Applying Karl Marx's Contribution To The Marxist Theory

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Marxism is a comprehensive theory that straddles the social, economic and political spheres. In effect, Marxism is holistic in its approach and considers all three of these fields to be interrelated, and they need to be understood in context of each other (Baylis et al., 2014, 143). It is based on the works of Karl Marx, and other notable authors that contributed to the Marxist theory framework, including Hegel, Engels, Hobson, Lenin and Gramsci.
Karl Marx explains politics and social reality in the context of capitalism. He believes that historical development must be understood in light of the historical developments of modes of production (Chigora & Ziso, 2010, 90). Therefore, understanding contemporary political and social issues requires …show more content…

Social stratification based on an actor’s relation to the means of production is a phenomenon that exists on a global scope as well. The most prominent international class theory differentiates three kinds of nations-states: core, semi-periphery and periphery. According to this theory, the core exploits the periphery. Industrialized and capital strong core states use cheap resources and labor in the periphery to create high valued products that it sells domestically. Any surplus is then sold in the periphery. The main value creation lies in the core. For the periphery, the value of exports (cheap labor and resources) lies way under the values of imports (high valued goods). These bad terms of trade are detrimental to the development of the periphery states and assure their continued submission. The newly industrialized semiperiphery states acts as a vent when wages grow too high in the core, and provides semiskilled cheap labor for service-oriented production (Pease, 2014, …show more content…

Contemporary Marxists do not necessarily see any given core state as a unitary elite nor any given peripheral state as a unitary proletariat. Social stratification has globalized, but retains its relevance on the national scope. There are national bourgeoisies and proletariats in both core and periphery states. The extent to which they matter, and what their role is, depends on the theoretical strand of Marxism with which we analyze global politics.
The fourth principle is that global politics are conflictual due to exploitation. Capitalism fosters violence and inequality. According to contemporary Marxist theory, global conflict and global capitalism are inextricably tied to each other (Pease, 2014,

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