ULUSLARARASI İLİŞKİLER TEORİLERİ I - Deneme Sınavı - 3

Global governance does not mean a world government in Kantian terms, it involves global institutions to guide and restrain collective activities of agents. Since there is need for consensus and collective decision making mechanisms, it is not easy to realize global governance and it is in the interests of the actors to follow this path or not.

As regards global governance, from a normative point of view, what is needed is a “new globalizm” based on principle of equality of peoples and civilizations. 

With the increase in complex interdependence, neoliberal institutionalists have invented a concept known as “global governance” in order to define these networks of interdependence wherein state boundaries still matter. What these scholars expect is increasing institutionalization in different issueareas like trade, finance, environment, security and health under effects of globalization

Haas defined integration as “a process for the creation of political communities defined in institutional and attitudinal terms”.

Among his generalizations for the regularities observed within the industrialized-pluralistic nations (such as the case of economic integration of Western Europe) were:

(1) interests of the governments and groups in direction of interdependence and mutual benefits

(2) collective decisions,

(3) spill-over and

(4) the faith of elites in increased integration.

Neoliberals argue that there is no logical link between anarchy and war, but it is the conditions (prevailing rules and expectations of states) that matter. States use international institutions for reputation and reciprocity in a way for their selfish reasons, but in the end enabling them to have mutually beneficial outcomes. Neoliberalism is criticized for its lack of a development-centered approach where the developed North should have moral responsibilities to the underdeveloped and developing South, by for example realizing redistributive policies towards them.

Dialectics is a term used to describe a method of philosophical argument that involves some sort of contradictory process between opposing sides.

The critical question shaping in almost all aspects of Marxist theory is how the ways in which people earn their living affect their bodies, minds, and daily lives.

Marx believes that the system of economic production determines the institutional and ideological structure of society. Whoever controls the economic system also controls the political system. Each period of history contains clashing forces, or a dialectic, from which a new order emerges. In ancient times, there were patricians, free people and slaves; in the Middle Ages, there were feudal lords and vassals; and in the capitalist era, there are capitalists and workers. So for Marx, all history, indeed, is the history of class struggle between a ruling group and an opposing one from which a new economic, political, and social system emerges. Currently, capitalism is the main bondage from which people strive to be liberated and this will be occurring through the laws of historical social change.

In order to realize the aim of higher wages and better working conditions, workers need a new distribution of power. 

These two major classes constantly try to promote their interests at the expense of the other and their goals are truly incompatible.  In this battle, the capitalists are aided by their wealth, their control of the state, and their domination over other institutions, such as schools, media, and religious institutions that guide people’s thinking. On the workers’ side are their sheer numbers, trade unions, working class political parties, if exists, and the contradictions within capitalism that make current conditions increasingly irrational.

Classic Marxist theory is too much deterministic. Marx argued that economic laws shape not only the society but also the direction of history itself. However, in light of our historical experiences, this may not necessarily be the case. Indeed, many different factors shape human history. For instance, most American and British leaders have pushed liberalism. Scandinavian countries have followed a social democratic line and used the state power to protect their citizens from capitalist exploitation. China has adapted a form of autocratic-capitalism, while Cuba preferred a socialist dictatorship. So as these examples reveal, Marxist interpretation of human history is too simplistic and reductionist.

Hobson (1858-1940) was an English economist influenced by liberal thinkers, such as John Stuart Mill and Herbert Spencer.

In his classic study, Imperialism: A Study, first published in 1902, he attempts to explain the rise of new imperialism in the 1870s and 1880s when Great Britain, together with the other European powers, engaged in a scramble for colonies. This move was different from the previous British pattern where it exercised power through free trade and political control.

Neo-Marxism is not actually a theory on its own. Neo-Marxists consider themselves working within the Marxist intellectual tradition, but seek to broaden or revise Marxist thought to address topics not specifically addressed by Marx.

Dialectics is a term used to describe a method of philosophical argument that involves some sort of contradictory process between opposing sides. 

False consciousness, in Marxist philosophy, refers to the notion that members of the proletariat unwittingly misperceive their real position in society and systematically misunderstand their true interests within the social relations of production under capitalism.

Isolationism, in a generic sense, refers to a national policy of avoiding political or economic entanglements with other countries.

Economic planning is the process by which key economic decisions are either directly made or heavily influenced by central governments.

Empirical testing is a way of gaining knowledge through direct and indirect observation or experience.

Many neo-Marxists accuse the West that represents the world capitalist system of keeping underdeveloped countries in a position of subordination and dependence through limiting investments and bribing local elites. In other words, it is said that the neo-Marxists that blame the Western countries for the underdevelopment of less developed countries display a rather reductionist approach, oversimplifying the situation. Sometimes, this approach may not even be true.

Pelter T. Bauer states, for example, that there had been almost no economic growth in Africa before the Europeans arrived there. Indeed, trade and economic activities in Africa, especially in West Africa, vividly increased in conjunction with the commercial activities of the Europeans. Bauer further argues that the states that were not subject to Western colonialism, such as Liberia and Ethiopia, are currently more backward than those of their neighbors colonized. Moreover, the relationship between Western countries and colonial people is not just one-sidedly exploitative. On the contrary, through Western domination, colonial people began to experience literacy, education, science, even hygiene and sanitary methods.

These examples in the question are given to criticise the view of neo-marxism that blaming the West for badness only in not true.

The North-South division is criticized for splitting the world and segregating people along economic lines.

Marx and Engels predicted the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism by workers and the eventual attainment of a classless society (Mingst and Arreguin, 2011: 81).

Classic Marxist theory is essentially based on the evolution of capitalism and class conflict in the Western world. It is argued that the capitalism of 19th century in Europe emerged out of the earlier feudal system. In the capitalist system, private interests control labor and market exchanges.

"Dialectics" is a term used to describe a method of philosophical argument that involves some sort of contradictory process between opposing sides. Hegel’s dialectics refers to the particular dialectical method of argument employed by the 19th century German philosopher, Georg W. F. Hegel, which, like other dialectical methods, relies on a contradictory process between opposing sides. Hegel believes that reason necessarily generates contradictions and new premises, indeed, produce further contradictions (https://plato.stanford.edu).

There are three sub-theories of Marxism:

I. The theory of alienation,

II. The labor theory of value, and

III. The materialist conception of history.

Marxism has its main intellectual origins in German philosophy, English political economy, and French utopianism.

It is from the German philosopher Georg W. F. Hegel that Marx learned a way of thinking about the world, called “dialectics”.

By using the theory of alienation, Marx argues that workers in the capitalist society do not own the means of production, such as machines, raw materials, or factories.

Regarding the labor theory of value, given the fact that everything produced in the capitalist society has a price, Marx emphasizes the separation of the worker from the means of production. To survive, workers, who lack the means to produce, must sell their labor force. In selling their labor force, they give up all claims with respect to the products of their labor. Hence, these products become available for exchange in the market. Workers can consume only a small portion of the product in the market with the wages they are paid for their labor force.