POLS 112 - Political Economy and Theories of Accumulation

Pluralist

A “big tent” perspective, open to traditional and critical approaches that encourages:

• Conceptual innovation

• Allows scholars from both sides of the epistemological divide to coexist as “kindred spirits” who were critical or the orthodoxy that still dominated the study of global politics and called for greater inclusion of marginalized topics, voices, and geographical regions of study

Compels scholars to seek out diverse voices, actors, sources, approaches, with no approach that comes anywhere close to being hegemonic

Reflexivist

Perspective calls on scholars to engage in critical, learning-based, self-reflection that includes positionality

Calls on scholars to pay serious attention to the social dimensions of global politics and to problematize the ontological and epistemological aspects of socio-institutional forms of dominant scholarship

Wealth Accumulation

The creation of buildings, factories, roads, railways, airports, seaports, and similar forms of physical capital

Depends on investment and the creation of an economic surplus

Theories of Accumulation

Economic liberalism, critical perspectives

Economic Liberalism

Capitalism; investing economic surpluses creates more economic growth

Critical Perspectives

Marxism and its variants; class consciousness

Variants of Marxism

Socialism, Stalinism, Maoism, Marxism

Class, Marx

In terms of the relations between structures of political and economic power

A group of people with a common relationship to the structures of political and economic power within a particular society

Factors of Socio-Economic Class

Ownership of one’s home, ownership of income-producing property, annual income in relation to the national median income, level of education

Bourgeoisie

Owns and controls the means of production

Petty Bourgeoisie

Independent means of earning income, such as special artistic or technical skills

Proletariat

Only has its labour to sell to the bourgeoisie in order to earn wages

Struggle and Class Consciousness

Class consciousness as a key ingredient for the working class (proletariat) in its struggle against the capitalist ruling class (bourgeoisie)

Class Consciousness

Proletariat must come to develop a class consciousness, which is the awareness that it is a distinct class with common interests

Political force to eventually displace the capitalist relations of production and bring about a socialist society

Capitalism therefore gives way to socialism, which in turn eventually gives way to communism; the ultimate form of political and economic relationships for Marxists

Class Struggle

Results in a proletarian revolution, which culminates in the violent overthrow of capitalist forces

Proletarian Class Consciousness

Becomes antagonistic once it realises that its interests are diametrically opposed to those of the bourgeoisie

Antagonistic Class Consciousness

Further unites the proletariat and leads to a class struggle with bourgeoisie

Marxist Political Economy

Common ownership of the means of production, role of socioeconomic class is specific

State-Centric Political Economy

Private ownership of the means of production

Trade protectionism

“Beggar-thy-neighbour” policies and mercantilism

Neo-Classical Political Economy

Private ownership of the means of production

Laissez-faire policies

Comparative advantage

Free trade

Trade Protectionism

Various restrictions on trade

“Beggar-thy-neighbour” Policies

Pursued at the expense of other countries (or to weaken the economic prowess of other states) in order to boost their own country’s best interests; arose in the 1930s during the Great Depression

Country attempts to remedy its own domestic economic issues by taking actions that worsen the economic conditions of other nations, such as imposing tariffs, import quotas, or competitive currency devaluation

Mercantilism

Predates neo-classical economic liberalism by several centuries; closely linked to nationalism because it calls on a government to manipulate markets so as to capture special benefits for its citizens

Concerned with promoting economic policies and actions that preserve and enhance the power and prosperity of the state

Favour trade policies that produce a trade surplus for their own state, have a better grasp of how politics create and condition markets

Shortcomings of Mercantilism

Tend to turn a blind eye to how certain groups may prosper unfairly under the proposals and policies

Favour protecting inefficient sectors of the economy through the provision of preferential trade and fiscal policies (subsidies and tariffs)

Tend to be isolationists, eschewing many forms of international cooperation

Neo-Classical Economic Liberalism

All participants in a system of free markets and unrestricted trade are beneficiaries, for three main reasons:

• Trade creates wealth

• Free markets and unrestricted trade are thought to allow states to specialize in producing goods and services for which they have a comparative advantage

• States can also readily import other needed goods (such as natural resources) and services (engineering, post-secondary education)

Shortcomings of Neo-Classical Economic Liberalism

Accused of “worshipping” the market, believing that it can provide most anything, and cure most ills

Has trouble understanding the role of politics in creating and conditioning markets

Tends to rationalize the interests of powerful groups, has a negative or hostile view of any form of government intervention in the market

Trade

The exchange of goods or services between actors

Market

The location and type of arrangement whereby goods and services are exchanged

Comparative Advantage

As applied to countries, it is a principle that advocates that states should specialize in trading those goods and services which they produce with the greatest relative efficiency and at the lowest relative cost

Relative efficiency and lowest relative cost both mean cheapest as compared to other goods and services that might be produced by the same country