IAFF 1005 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: The Communist Manifesto, Warsaw Pact, Classical Marxism
13 Jun 2018
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Thursday Lecture: Theories of International Relations
I. The theory of communism may be summed up in one sentence: abolish all private property
A. Context of Marxism
1. Industrial revolution: in Europe in the 1800s
a) Transformation of economic production and societies
b) Emergence of private property owners
c) Emergence of large, working classes of industry
d) Led to exploitation of workers, huge inequalities/inequities
(1) Owners/capital/wealth vs. workers/labor/hardship
2. Major works
a) The Communist Manifesto
b) Etc
B. Propositions
1. Actors and interests:
a) Economic classes are key, not states
b) Economic interests more important than political/national interests
2. System-level view
a) Capitalism depends on the exploitation of workers locally and on
expansionary/imperialism globally
b) Post-revolutionary world would be more peaceful and equitable
3. Theory of change
a) The exploitation of workers will lead to revolution and egalitarian/comunist
systems
b) WOrld will more in this one direction (historicism)
c) A communist world will be a peaceful world
C. 20th century report card
1. Revolutions didn’t occur as predicted → they expected revolutions in the most advance
industrial countries (Germany, France, Britain) but instead in Russia and China
2. Communist states were not benign
a) Internally: dictatorships → horrors of collectivism (USSR, PRC)
b) Externally: toward neighbors/others (Warsaw Pact)
3. Capitalist/democratic states were cooperators
a) Capitalist interdependence contributed to a “capital peace”
b) During the Cold War it turned out that capitalist countries cooperated because of
the security threat that existed
4. Communist states re-embraced capitalism
a) Capitalism is now the world’s dominant economic system
b) Capitalist cooperation was not part of the prediction from Marx and Lenin or
that formerly-communist countries would embrace capitalism
c) Classical Marxism doesn’t have as much relevance today as it did 100 years ago
D. Relevance of the issues
1. Economic factors/forces still matter
a) Production/movement of goods/services/capital → still key
b) Relative deprivation → if people are relatively deprived, that feeling leads to
social and political action → why people rebel
2. Dependence theory → helps explain global development problems/inequalities
a) Why are they still struggling to develop?
3. Capitalism is more global than ever
a) Capitalism is not good at self-regulation or providing common goods
b) Global economic regulation/governance is a key issue today
E. Constructivism: propositions
1. Shift from material to ideational/social factors
2. Keys: ideas, values, norms, identities, and cultures
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