Globalisation: A Systematic Marxian Account: Historical Materialism, Volume 10

Part One of this book examines the social-state, neoliberal, catalytic-state, and democratic-cosmopolitan models of globalisation. Each necessarily tends to function in a manner contradicting essential claims made by its leading advocates. This “immanent contradiction” provides a theoretical warrant for moving to a new position, addressing the shortcomings of the previous framework. The first three chapters of Part Two are devoted to a Marxian model of capitalist globalisation, in which the irresolvable contradictions and social antagonisms of the capitalist global order are explicitly recognised. The final chapter is devoted to a Marxian model of socialist globalisation, in which those contradictions and antagonisms are overcome, bringing the systematic dialectic of globalisation to a close.

Tony Smith, Ph.D. (1980) in Philosophy, Stony Brook State University of New York, is currently Professor of Philosophy of Iowa State University. He has published extensively in the field of Marxian social theory, including The Logic of Marx’s 'Capital' and Technology and Capital in the Age of Lean Production (SUNY Press 1990, 2000).