world, it has been particularly successful as a developmental model in the case of China (Clark and Kim 1995, pp. 66). Although in East Asia, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan and Hong Kong remain important economic actors, "the most dynamic and rapidly growing economy of the globe after the fall of Soviet communism was that of Communist China, leading Western business-school lectures and the authors of management manuals, a flourishing genre of literature, to scan the teachings of Confucius for the secrets of entrepreneurial success" (Hobsbawm 1994, pp. 44). China has benefited tremendously from increased interdependence and has established a strong manufacturing centre, shifting employment away from traditional manufacturing centers in the West. China remains the major challenge to US economic control as wages continue to remain low in China and Chinese products continue to flood the world’s global marketplace. China has remained competitive, commands one of the world’s largest economies and has established a working and viable example of authoritarian socialism with capitalist leanings (Harvey 2007, pp. 49-61). Concluding Remarks Socialism today represents a variety of ideas which blend modern capitalism and socialist ideas about the role of the state in economic affairs. Has socialism withered away or is it simply evolving? As the case of China emphatically demonstrates, socialism can remain a potent force if it evolves in line with the global economic community. Avowedly socialist countries which have removed themselves from the global economic community, such as North Korea, Cuba and the U.S.S.R., have withered away or imploded in today’s era of globalization. Although Chinese repression and authoritarianism remain infamous, it has successfully harnessed the capabilities of an entrenched socialist state and has successfully blended socialist authoritarianism with the principles of free-market capitalism. Karl Marx certainly does remain relevant today and while socialism continues to evolve, it remains relevant in the 21st century. REFERENCES Clark, GL & WB Kim 1995, Asian NIEs & the Global Economy: Industrial Restructuring & Corporate Strategy in the 1990s, Johns Hopkins University Press, New York. Coburn, D 2000, ‘Income inequality, social cohesion and the health status of populations: the role of neo-liberalism’, Social Science & Medicine, vol. 51, no. 1, pp. 135-146. Harvey, D 2007, A Brief History of Neoliberalism, Oxford University Press, London. Hobsbawm, E 1994, Age of Extremes: The Short History of the Twentieth Century: 1914-1991, Abacus, London. Strayer, RW, 1998, Why Did the Soviet Union Collapse?: Understanding Historical Change, I. E. Sharpe, New York. Suettinger, R 2003, Beyond Tiananmen, Brookings Institute, Washington. Read More