Contributions to Political Economy Advance Access originally published online on March 31, 2009
Contributions to Political Economy 2009 28(1):35-46; doi:10.1093/cpe/bzp003
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Marx and Engels: In Praise of Globalization
1 Department of Political Science, Belmont University, Nashville, TN
2 Department of Economics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL
Marx's vision of history unfolding is one of societal transformation from a set of diverse nation states in a capitalist world to a unified economic society in a yet-to-be communist world. The catalyst that sets this unfolding into action is the globalization process. Its trigger mechanism is the innovating capitalist. Enticed into creating new labor-saving technologies by the prospect of reaping higher rates of profit, these capitalists confront unavoidable competition and technology imitation which undermine their advantage and leads ultimately to falling prices and falling rates of profit. Their only recourse is to venture abroad, to globalize, to invest and produce in the less technologically developed economies. This globalization of resource and product markets is a dual-edged sword: It creates and destroys. It destroys the economic and social fabrics of the less developed economies and creates in its wake a replica of the more technologically advanced. In the end, we are all one global economy, western in character. Marx sees this inevitable globalization process as progressive and praiseworthy.