International Studies 101 (Week 6)

The Capitalist State; The Capitalist States System

Individual Capital

an individual company engaged in the capital accumulation process (i.e., Facebook, General Motors, Shell, etc, etc)

Continuation of MCM’

Sectoral Capital

a group of individual capitals, or companies, that produce the same, or a similar type, of commodity (i.e., energy capital, agricultural capital, transportation capital, etc, etc)

National Capital

the sum total of all the sectoral or individual capitals in a capitalist state

The Capitalist State

a political entity made up of state managers (politicians + bureaucrats) whose responsibility is to ensure the reproduction of national capital as a whole

ensure MCM’ continues and reproduces within the state (through labor and capital responsibilities)

Labor Responsibilities

Labor Regulations

Labor Discipline

Labor Regulation

The implementation of labor rules and restrictions to regulate what kind of workers and how many workers exist in the labor market; always serves the interests of capital

Ex. Biden accelerated VISA process bc there was a demand for labor after Covid; Trump has removed over 1 million immigrants → relaxation/deregulation of child labor protections, especially in more dangerous sectors OR raise the retirement age OR limit access to higher education so they fill the gap OR implement fascism (threaten people)

Labor Discipline

The use of legal or police force towards labor to ensure capital has the upper hand

Ex. The freight railworkers threatened to go on strike ; Biden initially resisted intervening in the conflict but eventually signed legislation forcing them to go back to work in the interest of the national economy

Capital Responsibilities

General Conditions of Production

Competition Cost Reduction

Ultimate Guarantor

Imperialism

General Conditions of Production

the establishment and maintenance of domestic infrastructure that sectoral or individual capital needs but won’t itself provide

Ex. North American Freight Rail Network; Lighthouses - integral for shipping, capital hasn’t found a way to profit from them

Competition Cost Reduction

the distribution of government support and money to private companies to reduce the costs and risks of market competition; subsidizing sectors to compete with other capitalist states

Ex. Iphone - tech for it comes from various military projects; DARPA - military

Ultimate Guarantor

The guaranteed support of the capitalist state in the event of a crisis of national capital

Ex. the great depression; 2008 financial crisis; CARES Act - passed 2020 by Biden administration, put 2.3 trillion into economy to help businesses struggling in Covid; US owns 10% stake in Intel to ensure they can invest money in it for national security purposes

Imperialism

Extension of capitalist state’s power to gain control of other states to protect its national capital

Ex. Iraq War - Hussein was initially installed by US and stopped cooperating with US; oil companies were against the war bc it would disrupt production/distribution; Iraq expelled US troops after murders, but allowed back in after US threatened

Anarchic International Structure

the lack of a central authority that emerges from capitalist states’ need to protect their national capital

Ex. UN is an international body but does not have authority to be in charge

National Security

the capacity for a capitalist state to protect itself from other capitalist states while protecting its own ability to engage in capital accumulation

Ex. Building armaments, military action/demonstrations, sanctions, new alliances

The Security Dilemma

when an increase in a capitalist state’s national security leads other capitalist states to fear for their own security and increase their own security in response — doing nothing could allow a rival state to gain an advantage that would be detrimental

Capitalist States System

an anarchic international structure composed of capitalist states that expand their national security to protect their national capital which causes a security dilemma

Ex. Post-WWII, many Warsaw pact countries became independent and eventually tried to join NATO, which Russia saw as a security threat, contributing to its eventual invasion of Ukraine

Polarity

The different kinds of capitalist state-systems that reflect how much power is distributed and concentrated between capitalist states

There is unipolarity, bipolarity, and multipolarity

Unipolarity

A distribution of power in the capitalist states-system in which one state has a preponderance of power and imposes its will on all other states; one major power, measured through military and economic power

Military Metric

Spending for US military is higher than the combined amount that the next 9 largest countries spend

However US depleting much of its armaments in Iran - putting the military in the decline

US is no longer a hegemony because we are not interested in consent – means you only use military power, exhausting resources and putting the US in decline

Bipolarity

A distribution of power in the capitalist states-system in which two states have a preponderance of power