Globalization and the state. discuss - marxist Essay

Globalization and the state. discuss - marxist - Essay Example Marxism is a case in point. It argues that the system is rife with exploitation, greed and is destined for an inevitable demise. The position is that nation-states are rendered helpless as globalization forces wrest control of the social, economic and political spheres. These issues highlight the conflicting views on the link between globalization and the state. Is there an accurate approach to explaining the phenomenon and its impact on nation states and the world? This paper proposes that the Marxist perspective can be effective in answering this issue. What is a state? For the purpose of this paper, it is helpful to establish the concept of the state. Max Weber defined it as â€Å"an agency of domination† which bounds civil society together (Abinales and Amoroso 2005, p6). The domination variable is important because it guarantees and holds together what Weber called the state’s main attributes: territory, monopoly and legitimacy (Stewart 2001, p103). This is one of the most comprehensive and widely cited definitions. In the Communist Manifesto, Marx and Engels (2012, p3) also provided his own definition by explaining that the state is â€Å"a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie.† Both of these definitions – as the rest of other conceptualizations – differ in elements, structure and they do vary according to politics. But there are commonalities such as territory and control and, interestingly, most of these elements are present in the modern world system under globalization. This factor along with the state’s response to internationalization underpins the relationship between state and globalization. Globalization and the Marxist View It is important to note that Marxism is fundamentally a critique of capitalism. It established how the economic organization of society defines and control the political and social system (Neack 2003, p21). Any society that adopts this system is said to b e characterized by stratified socio-economic classes. The Marxian analysis approaches globalization from this perspective. It maintains that globalization, as a capitalist system, is endlessly driven by the need to accumulate more. Here, the means of production and consumption is cultivated in such a pattern of expansion, where the market is pushed further from the local to the nation on to the international levels (Milward 2003, p23). In 1857, Karl Marx (1973, p524, p.539) published Grundrisse, wherein he predicted globalization by declaring: â€Å"capital by its nature drives beyond every spatial barrier,† in order to â€Å"conquer the whole earth for its market.† The Marxist theory accurately explained globalization as a phenomenon wherein the world comes together in order to create a system that is conducive to profit making and wealth accumulation. Marx has explained that capitalistic development cannot be confined within states. Ultimately, such development was e xpected to break free of its spatial constraints and this is supposedly underpinned by the nature of capital mobility. Marx and Engels (1973, p77) wrote: The bourgeoisie has through its exploitation of the world market given a cosmopolitan character to production and consumption in every country†¦ [old industries] are dislodged by new industries, whose introduction becomes a life and death question for all civilized nations, by industries that no longer work up indigenous material, but raw material drawn from the remotest zones; industries whose